A Rollercoaster Market Means Investors Should Sit Tight
Market moves so far point to an economic slowdown rather than a more cataclysmic outcome for the US.
Market shock.
Photographer: Michael Nagle/Bloomberg
President Donald Trump’s bombshell Liberation Day tariff announcement was greeted with one of the worst two-day US stock market routs on record. Whatever you think of Trump’s tariff policies, they are a huge gamble, and no one knows how things will play out. What we do know, however, is that uncertainty makes the stock market more volatile.
So it was after Trump’s sweeping tariff announcement. The S&P 500 Index tumbled 10.5% last Thursday and Friday, a two-day drawdown rarely surpassed over the past 100 years and, then too, almost exclusively during the Great Depression, the infamous 1987 crash and the 2008 financial crisis. Understandably, I received many calls and texts from concerned friends and investors wondering if we are facing a fresh crisis. My answer was no — at least not yet.