US stocks plunges, bitcoin stumble as fear grows following Trump's 'recession' remarks
The rout on Wall Street began early, with all three major indexes opening in the red. US stocks witnessed a drop throughout the day, and despite a brief afternoon rally, they closed in the red.
The Dow closed lower by 890 points, pulling back from a loss of over 1,100 points at one point. The broader S&P 500 also plunged, witnessing a drop of 2.7 per cent, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite reduced by 4 per cent.
The Nasdaq posted its biggest single-day drop since September 2022. In addition, the Dow and S&P 500 each posted their worst day of the year.
The rout extended a miserable month for markets, which have seen all three major indexes losing their gains since the US presidential election in November.
The widespread selloff was majorly triggered due to concerns regarding the effect of Trump's tariff policy.
In an interview that aired on Sunday, Trump refused to rule out the possibility of a recession, and said that the US economy would see "a period of transition". He made these remarks during an interview on Fox News' "Sunday Morning Futures With Maria Bartiromo".
When asked whether he expected a recession this year, Trump responded, "I hate to predict things like that. There is a period of transition because what we're doing is very big."
Tech stocks led the selloff, which weighed on the S&P 500 and dragged the Nasdaq into correction territory. The S&P 500 closed down at 8.6 per cent from its record high on February 19. Tech stocks - Alphabet (GOOG), Amazon (AMZN), Apple (AAPL), Meta (META), Microsoft (MSFT), Nvidia (NVDA), and Tesla (TSLA) were all in the red on Monday.
Anthony Saglimbene, chief market strategist at Ameriprise, said, "President Trump's comments not necessarily taking a recession off the table unnerved investors who were already unnerved."
Meanwhile, the White House on Monday announced that Donald Trump was set to spark "historic" growth during his second term as US President. In a statement, White House spokesman Kush Desai said, "Since President Trump was elected, industry leaders have responded to President Trump's America First economic agenda of tariffs, deregulation, and the unleashing of American energy with trillions in investment commitments that will create thousands of new jobs."
Desai further said, "President Trump delivered historic job, wage, and investment growth in his first term, and is set to do so again in his second term."
Tesla closed down 15.4 per cent on Monday. Shares of Tesla witnessed a rise following the US presidential election in November. However, Tesla's stock is down almost 45 per cent this year. In the recent weeks, the shares of the company have been hit amid protests against Tesla CEO Elon Musk for his oversized role in the Trump administration, as well as reduced sales in Europe.
Shares of Nvidia witnessed a drop of five per cent, and Palantir (PLTR), another star of the artificial intelligence trade, reduced by 10 per cent. The VIX, Wall Street's fear gauge, increased to its highest level this year. " Bitcoin dropped to around USD 78,000 on Monday -- its lowest level since November -- amid a selloff of risky assets.
So far this month, stocks have been hit amid uncertainty around Trump's tariff policy. The S&P 500 was reduced by 3.1 per cent last week, posting its worst week since September. Yardeni Research President Ed Yardeni said, "The stock market is losing its confidence in the Trump 2.0 policies."
Trump had threatened to enact tariffs on imports from Canada and Mexico. However, he later announced that the tariffs would come into effect in April. He doubled the tariff on all Chinese imports from 10 per cent to 20 per cent, and a 25 per cent tariff on all steel and aluminium imports is set to be implemented on March 12.
Furthermore, Trump threatened last week to impose 250 per cent tariff on Canadian dairy products and a "tremendously high" tariff on its lumber. Speaking to Fox News, he said that tariffs may still "go up as time goes by."
The yield on the 10-year US Treasury fell to 4.225 per cent as investors snapped up government bonds, indicating concerns regarding uncertainty and the economy's growth. Looking ahead this week, investors will be focused on monthly inflation data expected on Wednesday and Thursday to gauge whether inflation remained stubborn in February. A recession is commonly defined by two consecutive negative quarters of gross domestic product growth.
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