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.”
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.”
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.”