Dow, S&P 500 end wild session lower, Trump digs in on tariffs

Dow, S&P 500 end wild session lower, Trump digs in on tariffs

By Sinéad Carew and Pranav Kashyap

Mon April 7, 2025 5:02 PM

Ain’t social media grand? As was expected from the weekend’s dire futures, all three indexes opened down, way down, the Dow plunging another 1700 points, the Nasdaq another equally whopping 800 points. But it didn’t last long, until 10 a.m. to be exact. It was at that hour that somebody somewhere posted a comment that Fox had reported that the White House would be pausing the tariffs by 3 months. This triggered a huge rally with the Dow shooting up some 2700 points. That too did not last long as by 10:20 a.m. both Fox and the White House confirmed that this news did not come from them and was not at all true.  

Then everything came crashing down again and continued wobbling erratically for the rest of the day, up and down, up and down, even touching break-even in the afternoon as everyone’s trying to figure out an entry point. Ultimately, the S&P and Nasdaq closed near break-even with the Dow losing 349, but it’s good for the Dow to lose some as that indicates that risk appetite has increased. Does this mean the markets have found a bottom? Probably not, but there is a great deal more data coming later in the week that could change the environment, or make it worse.

The VIX reached the astounding height of 60 during the session but fell back to a much more respectable 47 by close. Uncertainty and anxiety continue to rule the day. Wall Street is sending message of opposition to this approach to tariffs. Even among Trump’s most ardent supporters in the business community, nobody is stepping up and endorsing his approach. As today’s expert put it, “The underlying problem of the market is that the administration’s approach to trade imbalances is to try a cure that’s worse than the disease.” For the second day in a row, volume broke still another record at an astonishing 29.1 billion shares traded vs the 4-week average of 17.1 billion.  About 1/3 of that was buying and 2/3 was selling. 

DJ: 38,314.86  -2,231.07     NAS: 15,587.79  -962.82       S&P: 5,074.08  -322.44       4/4

DJ: 37,965.60  -349.26        NAS: 15,603.26  +15.48        S&P: 5,062.25  -11.83         4/7

Mon 4-7-25 5:02 pm Dow, S&P 500 end wild session lower, Trump digs in on tariffs | Reuters