People have been watching in shock as US President Donald Trump’s tariffs have caused the stock market to dive $2 trillion in just 25 seconds.
The new major tariffs have not gone down well for international nations, and not for the American people, either.
The rate that will now be inflicted on goods across the world has shocked many world leaders, and the European Union has even said they plan to retaliate against them.
Announcing the new tariffs, Donald Trump spoke in the Rose Garden of the White House on April 2, calling it 'Liberation Day’.
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He shared that not only will the tariffs be inflicted upon the country's trading partners, but also on countries across the world so that they can free the US from depending on foreign goods from other nations.
China, Mexico, Canada, and the European Union have been in the front lines of the trade war with the country, after Trump hiked taxes by 25 percent on many of their imported goods.
The POTUS signed an executive order with 'catastrophic' tariffs on the US' trading partners, and now, the stock market is feeling its effects.
People in the US watched as the global stocks fell sharply and the US dollar decreased so much that it’s now in a six-month low because of the sweeping tariffs against trade partners.
The S&P 500 lost $2 trillion in market capitalisation as Trump announced sweeping reciprocal tariffs on as many as 60 countries.
Within 20-ish seconds, European markets opened lower after a steep selloff across Asia and US futures.
Futures began to fall during Trump's speech and just 20 minutes later, they were wiped out.
In London, the FTSE 100 fell 1.3 per cent, Germany’s Dax went down to 1.6 per cent, and France’s CAC40 similarly reached 1.8 per cent as a result.
Japan’s Nikkei and Topix fell 3.3 per cent and 3.5 per cent, after Trump applied a 24 per cent tariff on the country.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng decreased to 1.9 per cent, and Vietnam’s stock parket fell to 6.7 per cent after being hit with 50 per cent tariffs.
US futures such as the Dow futures lost 2.1 per cent and S&P 500 futures fell 3 per cent around the same time.
Futures for Nasdaq went down 3.5 per cent, with Apple falling by 7 per cent, Nike by 7.3 per cent, and Nvidia by 5.6 per cent.
Tesla also lost 8 per cent in the fallout.
Online, people have lost their cool with the plummet, with one person writing on X: "Not to alarm everyone too much but the U.S. stock market HAS LOST OVER 2 TRILLION in THE LAST TWENTY MINUTES."
Another wrote: "The stock market is tanking because Trump is a stupid piece of s*** that went bankrupt 6 times and is looking to make America #7."
Someone else said on Reddit: "Well well who could’ve seen this coming?? Literally everyone."
Shockingly, the dollar plummeted 1.1 per cent against other currencies, making it a sad day for the US and those hoping to invest in the dollar.
According to portfolio manager at at Janus Henderson Investors , Adam Hetts, it’s not likely to get better from here.
He said to The Guardian: “Eye-watering tariffs on a country-by-country basis scream ‘negotiation tactic’, which will keep markets on edge for the foreseeable future. Fortunately, this means there’s substantial room for lower tariffs from here, albeit with a 10% baseline in place.”
“We’ve seen the administration have a surprisingly high tolerance for market pain, now the big question is how much tolerance it has for true economic pain as negotiations unfold,” he added.
Because of this shocking event, investors have now run to safer assets to invest in, such as gold, which actually went on to receive a record high of $3,167.50 overnight.