It was a wild day on Wall Street, with the market rebounding from an ugly opening — thanks in large part to a bogus rumor that President Trump was considering a 90-day pause on his new tariff plan — before two of the three major indexes ultimately closed lower. And several major media and tech stocks, following a brutal end to last week, posted modest gains on Monday.
The S&P 500 declined 0.23% and the Dow Jones dropped 0.91% on Monday, which was relatively positive compared to how the market performed last week. The tech-heavy Nasdaq, meanwhile, closed the day up 0.10%.
Those moves come after the markets saw $5.4 trillion in value evaporate last week, following the president’s unveiling of his new “liberation day” tariffs on Wednesday. Friday’s sell-off market the biggest single-day decline for the S&P 500 and Dow since COVID-19 rocked the market in March 2020, while the Nasdaq suffered its biggest single-day hit since 2020 on Thursday; All three major indexes dropped more than 5.5% on Friday.
Monday was off to an inauspicious start as well, with the three indexes down about 3% each a half-hour after markets opened at 9:30 a.m. ET.
All three indexes quickly turned green around 10:00 a.m., though, after CNBC reported the president was considering a 90 day pause on his tariff plan; Reuters quickly picked up the story too. But those reports were soon called “fake news” by the White House, and Reuters later had to retract its story. It turned out, both CNBC and Reuters had been fooled by a viral X post that mischaracterized what Kevin Hassett, the White House national economic council director, had told Fox News earlier in the morning.
While the quick jump from red-to-green for the S&P 500 and Dow did not hold, several tech and media stocks rebounded from last week’s pummeling. Among the companies that posted gains on Monday, following back-to-back declines last week, include:
Amazon: +2.49%
Netflix: +1.49%
Comcast: +0.27%
Roku: +3.35%
Meta: +2.28%
Spotify: +3.09%
Media and tech companies that finished in the red on Monday include: Fox Corp., News Corp., Apple, Paramount, Disney, and Live Nation. Notably, Apple — the world’s most valuable company — has seen $800 billion wiped from its market cap in the last three trading sessions.
President Trump, in a post on Truth Social before markets opened on Monday, called on investors to hang tough while global economies adjusted to his tariffs.
“The United States has a chance to do something that should have been done DECADES AGO,” the president posted. “Don’t be Weak! Don’t be Stupid! Don’t be a PANICAN (A new party based on Weak and Stupid people!). Be Strong, Courageous, and Patient, and GREATNESS will be the result!”
The recent tumult has prompted some Trump allies to come out and question his decision on tariffs, including Elon Musk and activist investor Bill Ackman. A number of prominent conservative media figures, including Ben Shapiro, have also expressed concerns over the president’s tariff plan.
Trump dismissed over the weekend investors’ fears of inflation and recession. “I don’t want anything to go down, but sometimes you have to take medicine to fix something,” the president said.
Also over the weekend, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick reiterated that the tariffs would go forward as planned, despite the downturn on Wall Street. “There is no postponing. They are definitely going to stay in place for days and weeks. That is sort of obvious.” Lutnick told CBS “Face the Nation” on Sunday. “The president needs to reset global trade. Everybody has a trade surplus and we have a trade deficit.”
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent denied the U.S. is heading into a recession as some economists are now predicting, saying that most people ready to retire aren’t sweating day-to-day fluctuations in the stock market where many have their nest eggs tied up.
Global markets had already been hit hard by the time trading started in New York on Monday, with stocks in Asia and Europe plunging. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen on Monday said the EU “stands ready to negotiate” with the U.S., before adding it is “also prepared to respond through countermeasures and defend our interests.” Her comments come a day after Lutnick said more than 50 countries have reached out to the Trump Administration to negotiate deals.
