Tariff Turmoil Weighs on Markets, Dow Turfs 350

The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell for a third day following President Donald Trump's tariff rollout, with the president threatening even higher rates against China on Monday.

The 30-stock average came off its lows of the day, but were still negative 349.26 points to greet the closing bell at 37,965.60.

The S&P 500 index wavered 11.53 points to 5,062.25

The NASDAQ recovered 15.4 points to 15,603.26. Investors stepped in to buy some megacap tech stocks such as Nvidia and Palantir.

Stocks mounted a short-lived rally shortly after the open that took the Dow Jones Industrial average into positive territory. Speculation of some sort of tariff pause circulated on trading floors and social media and may have contributed to the pop. The White House the media any talk of a 90-day pause was “fake news.”

Trump’s initial unilateral 10% tariff went into effect Saturday. Investors were hoping for news over the weekend that the Trump administration was having successful negotiations with countries to lower the tariff rates, or at the very least, was considering delaying the set of so-called reciprocal tariffs due to take effect April 9. Instead, the president and his key advisors played down the selloff.

“I don’t want anything to go down, but sometimes you have to take medicine to fix something.”

Trump added, “We have a trillion-dollar trade deficit with China, hundreds of billions of dollars a year we lose with China. And unless we solve that problem, I’m not going to make a deal.”

Apple shares closed 3.7% lower after Trump’s threat to double-down on China tariffs. The iPhone maker has lost nearly $640 billion in market cap over the past three trading days.

Reaction was swift. “The president is losing the confidence of business leaders around the globe...this is not what we voted for,” wrote Bill Ackman, billionaire head of Pershing Square, on X.

“The President has an opportunity on Monday to call a time out and have the time to execute on fixing an unfair tariff system. Alternatively, we are heading for a self-induced, economic nuclear winter, and we should start hunkering down.”

Prices for the 10-year Treasury stumbled, raising yields to 4.22% from Friday’s 4%. Treasury prices and yields move in opposite directions.

Oil prices lost $1.02 to $60.97 U.S. a barrel.

Prices for gold resumed their downward journey, dropping $44.40, to $2,991.90 U.S.

Tariff Turmoil Weighs on Markets, Dow Turfs 350