Billionaire Trump backer Bill Ackman issues dire warning over tariffs

Billionaire Trump backer Bill Ackman issues dire warning over tariffs
Billionaire Trump backer Bill Ackman issues dire warning over tariffs
Jared Siskin/Patrick McMullan via Getty Images

(NEW YORK) — Hedge fund honcho Bill Ackman has joined a growing list of President Donald Trump’s billionaire backers calling for the White House to slam the brakes on tariffs.

As the Trump administration’s reciprocal tariffs went into effect Wednesday, triggering retaliatory reactions from China and the European Union, Ackman took to social media, asking Trump to put a 90-day pause on tariffs, arguing the president can “accomplish his objectives without destroying small businesses in the short term.”

In the lengthy post on X, Ackman, founder of Pershing Square Capital Management, issued a dire warning of what could happen if the tariffs aren’t halted immediately.

“If the president doesn’t pause the effect of the tariffs soon, many small businesses will go bankrupt,” Ackman wrote. “Medium-sized businesses will be next.”

Ackman is joining other billionaires, including some like him who supported Trump’s campaign for reelection, in turning a cold shoulder to the escalating tariff war. Trump claims the tariffs are necessary for leveling the playing field for the United States importers, saying, “foreign trade and economic practices have created a national emergency.”

Other billionaire moguls — including investor and philanthropist Stanley Druckenmiller, Citdel owner Kenneth Griffin and even Tesla CEO Elon Musk, a senior adviser to the president — have spoken out against Trump’s tariffs after supporting the president’s re-election campaign.

Speaking at an event in Miami on Monday night, Griffin called Trump’s tariffs a “huge policy mistake,” according to The Wall Street Journal. In a rare social media post on Sunday, Druckenmiller wrote, “I do not support tariffs exceeding 10%.”

Musk has publicly blasted Trump’s senior trade adviser Peter Navarro, one of the architects of Trump’s tariff policy, calling him “truly a moron” and “dumber than a sack of bricks” after Navaro described him as a “car assembler.” In a live stream speech to Italy’s League Congress Conference in Florence, Italy, on Saturday, Musk expressed hope for the U.S. and Europe to create “a very close, stronger partnership” and reach a “zero-tariff” policy soon.

A 10% tariff on all U.S. trading partners went into effect on Saturday. Additional reciprocal tariffs against 60 countries that place duties on U.S. imports went into effect at 12:01 a.m. ET on Wednesday.

Some countries have retaliated by imposing tariffs on American goods. Trump increased the tariffs on China to 104% and threatened an additional 50% if China didn’t back down from imposing a 34% tariff on U.S. goods. China responded Wednesday by jacking up tariffs on U.S. products to 84%.

The European Union also voted Wednesday to impose a retaliatory 25% tariffs on certain U.S. goods.

Ackman spoke out against tariffs, saying he is “receiving an increasing number of emails and texts from small business people I do business or have invested in, expressing fear that they will not be able to pass on their increased costs to their customers and will suffer severely negative consequences.”

In his post Wednesday, Ackman shared an email from the founder of a cold brew coffee business he said he received before China’s announced retaliatory tariffs. The cold brew coffee founder said his cost for glass bottles sourced from China will go up 50%, while chai sourced from India will increase by 26% and coffee imported from Ethiopia, Peru and Canada will climb by 10%.

“Will my clients tolerate a near doubling of their contract costs overnight, or will they expect me to absorb the increases my vendors are already threatening?” the business owner wrote in the email to Ackman. “If clients resist price hikes and my employees demand higher wages to offset their rising cost of living, we end up in a lose-lose scenario — no spending and no jobs.”

Ackman ended his post by writing, “May cooler heads prevail.”

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US stocks seesaw in volatile session amid global trade war

US stocks seesaw in volatile session amid global trade war
US stocks seesaw in volatile session amid global trade war
CFOTO/Future Publishing via Getty Images

(NEW YORK) –U.S. stocks seesawed on Wednesday, swinging between gains and losses amid fears of a global trade war as China and the European Union slapped retaliatory tariffs on U.S. goods.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 60 points, or 0.7%, while the S&P 500 dropped 0.6%,

The tech-heavy Nasdaq jumped 0.2%.

Meanwhile, a selloff hit U.S. Treasury markets on Wednesday, sending bond yields higher and raising concern about a typical safe-haven asset during moments of instability for stocks.

President Donald Trump’s latest batch of levies on China increased the cumulative rate of tariffs on Chinese goods to 104% — a move met with retaliatory tariffs in Beijing that raised tariffs on U.S. goods to 84%.

European Union countries on Wednesday backed the European Commission’s proposal to push back on Trump’s tariffs on steel and aluminum with a set of countermeasures.

The latest U.S. tariffs came into force with key Asian markets already open. In Japan, the Nikkei index dropped more than 5% in response, while the broader TOPIX index slipped 4.6%. The Nikkei closed down 3.93% and the TOPIX down 3.4%.

Stocks in Taiwan fell more than 5.7%, Singapore’s STI index slipped 2.4%, South Korea’s KOSPI index lost 1.8%, Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 lost 1.8% and India’s NIFTY 50 dropped 0.4%.

In China, Hong Kong’s Hang Sen index slipped 0.4%. Shanghai’s SSE Shanghai Composite Index — which has fewer international investors and is buoyed by the state-owned investors known as the “National Team” — posted gains of 1.1% despite the new tariffs. Shenzhen’s SE Composite rose 2.2%.

In Europe, key indices dropped on opening.

The British FTSE 100 dropped by 2.2%, Germany’s Dax index dropped 2.3%, France’s CAC 40 fell by 2.4% and Spain’s Ibex index was down 2%. The pan-European STOXX index was down 2.6%. 

United States stocks closed lower on Tuesday, marking a major reversal from a rally that sent the S&P 500 and Nasdaq up more than 4% earlier in the day.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed down 320 points, or 0.8%, while the Nasdaq dropped 2.1%.

The S&P 500 fell 1.5%, putting the index on the brink of a bear market, a term that indicates a 20% drop from a previous peak.

The move lower on Tuesday resumed a selloff that stretches back to Trump’s tariff announcement last week. Since then, the S&P 500 and Nasdaq have each fallen more than 12%.

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US stocks mixed in volatile trading as trade war escalates

US stocks seesaw in volatile session amid global trade war
US stocks seesaw in volatile session amid global trade war
CFOTO/Future Publishing via Getty Images

(NEW YORK) –U.S. stocks were mixed at the open of trading on Wednesday, extending days-long turmoil in markets as tit-for-tat tariffs between the U.S. and China heightened the risk of a global trade war and worsened fears of a recession.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average opened down 315 points, or 0.8%, while the S&P 500 fell 0.4%.

The tech-heavy Nasdaq ticked up 0.03%.

Meanwhile, a selloff hit U.S. Treasury markets on Wednesday, sending bond yields higher and raising concern about a typical safe-haven asset during moments of instability for stocks.

President Donald Trump’s latest batch of levies on China increased the cumulative rate of tariffs on Chinese goods to 104% — a move met with retaliatory tariffs in Beijing that raised tariffs on U.S. goods to 84%.

The latest U.S. tariffs came into force with key Asian markets already open. In Japan, the Nikkei index dropped more than 5% in response, while the broader TOPIX index slipped 4.6%. The Nikkei closed down 3.93% and the TOPIX down 3.4%.

Stocks in Taiwan fell more than 5.7%, Singapore’s STI index slipped 2.4%, South Korea’s KOSPI index lost 1.8%, Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 lost 1.8% and India’s NIFTY 50 dropped 0.4%.

In China, Hong Kong’s Hang Sen index slipped 0.4%. Shanghai’s SSE Shanghai Composite Index — which has fewer international investors and is buoyed by the state-owned investors known as the “National Team” — posted gains of 1.1% despite the new tariffs. Shenzhen’s SE Composite rose 2.2%.

In Europe, key indices dropped on opening.

The British FTSE 100 dropped by 2.2%, Germany’s Dax index dropped 2.3%, France’s CAC 40 fell by 2.4% and Spain’s Ibex index was down 2%. The pan-European STOXX index was down 2.6%.

United States stocks closed lower on Tuesday, marking a major reversal from a rally that sent the S&P 500 and Nasdaq up more than 4% earlier in the day.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed down 320 points, or 0.8%, while the Nasdaq dropped 2.1%.

The S&P 500 fell 1.5%, putting the index on the brink of a bear market, a term that indicates a 20% drop from a previous peak.

The move lower on Tuesday resumed a selloff that stretches back to Trump’s tariff announcement last week. Since then, the S&P 500 and Nasdaq have each fallen more than 12%.

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Stock markets slide as Trump’s new China tariffs go into effect

US stocks seesaw in volatile session amid global trade war
US stocks seesaw in volatile session amid global trade war
CFOTO/Future Publishing via Getty Images

(TAIWAN) — Asian stocks plunged during Wednesday’s trading session after President Donald Trump’s latest batch of sanctions on China came into force, helping wipe off Tuesday’s limited gains and compounding a turbulent week for the world’s key indexes.

Trump’s new measures increased the cumulative rate of tariffs on Chinese goods to 104% — a move met with more condemnation in Beijing, where officials warned that China is ready to fight an extended trade war if forced to do so.

The latest tariffs came into force with key Asian markets already open. In Japan, the Nikkei index dropped more than 5% in response, while the broader TOPIX index slipped 4.6%. The Nikkei closed down 3.93% and the TOPIX down 3.4%.

Stocks in Taiwan fell more than 5.7%, Singapore’s STI index slipped 2.4%, South Korea’s KOSPI index lost 1.8%, Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 lost 1.8% and India’s NIFTY 50 dropped 0.4%.

In China, Hong Kong’s Hang Sen index slipped 0.4%. Shanghai’s SSE Shanghai Composite Index — which has fewer international investors and is buoyed by the state-owned investors known as the “National Team” — posted gains of 1.1% despite the new tariffs. Shenzhen’s SE Composite rose 2.2%.

In Europe, key indices dropped on opening.

The British FTSE 100 dropped by 2.2%, Germany’s Dax index dropped 2.3%, France’s CAC 40 fell by 2.4% and Spain’s Ibex index was down 2%. The pan-European STOXX index was down 2.6%.

U.S. stock market futures indicated continued uncertainty, despite the White House touting possible deals with as many as 70 nations seeking to avoid the impact of Trump’s tariff campaign.

Dow Jones futures were up 0.01% as of Wednesday morning, with S&P 500 futures down 0.02% and Nasdaq futures up 0.26%.

United States stocks closed lower on Tuesday, marking a major reversal from a rally that sent the S&P 500 and Nasdaq up more than 4% earlier in the day.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed down 320 points, or 0.8%, while the Nasdaq dropped 2.1%.

The S&P 500 fell 1.5%, putting the index on the brink of a bear market, a term that indicates a 20% drop from a previous peak.

The move lower on Tuesday resumed a selloff that stretches back to Trump’s tariff announcement last week. Since then, the S&P 500 and Nasdaq have each fallen more than 12%.

ABC News’ Max Zahn contributed to this report.

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Trump moves full steam ahead on politically risky tariffs despite market tumult

Trump moves full steam ahead on politically risky tariffs despite market tumult
Trump moves full steam ahead on politically risky tariffs despite market tumult
Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images

(WASHINGTON) — After days of market tumult, President Donald Trump on Wednesday makes good on his long-sought goal of imposing aggressive tariffs against dozens of U.S. trading partners.

But his gamble comes with major political risks for his legacy amid mounting concerns from Republicans and business leaders that’s he’s making a mistake by going too far in exacting economic retaliation.

Chief among his new trade moves is a hefty 104% tariff rate on China, which was set to go into effect with the rest at 12:01 a.m. on Wednesday.

Trump has painted what he calls “reciprocal” tariffs as retribution for a grievance he’s held for “35 years” — that the U.S. is being “ripped off” by trade imbalances.

“Nobody but me would do this,” he said in the Oval Office on Monday. “You know it would be nice to serve a nice, easy term. But we have an opportunity to change the fabric of our country. We have an opportunity to reset the table on trade.”

On Tuesday night, on the eve of realizing what he’s said he considers one of his crowning political achievements, he boasted in freewheeling remarks to congressional Republicans, “I know what the hell I’m doing. I’m telling you, these countries are calling us up kissing my ass. They are. They are dying to make a deal.”

“Many countries have ripped us off left and right. But now it’s our turn to do the ripping,” he continued.

By doing so, he’s moving full steam ahead on a campaign promise that turned real on April 2 in a flashy event in the White House Rose Garden — a move prompting economic and political backlash.

U.S. markets experienced their worst week since the coronavirus pandemic, with trillions lost in retirement and college savings accounts in just 48 hours after Trump’s tariff announcement. Looking ahead at potential future fallout, economists increased their odds of a recession this year.

Stocks rallied early Tuesday amid optimism on the administration beginning negotiations with various countries, but turned back into red territory before day’s end as the world braced for the additional Trump tariffs soon being put in place.

China — the world’s second-largest economy behind the U.S. — says it’s ready to “fight to the end” on Trump’s tariffs.

Up on Capitol Hill, some Republicans started to express increasing anxiety about the president’s approach.

“Whose throat do I get to choke if this proves to be wrong?” Sen. Thom Tillis, a North Carolina Republican, pointedly asked U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer as he testified before the Senate Finance Committee on Trump’s agenda.

Tillis and other GOP members of the panel joined Democrats in questioning why the administration’s refused to consider exemptions on certain goods critical to American industries, such as farming and garment manufacturing.

“I’m somewhat disappointed to hear that exclusions of some of these things are being ruled out at this point in time,” Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., told Greer.

Greer defended Trump’s policies as he noticeably sidestepped questions from Democrats on how much “short-term pain” American consumers can expect to face from higher prices and inflation.

A Reuters/Ipsos poll published Tuesday found that a majority (57%) of American adults oppose Trump’s new tariffs.

“These measures are aimed squarely at achieving reciprocity and reducing our massive trade deficit to restore production in the United States,” Greer told lawmakers. Greer said Trump was “fixed in his purpose” on the issue when asked if he’d reverse course if inflation rose as a result.

The White House has said nearly 70 countries have reached out to Trump officials to talk about tariffs.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told ABC News Chief White House Correspondent Mary Bruce on Tuesday morning that agreements with some big trading partners could happen “very quickly.”

But at the podium later that afternoon, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt declined to provide any timeline for when Trump would like to see deals completed, only that he is moving at “Trump speed.”

“The president likes to get things done, but he’s very much focused on ensuring that these deals are good for the American worker, they are good for American manufacturing, and again, that they tackle these crippling deficits with these countries,” Leavitt said, adding that these will be “tailor-made” agreements for each nation rather than wholesale changes.

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Trump touts falling oil prices, borrowing costs. Experts say they’re warning signs.

Trump touts falling oil prices, borrowing costs. Experts say they’re warning signs.
Trump touts falling oil prices, borrowing costs. Experts say they’re warning signs.
Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images

(WASHINGTON) — President Donald Trump has repeatedly touted a drop in oil prices and borrowing costs as a sign that sweeping new tariffs bode well for the U.S. economy.

Experts who spoke to ABC News largely rejected the notion, saying the trends indicate expectations of an economic slowdown that would diminish energy demand and send money flooding into bonds as safe-haven investments.

A drop in oil prices and borrowing expenses could offset some of the damage caused by a potential downturn, some experts noted, but such relief is unlikely to offset acute economic pain.

“The reason those prices have fallen is not positive,” Dominic Pappalardo, chief multi-asset strategist at Morningstar Investment Management, told ABC News. “Oil prices and Treasury yields fell because there are concerns about economic growth going forward.”

Oil prices plummeted about 15% last week as Trump’s tariff announcement roiled global markets and triggered warnings about a possible recession.

Meanwhile, 10-year Treasury yields last week fell below 4% for the first time in nearly six months. The yield on a 10-year Treasury bond, or the amount paid to a bondholder annually, helps set interest rates for just about any loan, including credit cards and mortgages.

“Oil prices are down, interest rates are down,” Trump said in a post on Truth Social on Monday morning outlining the benefits of his tariff policy.

He repeated the sentiment hours later, boasting of low borrowing costs and predicting the price of a gallon of gasoline would fall to $2.50. The current national average price of a gallon gas is $3.25, according to AAA.

“We have everything down at levels that nobody ever thought possible,” Trump said.

The drop in oil prices and borrowing costs will likely offer some near-term improvements for U.S. consumers, including lower gas prices, experts said.

“Motorists can expect gas prices to begin falling nearly coast-to-coast, with oil now at its lowest level since the early days of the pandemic in 2021,” Patrick de Haan, the head of petroleum analysis at GasBuddy, told ABC News in a statement.

In the case of oil, prices are dropping as forecasters increase the odds of a possible U.S. recession, which would reduce economic activity and slash demand for oil. If appetite for oil falls, the price will too.

“In addition to falling oil prices, the stock market has dropped sharply, and the risk of a recession has increased – raising the likelihood of reduced global energy and oil demand, which is sending prices lower,” de Haan said.

The recent decline in Treasury yields owes to hotter demand rather than a cooling off, experts said.

The price of a bond moves in the opposite direction as its yield, or the amount of interest accrued by a bondholder. In other words, when bond yields go down, bond prices go up. The decline in yields over recent days has resulted from a surge in demand as investors flee stocks and seek out safe-haven assets.

“Risky assets sold off and safe investments like Treasury bonds saw prices increase as Treasury yields fell,” Pappalardo said.

The Trump administration has largely declined to rule out the possibility of a recession. Speaking at the White House last month, Trump said a “little disturbance” may prove necessary to rejuvenate domestic production and reestablish well-paying manufacturing jobs.

On Tuesday, oil prices and Treasury yields ticked up slightly as the Trump administration signaled negotiations with some countries targeted by tariffs.

“Any good news of decreasing the tariffs is going to cause oil and yields to rally,” Derek Horstmeyer, a finance professor at George Mason University’s Costello College of Business, told ABC News. “It improves the economic picture.”

Even after the increases on Tuesday, oil prices and Treasury yields remained well below levels seen last week.

Horstmeyer said the benefits of lower oil prices and borrowing costs may offer consumers a false sense of reassurance.

“Falling oil prices always make people feel good,” Horstmeyer added. “They’re usually seen as bad forward indicators, so it portends what’s to come.”

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US stocks rise as Trump signals tariff negotiations

US stocks rise as Trump signals tariff negotiations
US stocks rise as Trump signals tariff negotiations
Man Hei Leung/Anadolu via Getty Images

(NEW YORK) — U.S. stocks rose on Tuesday in a burst of investor optimism as the Trump administration signaled plans to negotiate with some countries targeted by sweeping new tariffs.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average jumped 1,385 points, or 3.6%, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq increased 3.7%. The S&P 500 was up 3.3%.

The move followed an upswing in markets worldwide.

Asian markets opened in positive territory after posting significant losses on Monday driven by President Donald Trump’s global tariffs campaign,

Japan’s Nikkei index closed just over 6% up on Tuesday, recovering some of almost 8% of losses posted on Monday.

South Korea’s KOSPI index rose by 0.3%, Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 grew by 2.2% and India’s NIFTY 50 index climbed almost 2%.

Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index — which on Monday posted its worst day since 1997 losing 13% — rebounded with a 1% rise on Tuesday. Shanghai’s Composite Index grew 1.4%.

European markets also edged into the green after a tumultuous start to the week. The British FTSE 100 picked up 1.3% shortly after opening, Germany’s DAX gained 0.9% and France’s CAC 40 rose 1.3%.

Monday’s rollercoaster trading saw the Dow post its largest intraday point swing ever — falling more than 1,700 points during its Monday session low, then swinging up 2,595 points from the low.

The Dow dropped 349 points, or 0.91%, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq ticked up 0.1%. The S&P 500 closed down 0.23%. Its 8.5% high/low spread has only happened 20 other times since 1962, according to S&P Global.

The S&P 500 briefly entered bear market territory during the session but was last off nearly 18% from its recent high.

ABC News’ Max Zahn and Joe Simonetti contributed to this report.

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Trump admin tells prosecutors to ease up on crypto enforcement

Trump admin tells prosecutors to ease up on crypto enforcement
Trump admin tells prosecutors to ease up on crypto enforcement
U.S. President Donald Trump visits a cryptocurrency-themed bar called Pubkey in the West Village on September 18, 2024 in New York City. (Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images)

(WASHINGTON) — The Trump administration is pulling back its enforcement of crypto regulations, disbanding a unit dedicated to cryptocurrency enforcement

The Justice Department instructed federal prosecutors to “no longer target virtual currency exchanges, mixing and tumbling services, and offline wallets for the acts of their end users or unwitting violations of regulations,” according to a memo from the U.S. deputy attorney general reviewed by ABC News.

“The Department of Justice is not a digital assets regulator,” the memo said. “The National Cryptocurrency Enforcement Team (NCET) shall be disbanded effective immediately.”

The shift is consistent with President Donald Trump’s other pro-crypto policies, including directives to the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission to ease up on crypto regulation and the creation of a digital assets reserve.

Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche’s memo attacked the Biden administration, which he said, “used the Justice Department to pursue a reckless strategy of regulation by prosecution, which was ill conceived and poorly executed.”

Blanche said the Trump administration’s prosecutions and investigations involving the crypto industry would focus on “individuals who victimize digital asset investors, or those who use digital assets in furtherance of criminal offenses such as terrorism, narcotics and human trafficking, organized crime, hacking, and cartel and gang financing.”

The memo suggests the Justice Department would no longer be interested in some of the biggest crypto cases brought under the prior administration, including Tornado Cash, which allegedly laundered more than $1 billion, and the hacker Avraham Eisenberg, who was convicted in April 2024 of a $110 million market-manipulation case. Both prosecutions were brought by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York.

Blanche also appeared to criticize how the office approached the prosecution of Sam Bankman-Fried, who the prior administration said orchestrated “one of the biggest financial frauds in American history.”

Blanche said some investor victims have only been able to recover the value of their digital assets at the time the fraud was perpetrated.

“The effect: digital asset investors’ losses may be calculated at a value when the digital asset market was at a lower point, and victims who bore the risk of loss are unable to benefit from corresponding gains that occurred during or after the period in which they were victimized and would otherwise have possessed the asset,” the memo said, adopting an argument made by Bankman-Fried that investors he defrauded have been made whole. Blanche instructed prosecutors to change their approach.

A spokesman for the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Manhattan declined to comment.

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Asian, European markets rebound, US futures edge up amid Trump tariff turmoil

US stocks rise as Trump signals tariff negotiations
US stocks rise as Trump signals tariff negotiations
Man Hei Leung/Anadolu via Getty Images

(SEOUL) — Asian markets opened up on Tuesday after posting significant losses on Monday driven by President Donald Trump’s global tariffs campaign, with U.S. futures also rising slightly after a day of turmoil on Wall Street.

As of early Tuesday morning, Dow Jones futures were up almost 2%, S&P 500 futures were up more than 1.5% and Nasdaq futures were up 1.3%.

Japan’s Nikkei index closed just over 6% up on Tuesday, recovering some of almost 8% of losses posted on Monday.

South Korea’s KOSPI index rose by 0.3%, Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 grew by 2.2% and India’s NIFTY 50 index climbed almost 2%.

Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index — which on Monday posted its worst day since 1997 losing 13% — rebounded with a 1% rise on Tuesday. Shanghai’s Composite Index grew 1.4%.

European markets also edged into the green after a tumultuous start to the week. The British FTSE 100 picked up 1.3% shortly after opening, Germany’s DAX gained 0.9% and France’s CAC 40 rose 1.3%.

Monday’s rollercoaster trading saw the Dow post its largest intraday point swing ever — falling more than 1,700 points during its Monday session low, then swinging up 2,595 points from the low.

The Dow dropped 349 points, or 0.91%, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq ticked up 0.1%. The S&P 500 closed down 0.23%. Its 8.5% high/low spread has only happened 20 other times since 1962, according to S&P Global.

The S&P 500 briefly entered bear market territory during the session but was last off nearly 18% from its recent high.

ABC News’ Max Zahn and Joe Simonetti contributed to this report.

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Black Monday to the COVID crash: Worst days in the history of the US stock market

Black Monday to the COVID crash: Worst days in the history of the US stock market
Black Monday to the COVID crash: Worst days in the history of the US stock market
Bettmann Archive via Getty Images

(NEW YORK) — As the world reels from tariffs instituted by the Trump administration, stock markets are widely in decline.

On Friday, U.S. stock saw the worst decline since the COVID-19 pandemic began in 2020. But the declines last week did not rank among the worst crashes in the history of the U.S. stock markets.

President Donald Trump said Sunday, “I don’t want anything to go down, but sometimes you have to take medicine to fix something and we have such a horrible — we have been treated so badly by other countries because we had stupid leadership that allowed this to happen.”

Here are the worst declines in the history of the Dow Jones Industrial Average by percentage:

5.) March 12, 2020 (-2,352.60, -9.99%)

Four days before the worst COVID-related drop in stocks, the Dow slid 9.99%. Blue chip stocks also dropped 7.79% — the 14th-worst all-time — on March 9, the first day of the COVID-induced drops.

4.) Oct. 29, 1929 (-30.57, -11.73%)

The stock market crash of October 1929 signaled the end of the “Roaring Twenties” and the beginning of the Great Depression. This was the second day of the big drop, known as “Black Tuesday,” which began one day earlier and occupies the next spot on this list.

3.) Oct. 28, 1929 (-38.33, -12.82%)

The first Black Monday in the history of the Dow Jones, investors’ fortunes were wiped out in a major wake-up call for people who thought the the good times would last forever.

2.) March 16, 2020 (-2,997.10, -12.93%)

Many Americans can recall the crash that happened as the world was shutting down over the COVID-19 pandemic. The worldwide shutdowns and disruptions to the global supply chain caused investors to bail.

1.) Oct. 19, 1987 (-508, -22.61%)

Black Monday, or the first contemporary global financial crisis according to the Federal Reserve, followed seven months of explosive growth on Wall Street. Stocks had climbed 44% over those months, according to the Fed, before the U.S. announced a larger-than-expected trade deficit. After moderate losses in the week before, the global markets tanked and Monday opened to panic from U.S. investors as well.

Note: The Dow Jones officially considers Dec. 12, 1914, the worst day in trading history, but economists agree 1987’s Black Monday was the worst. The stock market closed in July 1914 due to the start of World War I, and wouldn’t open again until Dec. 12, 1914. Even then, it was on a limited basis, with the official return to full trading on April 1, 1915. Technically, the Dow actually went up on Dec. 12, 1914, but a retroactive correction makes it look like it went down.

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