Wall Street Today: Major stock indexes were sharply lower on Tuesday, with the Nasdaq Composite index down 10% from its December record high and Treasury yields also declining as the United States hit Canada, Mexico and China with steep tariffs, fueling investor worries about the impact on the economy.
The S&P 500 was down more than 1%, while MSCI’s gauge of stocks across the globe dropped 13.14 points, or 1.54%, to 842.67. The Nasdaq fell 10% from its record high hit on December 16 into correction territory.
Wall Street’s selloff was broad, with all of the major sectors lower. Financials were down 3.9%, the most of any of the sectors.
Donald Trump’s return to the White House was cause for celebration on Wall Street. In the month after Election Day alone, the S&P 500 Index jumped more than 5%, adding some $2.8 trillion in value, on the expectation that the new administration would juice the economy.
Then, even as enthusiasm eased as the calendar turned to 2025, mainly on concerns tariffs and deportations could stoke inflation, stocks remained at or near all-time highs. The S&P 500 hit a record on Feb. 19, putting it up 6.3%, or more than $3 trillion, since Election Day.
Two weeks later, those gains are gone. The S&P 500 tumbled 1.7% at 11:29 a.m. Tuesday, adding to the worst single-day selloff of the year after Trump slapped 25% tariffs on goods from America’s two biggest trading partners. The index is now down 6.4% from its record, and virtually unchanged since the day Americans went to the polls four months ago.
