Global stock markets hit by massive sell-offs in response to Trump’s tariffs

Global stock investors are in distress. The US stock market spiraled downward following the implementation of sweeping tariffs by the administration of US President Donald Trump. Earlier, European and Asian stock markets collapsed due to economic uncertainty. Now there are no pieces of the puzzle missing. Meanwhile, after massive sell-offs of global stocks, market participants are revising their portfolios and allocating their savings to traditional safe-haven assets.   

By the end of this week, the US stock market saw a sharp drop in the benchmark indices: the S&P 500 plunged by 4.71%, and the industrial Dow Jones sank by 4.44%.

This crash resulted from the newly imposed US tariffs and growing investor fears over the onset of a global recession. On the major exchanges, the S&P 500 dropped 4.71% to 4,835.16 points, the NASDAQ Composite plummeted 5.15% to 14,785.47 points, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average sank 4.44%, closing at 36,613.16 points.

Previously, the stock markets in Asia incurred even heavier losses. The MSCI Asia Pacific Index lost 8.5%, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng slumped by over 13%, and Taiwan’s tech stock index plummeted by 9.7%. Japan’s Topix and Nikkei each lost 7.8%. Moreover, the Amsterdam Stock Exchange slipped by 5.5%, while markets in Stockholm and Copenhagen fell by nearly 7%. On April 7, the DAX, one of the most important European stock indices, also took a nosedive on Germany’s leading Frankfurt Stock Exchange.