Wall Street just had its worst week in nearly four months. Stocks crashed, the dollar tanked, and the crypto market got slapped after President Donald Trump’s unpredictable trade war tactics left investors scrambling.
By the time markets opened Friday, the S&P 500, Dow Jones, and Nasdaq had all taken a serious beating. Meanwhile, crypto traders were already dealing with intense volatility, but things spiraled when details of a US strategic Bitcoin reserve came out—and fell flat.
Then Trump made things worse. He called India a “very high tariff nation” and accused it of unfairly targeting American businesses. This came just as Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal arrived in the US for trade talks.
Meanwhile, Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum announced a review of tariffs on Chinese shipments, a direct hit on companies that had been using Mexico to dodge Trump’s earlier tariffs on China.
Is the US economy at risk again?
Even a better-than-expected jobs report couldn’t turn things around. Goldman Sachs estimated that if February payrolls hit 150,000 or more, the S&P 500 could climb 2%. Their forecast called for 170,000 new jobs, slightly above Bloomberg’s 160,000 projection. The unemployment rate inched up to 4.1%, confirming fears that the economy is losing steam.
None of it mattered. The S&P 500 had already dropped 6.6% since its February 19 high, while the Nasdaq 100 plunged 10%, officially entering correction territory. Goldman Sachs warned on Friday that if the jobs report showed a weaker-than-expected economy, the S&P 500 could fall another 2.5%.
Investors also started ditching US stocks for cheaper international options, a direct response to Trump’s erratic approach to trade.
There’s been some talk of a “Trump put” in which the president might try to intervene to support the market, but Bessent rejected that notion during an interview on CNBC’s “Squawk Box.”
“There’s no put,” he said. “The Trump call on the upside is, if we have good policies, then the markets will go up.”
Since Trump’s inauguration, the Dow Jones Industrial Average has lost 2%, bouncing wildly with every new tariff headline. During his first term, Trump used the stock market as a report card for his economic performance. Now, his administration has shifted focus to bond yields as a measure of stability.
The 10-year Treasury yield has fallen by over half a percentage point since mid-January. On CNBC, Bessent also admitted that the economy might be starting to “roll a bit” but blamed the transition from earlier policies. He also insisted that new tariffs would be a “one-time price adjustment,” not a long-term inflation driver.
Some AI stocks managed to stay afloat, though. Broadcom jumped 6% on strong earnings, with Nvidia, Palantir, and Super Micro Computer also posting gains, per data from CNBC. But those were exceptions. Most of the market was deep in the red.
The US dollar also had its worst week in more than two years, as the dollar index plunged 3.6%, its biggest weekly drop since November 2022, when it fell 4.14%, according to Bloomberg data.
Meanwhile, Nasdaq on Friday announced that it is joining the push for round-the-clock stock market trading. “We are excited to share that Nasdaq has begun engaging with regulators, market participants and other key stakeholders, with a view of enabling 24-hour trading five days a week on the Nasdaq Stock Market,” company president Tal Cohen announced in a blog post on Friday.
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Source: https://www.cryptopolitan.com/us-stocks-tumble-deeper-to-close-off-week/