The markets are tumbling, essentially erasing the historic gains from a day earlier when President Donald Trump announced a 90-day pause on his sweeping tariff plan.
At 12.45 p.m. Thursday, the Dow was down 1,687 points, or 4 percent and the NASDAQ was down 957 points, or 5.5 percent.
Just a day earlier, the stock markets surged after Trump unveiled a 90-day reprieve on his across-the-board tax — a move that prompted investors to reverse course after a rocky week. Seconds after his announcement, the markets soared.
At close, the Dow gained 2,962 points while the NASDAQ climbed 1,857 points, marking the largest single-day point gains for both indices. The S&P 500 also closed up 9.5 percent for one of its best days since 2008.
“The country is making approximately $2 billion a day. When you think about it, we’ve never done that before,” Trump said on Thursday as the market dropped. “It makes us look like a very strong country.”
Thursday’s drops seemed to indicate that the market turbulence from Trump’s proposed tariffs is not yet over, noting that some levies are still in effect. The president Thursday raised China’s tariffs to 125 percent “effective immediately.” The White House clarified to CNBC that the total tariff rate on China will be 145 percent.
Uncertainty is also still paramount.
“Delays help, but do not reduce uncertainty,” Michael Gapen, Morgan Stanley chief U.S. economist, told CNBC Thursday.
“I still think this is more ‘sell the rip’ than ‘buy the dip’ [in stocks] — lots of problems continue but it is nice to see the President backing off and focusing on China,” Renaissance Macro head of economics Neil Dutta told Yahoo Finance. “The issue is prolonged uncertainty.”
On April 2, a day Trump has dubbed “Liberation Day,” he unveiled his sweeping tariff plan, claiming it would “help rebuild our economy and to prevent cheating.”
Just 13 hours after the import taxes took effect, the president took to Truth Social to announce a pause. “Based on the fact that more than 75 Countries have called Representatives of the United States, including the Departments of Commerce, Treasury, and the USTR, to negotiate a solution to the subjects being discussed relative to Trade, Trade Barriers, Tariffs, Currency Manipulation, and Non Monetary Tariffs, and that these Countries have not, at my strong suggestion, retaliated in any way, shape, or form against the United States, I have authorized a 90 day PAUSE, and a substantially lowered Reciprocal Tariff during this period, of 10%, also effective immediately,” he wrote.
Trump told reporters later in the day that his Truth Social post “was written from the heart.”
In the wake of his announcement, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said hold off on the adoption of its countermeasures for 90 days. “We took note of the announcement by President Trump. We want to give negotiations a chance,” she wrote on X. “If negotiations are not satisfactory, our countermeasures will kick in. Preparatory work on further countermeasures continues. As I have said before, all options remain on the table.”
The president’s announcement came days after he and allies insisted the levies were here to stay.
Trump told reporters, before the tariffs took effect, that he wasn’t considering a pause: “We’re not looking at that.”
Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick similarly said over the weekend: “There is no postponing. They are definitely going to stay in place for days and weeks.”
