The Dow Jones Industrial Average and S&P 500 closed lower on Monday, ending a roller-coaster trading session as mixed signals about President Donald Trump’s tariffs triggered major reversals, from losses to gains to losses again.
The Dow posted its largest intraday point swing ever — falling more than 1,700 points during its Monday session low, then swinging up 2,595 points from the low.
The Dow dropped 349 points, or 0.91%, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq ticked up 0.1%. The S&P 500 closed down 0.23%. Its 8.5% high/low spread has only happened 20 other times since 1962, according to S&P Global. The S&P 500 briefly entered bear market territory during the session but was last off nearly 18% from its recent high.
Markets dropped sharply at the open of trading. Within minutes, markets recovered those losses and moved higher in response to a social media post from Trump indicating a willingness to negotiate tariffs.
“Countries from all over the World are talking to us,” Trump said on Truth Social. “Tough but fair parameters are being set.”
Soon afterward, Trump escalated the United States’ trade spat with China, reversing market gains.
Trump threatened to slap an additional 50% tariff on China, unless the country withdraws 34% retaliatory tariffs announced last week. Those retaliatory tariffs came in response to a 34% tariff announced by the U.S. days earlier, which came on top of 20% tariffs already imposed on China. The threatened 50% tariff would bring total U.S. tariffs on Chinese goods to 104%.
Ultimately, the market continued to move lower on Monday. That selloff extended losses that stretch back to Trump’s announcement of far-reaching tariffs last week. The Dow suffered its worst week since 2020, and the Nasdaq ended last week in a bear market.
The murky path forward for tariffs — and, in turn, the global economy — helped fuel seesaw trading on Monday, Bret Kenwell, U.S. investment analyst at eToro, told ABC News.
“It’s an immense amount of volatility at the moment amid an immense amount of uncertainty,” Kenwell said.
Ivan Feinseth, a market analyst at Tigress Financial, also underscored the high stakes of tariffs.
“You can draw a line from these tariffs to the fact they could slow growth, increase inflation and put the Federal Reserve on hold. Now everything is in a panic,” Feinseth said.
The brief upsurge for markets in response to potential tariff negotiations, however, indicated eagerness among investors for a thaw in global trade tensions, Feinseth added.
“The market is wound up to bounce back on positive news,” Feinseth said.
Crypto prices drop
The sell-off on Monday also hit crypto markets.
Bitcoin, the world’s largest cryptocurrency, fell 0.9%. The price of a bitcoin stands at about $79,000, which marks a roughly 30% drop from a peak attained in January.
Ether dropped 3.4%, while lesser-known coin Solana fell 1.1%.
Hong Kong leads Asian slide
Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 index lost nearly 9% shortly after the market opened on Monday, the steep decline triggering a circuit breaker that temporarily halted trading. Japan’s broader TOPIX index sank 8%.
In Taiwan, the Taiex lost 9.7%, while in Singapore the STI fell more than 8%.
South Korea’s KOSPI index fell more than 5.5% in Monday trading, with Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 sliding more than 6% before recovering slightly.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index dropped 13.22% — its worst one-day performance since 1997 during the Asian Financial Crisis — with Chinese tech stocks like Alibaba and Baidu among the big losers.
