Agencies
New York
The S&P 500 and the Nasdaq gained slightly on Monday but trade was volatile as investors worried about an economic slowdown and rising inflation as US President Donald Trump dug his heels in on tariffs, warning that he could further increase levies on China.
Wall Street equities have been hammered since Trump’s sweeping tariffs, announced late Wednesday, on all imports into the US and much higher levies on some major trading partners. Early on Monday, all three major US indexes touched their lowest levels in more than a year, and the CBOE Volatility index breached 60 points, which was its highest level since August 2024. In the afternoon, the volatility index, seen as Wall Street’s fear gauge, was at 46.35 points.
“On a constructive note, we’re still off of the early morning lows,” said Michael James, managing director of equity trading at RosenblattSecurities.
“But without any improvement in the tariff situation, which is the dominant focus of everyone’s attention, it’s going to be hard to expect that there will be much meaningful upside, outside of a potential over-sold bounce.”
At 2:15 pm, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 237.80 points, or 0.62 percent, to 38,077.06, the S&P 500 gained 7.02 points, or 0.14 percent, to 5,081.10 points and the Nasdaq Composite gained 75.37 points, or 0.48 percent, to 15,663.15.
Real estate, down more than 1 percent, was the biggest decliner among the S&P’s 11 major industry indexes while communications services was its biggest gainer, up almost 2 percent.
During the session, the S&P 500 was 20 percent below its record closing high. If the index ends down 20 percent from its closing record, this would confirm it has been in a bear market since February.
In the two days following Trump’s Wednesday tariff announcement, the benchmark S&P 500 index fell 10.5 percent and lost about $5 trillion in market value. It was the biggest two-day loss since March 2020.
The blue-chip Dow confirmed on Friday that it is in a correction, or more than 10 percent below its December record close and the Nasdaq last week confirmed it had been in a bear market.
Several speeches by Federal Reserve officials and a series of economic indicators, including consumer price data, are expected this week, with markets keenly observing any signals of recessionary fears.
The market swung dramatically early on Monday, a news report said Trump was considering a 90-day pause on tariffs. White House officials quickly denied the report, sending the market back into the red.
At one point, CNBC showed an on-screen chyron citing White House economic adviser Kevin Hassett for the tariff pause. It then reported the White House denials.
“As we were chasing the news of the market moves in real time, we aired unconfirmed information in a banner. Our reporters quickly made a correction on air,” a CNBC spokesperson said.
Reuters also published the report about Hassett’s comment with attribution to CNBC. In one version, Reuters failed to credit the broadcaster and later withdrew that report.
Declining issues outnumbered advancers by a 3.22-to-1 ratio on the NYSE where there were 38 new highs and 1892 new lows.
On the Nasdaq, 1,545 stocks rose and 2,915 fell as declining issues outnumbered advancers by a 1.89-to-1 ratio.
The S&P 500 posted no new 52-week highs and 167 new lows while the Nasdaq Composite recorded 9 new highs and 980 new lows.
