Stocks ended another tumultuous day lower as markets reel from President Donald Trump’s latest threats to escalate his tariff fight. The S&P 500 sank 0.2% Monday. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 349 points, or 0.9%, and the Nasdaq composite rose 0.1%.
The Dow was earlier down as many as 1,700 points following even worse losses worldwide on worries that Trump’s tariffs could torpedo the global economy. It then surged to a gain after a rumor circulated that Trump may pause his tariffs. But the White House quickly called that fake news, and Trump then threatened to raise tariffs further on China.
On Sunday Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One that he does not want markets to fall. But he also said he wasn’t concerned about a sell-off, saying “sometimes you have to take medicine to fix something.”
Trump has given several reasons for his stiff tariffs, including to bring manufacturing jobs back to the United States, which is a process that could take years. Trump on Sunday said he wanted to bring down the numbers for how much more the United States imports from other countries versus how much it sends to them.
