The Dow Jones Industrial Average, which plummeted nearly 1,000 points Monday, is on track for the worst April since 1932, Mitrade reports.
Since Donald Trump took office, the S&P 500’s 14.2% decline is the worst for any president at this point, according to Bespoke Investment Group data going back to 1928.
After surging 20% in both 2023 and 2024, the broad S&P 500 benchmark index is down 12.3% year-to-date in 2025, and the Nasdaq has plunged nearly 18%. The Dow Jones Industrial Average has declined 10.28%.
A trifecta of policy chaos, trade tension, and deteriorating investor confidence is what has been causing the acute market volatility and decline since President Trump’s “Liberation Day” on April 2, when he announced tariffs on 90 trading partners, now ranging from a base of 10% to a high of 145% on China.
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Investors are nervous about the potential for a recession, global supply chain disruptions, and the independence of the Federal Reserve.
Wall Street, which trades looking forward, is not waiting to see how bad the damage and the confusion gets.
Corporate earnings are already starting to drop, and many companies are warning that tariffs will cut into their future profits.
While many companies, including TSMC, Nvidia and Apple, have announced they will invest a combined $3 trillion in U.S. manufacturing, trade negotiations have dragged, and many Wall Street executives and analysts aren’t betting on fast results.
Goldman Sachs CEO David Solomon, in a CNBC interview Tuesday, characterized the level of uncertainty over the trade talks as too high and unproductive. Solomon said it was positive for Trump to put a 90-day delay on reciprocal tariffs, adding that it “would be good to see a deal or two put forward.
“I would not say tariffs are recessionary,” Solomon continued. Rather, U.S. “trade policy has changed the consensus on forward growth. This is a stressful time, but in terms of market function, it is in no way a crisis.”
JPMorgan Asset Management Executive Director Kerry Craig said Australian investors are moving to “defensive positioning. The market here is a little more insulated.”
However, Horizon Investments Chief Investment Officer Scott Ladner, whose firm cut back on its equity exposure weeks ago, told MSN the usual safe havens are nonexistent, with government bonds and the U.S. dollar both taking a hit.
“It’s impossible to commit capital to an economy that is unstable and unknowable because of policy structure,” Ladner said. “It’s a hallmark of the ‘no confidence’ trade.”
Only gold is shining bright, hitting one new record after another so far this year, including $3,500 an ounce on Tuesday.
Meanwhile, the VIX, or Wall Street’s fear gauge, is flashing red, pointing to expectations of more high anxiety and market unpredictability in the weeks ahead.
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Retail investors are fearful as well, with the American Association of Individual Investors reporting that for the past eight weeks, more than 50% of poll respondents have been expecting stock prices to fall. This is the longest stretch of bear sentiment since the association began tracking this data in 1987.
In a work, the mood on Wall Street is bleak.