Google is hinting at some form of glasses integration with Android Auto through a new beta update, but there are some questions.
Android Auto 14.2 has just started rolling out in beta and while the update doesn’t seem to deliver any directly user-facing changes, the code behind-the-scenes hints at some potential updates coming in the future.
In our usual teardown of the latest update, we found strings that hint at a “default music provider” for Assistant (or, more likely, Gemini) and some continued work on swapping the word “car” for “vehicle,” which looks to extend to the phone screen pop-up that now tells you to “Continue setup on vehicle screen.”
The eye-catching strings in this version of Android Auto, though, discuss “Glasses.”
Specifically, there’s a new option titled “Glasses” and a string that mentions using “Glasses” with navigation.
<string name=”GLASSES_SETTING_TEXT”>Start navigation to launch Glasses</string>
This language is strange, though. “Start navigation to launch Glasses” seems to imply that “Glasses” is a feature of navigation, where one would rightly assume that this would have something to do with using some sort of glasses with navigation.
In a Hindi version of Android Auto 14.2 pulled by Android Authority, the translated version of this string reads “To view navigation on smart glasses, start navigation.” It’s still strange that the English version is so confusingly worded, but this gives us a slightly better idea of what Google has in mind.
With Android Auto’s purpose having always been to present information – whether that’s navigation, music, or messages – in a way that’s safer for drivers, smart glasses are certainly a logical next step, especially with Android XR products around the corner. Just this week, Google showed off its Android XR glasses prototype at an event, though there’s still no word on when these products will be hitting the market.
Consumer price inflation eased more than expected in March as President Donald Trump prepared to launch tariffs against U.S. trading partners, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Thursday.
The consumer price index, a broad measure of goods and services costs across the U.S. economy, fell a seasonally adjusted 0.1% in March, putting the 12-month inflation rate at 2.4%, down from 2.8% in February.
Excluding food and energy, so-called core inflation ran at a 2.8% annual rate, having increased 0.1% for the month. That was the lowest rate for core inflation since March 2021.
Wall Street had been looking for headline inflation of 2.6% and core at 3%, according to the Dow Jones consensus.
Slumping energy prices helped keep inflation tame, as a 6.3% drop in gasoline prices helped drive a 2.4% broader decline in the energy index. Food prices climbed 0.4% on the month. Egg prices rose another 5.9% and were up 60.4% from a year ago.
Moreover, shelter prices, among the most stubborn components of inflation, increased just 0.2% in March and were up 4% on a 12-month basis, the smallest gain since November 2021. Used vehicle prices were off 0.7% while new vehicle costs increased just 0.1%, ahead of tariffs that are expected to hit the auto industry hard.
Airline fares declined 5.3% in March and motor vehicle insurance dropped 0.8% and prescription drugs fell 2%.
Stock market futures indicated a sharply lower open on Wall Street following the release, while Treasury yields also were negative.
The report comes a day after Trump’s stunning reversal of parts of his tariff plans as he announced a delay in some of the most aggressive of the duties put in place against dozens of nations. Instead, Trump let stand a 10% blanket levy on all imports announced last week and set a 90-day window during which the White House will negotiate the higher tariffs.
While Trump campaigned on bringing down inflation, progress had been slow to start 2025.
The president nevertheless has called on the Federal Reserve to lower interest rates. Central bank officials have expressed a reluctance to move with so much policy uncertainty in the air, and market pricing indicates the Fed will wait until June before lowering rates again.
The nature of the tariffs has led most economists to expect a significant bump in inflation, though that’s less clear now that Trump has opened the negotiation window.
“Today’s softer than expected CPI release feels backward looking given the large changes to trade policy seen in recent days,” said Kay Haigh, global co-head of fixed income and liquidity solutions at Goldman Sachs Asset Management. “Going forward the Fed is likely to face a difficult trade-off as tariff driven price increases start to feed through to the inflation data and activity remains soft.”
Futures market pricing after the CPI report indicated little change in market expectations for interest rates, with traders pricing in three or four cuts by the end of the year.
The Nasdaq Composite climbed more than 12% for its second best day ever as markets clawed back after a rocky few trading sessions spurred by President Donald Trump’s wide sweeping tariffs.
The tech-heavy index posted its best session since January 2001, when it rallied more than 14%.
Stocks skyrocketed across the board Wednesday after Trump announced a 90-day pause on tariffs for some countries. It followed multiple days of selling after the president’s aggressive tariff plans rattled global markets. Trump, however, said he would raise tariffs on China to 125%.
Apple soared more than 15% for its best day since January 1998. The iPhone maker is coming off its worst four-day trading stretch since 2000, which resulted in Microsoft unseating it as the most valuable company and a $774 billion drop in market value. Apple recovered its status Wednesday. The stock is down nearly 21% year to date.
Tesla and Nvidia popped more than 18% and 22%, respectively, while Meta Platforms jumped nearly 15%. Amazon rallied 12%, while Microsoft and and Alphabet rose about 10% each. Tesla posted its biggest one-day gain since May 2013 and its second-best day ever.
Semiconductor stocks that have struggled on fears that tariffs could stifle demand for many consumer products and slow the economy also jumped. While the sector has been excluded from the recent tariffs, levies could come in the future.
The VanEck Semiconductor ETF tracking the sector soared more than 17% for its best day ever. Advanced Micro Devices rocketed about 24%, while Intel jumped about 19%. On Semiconductor, Broadcom and Apple suppliers Qorvo and Skyworks Solutions were up more than 18% each.
President Donald Trump’s abrupt decision to reverse course on his sweeping tariff plan by announcing a three-month pause revealed his threshold for political pain: One week.
“They were getting yippy,” Trump said, explaining the rising criticism raining down on the White House over the last week. “They were getting a little bit yippy, a little afraid.”
Even for a president famous for his policy bobs and weaves, Wednesday’s announcement he was pausing his long-touted reciprocal tariffs for three months amounted to a stunning reversal of a plan he had appeared only a day earlier to be fully behind and came as his own trade representative was testifying on Capitol Hill to the benefits of the tariffs, seemingly catching him unaware of the pause.
Days of pressure from fellow Republicans, business executives and even his close friends hadn’t appeared to move Trump, who insisted last week: “MY POLICIES WILL NEVER CHANGE.”
By Wednesday, however, it had become evident the campaign to convince Trump to change course would not let up. It had also become plain after a sharp sell-off in US government bond markets — usually a safe corner for investors — that the economic ramifications of the president’s strategy were potentially catastrophic and worse than his advisers had previously predicted.
The growing alarm inside the Treasury Department over developments in the bond market was a central factor in Trump’s decision to hit pause on his “reciprocal” tariff regime, according to three people familiar with the matter.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent raised those concerns directly to Trump Wednesday in a meeting that preceded the pause announcement, underscoring concerns shared by White House economic officials who had briefed Trump on the accelerating selloff in the US Treasury market earlier in the day.
Calls to top White House advisors from key business community allies also increasingly focused on the troubling developments in the bond market as they made the case for Trump to pull back.
Trump had not yet made the decision to pause the dramatic new tariff rates when he was posting on social media about the stock market Wednesday morning, two of the people said.
But he acknowledged later in the afternoon that he’d been watching the bond market turmoil closely.
“The bond market is very tricky, I was watching it,” Trump told reporters. “The bond market right now is beautiful. But yeah, I saw last night where people were getting a little queasy.”
Sitting in the Oval Office to tap out his announcement, Trump was joined by two advisers who had become dueling faces of the tariff plan: Bessent and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick.
“We didn’t have access to lawyers or – it was just wrote up. We wrote it up from our hearts, right? It was written from the heart, and I think it was well written too, but it was written from the heart,” Trump said afterward, describing a process driven more by impulse than mapped-out strategy.
Even as Trump calmed the markets – for now, at least – he also raised new questions by suggesting he would consider exempting some US companies from tariffs, saying he would make any such decisions “instinctively.”
Whirlwind Wednesday
It was another whirlwind Wednesday at the White House, with advisers scrambling to keep pace with the president’s decisions. He sought to take a victory lap after one of the most humbling retreats of his presidency, eager to take credit for the stock market gains Wednesday – without mentioning the record-setting, trillion-dollar losses over the last week.
“It’s the biggest increase in the history of the stock market. That’s pretty good,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office. “If you keep going, you’re going to be back to where it was four weeks ago.”
If Trump was planning early Wednesday to pause his new tariffs after days of market turmoil, he did not reveal his intentions widely. Many White House officials heard of his decision at the same time the world learned, via post on Truth Social, that the new tariffs were on pause.
Even his own top trade official seemed only vaguely aware the change was possible by the time Trump announced the reversal on social media.
“It looks like your boss just pulled out the rug from under you and paused the tariffs,” Democratic Rep. Steven Horsford of Nevada told US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer during a hearing that was underway on Capitol Hill when Trump made his announcement. Greer had offered zero indication to that point the major shift was coming.
Bessent and other officials insisted the decision to pause the new tariffs on all nations except China was not a backdown; instead, they framed the move as all part of Trump’s master plan to bring nations to the negotiating table.
“It took great courage, great courage for him to stay the course until this moment,” said Bessent, who flew to Palm Beach last weekend for a lengthy discussion with Trump on the endgame of the tariffs.
Even as his advisers danced around it, though, the president acknowledged that the rising criticism, deepening angst and mounting losses in the financial markets contributed to his abrupt decision on Wednesday afternoon to impose a three-month pause on many of the tariffs.
“I thought that people were jumping a little bit out of line,” Trump told reporters.
Alarm over bond selloff
The administration’s economic team spent Wednesday morning intensely focused on the bond selloff that had intensified a day earlier and accelerated aggressively overnight, driving yields higher and, in effect, demonstrating the exact opposite of what would normally happen during such an unstable and volatile moment in the global economy.
Historically, Treasurys rally in moments of stock market selloffs as investors rush to shift assets to a global safehaven, the longstanding status due to the safety and liquidity provided by the US market.
Watching the inverse play out, then accelerate after unexpectedly weak demand at the first Treasury Department auction to take place since Trump’s announced his tariff regime, led to growing alarm even as Bessent dismissed it as “uncomfortable, but normal” in a Wednesday morning television interview.
But for Bessent, whose finance career was deeply intertwined with the bond market and who has been fixated on driving down the 10-year yields in his cabinet post, the alarm relayed by senior Treasury officials was understood and reflected in the later conversation with Trump.
The president, who is a close monitor of his own coverage on television, had seen even some of his close allies issue dire warnings about the prospects of a recession as a result of the tariffs. He was watching Fox Business channel on Wednesday morning when JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon said a recession was “a likely outcome” of an escalating trade war resulting from Trump’s tariff policies.
“Markets aren’t always right, but sometimes they are right,” Dimon told Fox Business’ Maria Bartiromo.
Executives light up White House phones
Inside the White House, telephone calls had been coming quickly from business executives, Republicans and other allies of the President urging him to reconsider his tariffs, but they received little indication a pause was in the works.
Executives had been lighting up the phone lines of chief of staff Susie Wiles, Vice President JD Vance, and Treasury secretary Scott Bessent to make the case to Trump directly as trade hawks continued to promote Trump’s tariffs-at-all-costs approach on television as the market continued to sink.
Wiles, these sources said, had been particularly effective in convincing Trump that the market rout was costing considerable political capital that he would need for future agenda items, with lawmakers fielding increasingly angry constituent calls as the market continued sinking.
Bessent, whose conversation with Trump in Florida over the weekend focused on zeroing in on the overall goal of the tariffs, also appeared to assume more of a role in the public messaging, talking frequently about the dozens of countries now jockeying for trade deals.
“This was driven by the President’s strategy. He and I had a long talk on Sunday, and this was his strategy all along,” Bessent said on Wednesday.
Trump, however, acknowledged he’d been keeping a close eye on markets, calling their performance “glum” over the last few days.
A week after making a tariff announcement that upended the global trading system, the president stood outside the White House in front of three colorful race cars and reflected on what led to his retreat. He sought to take credit for a problem largely of his own making, saying his credibility was not eroded by the whiplash.
“You have to have flexibility,” Trump said. “I think in financial markets, because they change, look how much you change today.”
European stocks were set to open lower on Wednesday, with markets struggling to maintain Tuesday’s positive momentum as country-specific tariffs from the U.S. started taking effect.
The regional Stoxx 600 index had closed in the green on Tuesday, snapping a four-day loosing streak. The move higher came after Asia-Pacific stocks had kicked off a global equity rebound, which U.S. stocks also initially joined before pulling back.
Unease about the fallout from U.S. President Donald Trump’s tariffs and retaliatory measures from the U.S.′ trading partners weighed on markets as concerns about more duties being announced grew and uncertainty persisted.
Trump on Tuesday suggested the U.S. would soon announce “a very major tariff on pharmaceuticals,” and tripled the previously announced tariff rates on low-value packages exported to the U.S. from China via the international postal system.
A slew of tariffs came into effect just after midnight stateside, with duties being enforced on imports from dozens of countries. The measures include a 104% tariff on Chinese imports.
Some targeted countries are expected to hit back at the United States, including Canada, which on Tuesday reconfirmed plans to impose 25% retaliatory tariffs on U.S.-made vehicles.
U.S. stock futures were last lower as investors braced themselves for potentially another rollercoaster day on Wall Street. Asia-Pacific markets also widely fell Wednesday.
As Tesla shares plummeted for a fourth straight day, CEO Elon Musk let loose on President Donald Trump’s top trade advisor, Peter Navarro.
Musk, the world’s richest person, started going after Navarro over the weekend, posting on X that a “PhD in econ from Harvard is a bad thing, not a good thing,” a reference to Navarro’s degree. Whatever subtlety remained at the beginning of the week has since vanished.
On Tuesday, Musk wrote, “Navarro is truly a moron” in response to the trade advisor’s remark that Tesla is more of a “car assembler” than a car manufacturer, adding that Navarro’s comments are “demonstrably false.” Musk called Navarro “dumber than a sack of bricks,” before later sarcastically apologizing to bricks. Musk also called Navarro “dangerously dumb.”
Musk’s attacks on Navarro represent the most public spat between members of Trump’s inner circle since the president took office in January, and show that the steep tariffs Trump announced Wednesday on more than 180 countries and territories don’t have universal approval in the administration.
When asked about the feud in a briefing Tuesday, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said, “Look, these are obviously two individuals who have very different views on trade and on tariffs.”
“Boys will be boys, and we will let their public sparring continue,” she said.
Musk’s younger brother, Kimbal — a restaurant owner, entrepreneur and Tesla board member — has joined in on the action. Kimbal Musk criticized the tariffs Monday, calling them a “permanent tax on the American consumer.” He followed that up Tuesday by posting on X that the China-U.S. standoff is “not a game that should be played by C-minus students like Peter Navarro.”
For the Tesla CEO, the name-calling appears to be tied to business conditions.
Tesla’s stock is down 22% in the past four trading sessions and 45% for the year. Tesla has lost more than $585 billion in value since the calendar turned, equaling tens of billions of dollars in paper losses for Musk, who is also CEO of SpaceX and owner of xAI and social network X.
Even before Trump detailed his plan for widespread tariffs, he’d already placed a 25% tariff on vehicles not assembled in the U.S. Many analysts said Tesla could withstand those tariffs better than competitors because its vehicles sold in the U.S. are assembled domestically.
But the company’s production costs are poised to increase because of the tariffs on materials and parts from foreign suppliers. Canada and Mexico are among the leading sources of U.S. steel imports, and Canada is the nation’s largest supplier of aluminum, while China and Mexico are home to major suppliers of printed circuit boards to the automotive industry.
At an event Saturday hosted by right-wing Italian Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini, Musk said, “Both Europe and the United States should move, ideally, in my view, to a zero-tariff situation, effectively creating a free trade zone between Europe and North America.”
Musk, whose view on trade relations with Europe stands in stark contrast to the policies implemented by Trump, has a vested interest in the region. Tesla has a large car factory outside Berlin, and the European Commission has previously turned to SpaceX for launches.
Even before the tariffs, Tesla’s business was faltering. On Wednesday, the company reported a 13% year-over-year decline in first-quarter deliveries, missing analysts’ estimates. That report landed two days after Tesla’s stock price wrapped up its worst quarter since 2022.
Musk, who spent roughly $290 million to help return Trump to the White House, is now leading Trump’s so-called Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, which has slashed costs, eliminated regulations and cut tens of thousands of federal jobs. In the first quarter, Tesla was hit with waves of protests, boycotts and some criminal activity that targeted vehicles and facilities in response to Musk’s political rhetoric and his work in the White House.
A trip to the grocery or liquor store is about to become even more expensive, economists say, following the latest round of import tariffs announced by President Trump on Wednesday. Those tariffs — taxes paid by businesses on goods from abroad — come on the heels of a previous round aimed specifically at Canada, Mexico and China.
Prices for items such as seafood, coffee, wine, nuts and cheese are all expected to rise. And if you’re tempted to grab a candy bar while you’re in the checkout line, you’ll probably have to pay more for that as well.
Food industry analyst Phil Lempert, also the editor of supermarketguru.com, estimates that with the latest tariffs “probably almost half of the products in a supermarket — about 40,000 products — will be affected by these tariffs, whether it’s the entire product or just an ingredient.”
Joseph Balagtas, a professor of agricultural economics at Purdue University, says food prices will also be affected by other factors related to tariffs, such as higher costs for fertilizer from Canada and a weaker U.S. dollar.
“A main takeaway here is that the country-specific, food-specific tariffs will not tell the whole story,” he says. “This is such a big change in policy that there will be broader implications.”
It’s impossible yet to know how much the tariffs will affect prices, but with the 10% tariff for many countries and higher “reciprocal tariffs” on other nations, the tariff rates by country could provide some clues.
Here are 10 grocery items you might want to keep an eye on and their country of origin (with tariff rates in parentheses).
Seafood
Some top sources: Chile (10%), India (26%), Indonesia (32%) and Vietnam (46%) are the largest suppliers, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
This category is likely to take a big hit because the U.S. imports the vast majority of its seafood — up to 85% according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration — and several countries that supply fish and shellfish to the U.S. have been among the hardest hit by the tariffs.
Coffee
Top sources: Brazil (10%) and Colombia (10%), according to USDA.
The U.S. is the world’s largest importer of coffee, with about 80% of U.S. roasted imports coming from Latin America. More than 60% comes from just two countries — Brazil and Colombia, USDA says.
Fruit
Some top sources: Guatemala (10%), Costa Rica (10%) and Peru (10%)
Guatemala and Costa Rica are leading exporters of bananas to the U.S. Guatemala also ships melons, plantains and papayas, according to USDA, while Costa Rica exports pineapples, avocados and mangoes.
“These products don’t have a long shelf life, and with the tariffs, we’re going to face significant issues with both price and availability,” Lempert says.
Alcohol
Top sources for wine: the European Union — France, Italy and Spain (20%). New Zealand (10%) and Australia (10%), according to USDA.
Top sources for beer: Mexico (25%), the Netherlands and Ireland (both with the EU’s 20% tariff) and Canada (25%)
If your favorite summer beverage is Modelo, Corona, Heineken or Guinness, you’ll likely be paying more. Tequila imports from Mexico have also seen a surge in recent years and will be affected by the tariffs.
Lempert says the imported alcohol sector is likely “to be clobbered.” He also notes that beer sold in cans is also going to get a double hit due to tariffs on China and other aluminum producers.
Beef
Some top sources: New Zealand (10%) and Australia (10%), according to USDA.
Although 90% of beef consumed in the U.S. is domestically produced, tariffs will likely add to existing price pressures. The cost of ground beef for consumers, for example, is already at historic highs and according to the USDA, the U.S. cattle herd is the smallest it’s been since 1951.
Rice
Top sources: Thailand (36%) and India (26%), according to USDA.
Although most rice sold in the U.S. is domestically produced, nearly a third is imported, mainly jasmine rice from Thailand and basmati rice from India.
Cheese
Top sources: Italy, France, Spain and the Netherlands (all subject to 20% EU tariff), according to USDA.
Parmigiano-Reggiano, brie and Gouda could also see price rises.
Nuts
Top sources: Vietnam (46%), Ivory Coast (21%), Brazil (10%), Thailand (36%), according to the World Bank.
Cashews, pecans and macadamia nuts are likely to see the largest price increases.
Chocolate
Top source: Ivory Coast (21%) and Ecuador (10%), according to USDA.
The Hershey Company, one of the largest U.S. importers of cocoa beans, says it sources its supply from Brazil, Cameroon, Ivory Coast, Colombia, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Ghana, Indonesia, Nigeria, Papua New Guinea and Peru.
NPR reached out to Hershey, which makes Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups and Kit Kat bars, among others, to inquire about future price increases. A spokesman for Hershey, Todd Scott, said the company could not comment because it is in an earnings window.
However, Lempert says the tariffs come on top of “serious increases in cocoa beans for probably the past two or three years because of the weather and the political climate in … Africa.”
Olive oil
Top sources: European Union (20%), particularly Spain, Italy and Greece.
“Olive oil prices have gone through the roof,” Lempert says. “They’re going to go even higher.”
Wall Street just got loud and it’s not cheering. Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) CEO Elon Musk, Pershing Square’s Bill Ackman (Trades, Portfolio), and hedge legend Stanley Druckenmiller (Trades, Portfolio) are now openly throwing punches at the Trump administration’s tariff plans, warning they could trigger a full-blown market meltdown. What started as scattered criticism has snowballed into a rare, public revolt from some of the most influential voices in investing. Even JPMorgan Chase (NYSE:JPM) CEO Jamie Dimon, once cautiously optimistic, is waving a red flag in his latest letter: We’re not in Kansas anymore. Meanwhile, markets continue their slide, with uncertainty mounting by the hour.
Elon Musk didn’t hold back mocking top trade adviser Peter Navarro’s Harvard credentials and calling out the damage tariffs could inflict on Tesla. Bill Ackman (Trades, Portfolio), usually one of Trump’s loudest Wall Street backers, called for an immediate 90-day tariff pause to avoid what he described as a self-induced, economic nuclear winter. The attacks aren’t just emotional they’re aimed at the administration’s math. Both Musk and Ackman questioned the very formula used to justify the tariffs, with Musk posting memes comparing the market fallout to D-Day, portraying Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick as a general calmly watching the chaos unfold.
The pushback isn’t just online theatrics. Stanley Druckenmiller (Trades, Portfolio) took to social media to say he does not support tariffs exceeding 10%, a direct challenge to Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent his former protege who’s now doubling down on the strategy he once dismissed. And the chorus is growing. Yardeni Research blasted Navarro’s recent TV appearance, saying it made them gag on [their] bagel. With financial leaders breaking ranks, investor sentiment is shifting fast. Confidence in the administration’s economic direction? Hanging by a thread.
Asia-Pacific markets extended their sell-off Monday as fears over a global trade war sparked by U.S. President Donald Trump’s tariffs fueled a risk-off mood.
Hong Kong markets led losses in the region, with the Hang Seng Index declining 8.95%. Meanwhile, mainland China’s CSI 300 fell 5.41%.
Over in Japan, the benchmark Nikkei 225 lost 5.92% to hit an 18-month low while the broader Topix index plummeted 5.94%. Earlier in the day, trading in Japanese futures was suspended due the market hitting circuit breakers.
In South Korea, the Kospi index pared some losses and was last down 4.11%, while the small-cap Kosdaq declined 3.41%.
Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 also pared some losses to 3.78%. The benchmark slid into correction territory with an 11% decline since its last high in February, in its previous session.
U.S. futures dropped as investors’ hopes of the Trump administration having successful negotiations with countries to lower the rates were dashed.
Meanwhile, U.S. oil prices dropped below $60 a barrel on Sunday stateside. Futures tied to U.S. West Texas intermediate crude fell more than 3% to $59.74, their lowest since April 2021.
Trump’s top economic officials dismissed any fears of inflation and recession, declaring that tariffs would persist whatever markets may do.
Stocks in the U.S. sold off sharply last Friday, after China retaliated with fresh tariffs on U.S. goods, sparking fears of a global trade war that could lead to a recession in the world’s largest economy.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 2,231.07 points, or 5.5%, to 38,314.86 on Friday, the biggest decline since June 2020 during the Covid-19 pandemic.
The S&P 500 nosedived 5.97% to 5,074.08, its biggest decline since March 2020.
Meanwhile, the Nasdaq Composite, which captures many tech companies that sell to China and manufacture there as well, dropped 5.8%, to 15,587.79. This takes the index down by 22% from its December record, representing a bear market in Wall Street terminology.
U.S. stock futures dropped on Sunday evening as the White House remained defiant even after a two-day historic stock market rout that followed President Donald Trump’s rollout of shockingly high tariff rates on most key U.S. trading partners.
Dow Jones Industrial average futures fell 979 points, or 2.5% Sunday evening, pointing to another brutal session ahead on Monday. S&P 500 futures shed 2.9%. Nasdaq-100 futures lost 3.9% as investors continued to shed their one-time tech winners to raise cash.
This follows a market wipeout to end last week:
The Dow posted back-to-back losses of more than 1,500 points for the first time ever, including a 2,231-point shellacking on Friday.
The S&P 500 dropped 6% on Friday for its worst performance since the outbreak of the pandemic in March 2020. The benchmark lost 10% in two days, pushing it to more than 17% below its February record, perilously close to a 20% bear market.
The Nasdaq Composite entered a bear market Friday — down 22% from its record — after losses on Thursday and Friday of nearly 6% apiece.
Investors did not receive the news over the weekend they were wishing for that the Trump administration was having successful negotiations with countries to lower the rates, or at the very least, was considering delaying the set of so-called reciprocal tariffs due to take effect April 9. The initial unilateral 10% tariff went into effect Saturday.
Instead the president and his key advisors played down the sell-off:
Trump said Sunday evening on the market sell-off: “I don’t want anything to go down, but sometimes you have to take medicine to fix something.”
Trump added, “We have a trillion-dollar trade deficit with China, hundreds of billions of dollars a year we lose with China. And unless we solve that problem, I’m not going to make a deal.”
Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick told CBS News that the tariffs would not be postponed. “The tariffs are coming… They are definitely going to stay in place for days and weeks.”
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent noted to NBC News that more than 50 countries have approached the administration for negotiations, but cautioned “they’ve been bad actors for a long time, and it’s not the kind of thing you can negotiate away in days or weeks.”
Investors were surprised first by the magnitude of certain rates applied to trading partners that appeared to be based on a formula without a valid rationale based on established economic theory. They were rattled further when China on Friday decided to retaliate first with a 34% tariff on all U.S. imports, instead of negotiating.
“Trump’s Liberation Day last Wednesday triggered annihilation days on Thursday and Friday, with the stock market vigilantes giving a costly thumbs-down to Trump’s reign of tariffs,” wrote Ed Yardeni, president and chief investment strategist of Yardeni Research, in a note to clients Sunday.
While the administration said at least 50 nations had reached out to start negotiations, Canada and the European Union were planning to follow China’s lead and readying retaliatory tariffs against the U.S. Vietnam has offered already to cut tariffs on the U.S. to zero, according to Trump, but they appeared to be the exception so far.
Fears grew on Wall Street that the sell-off would feed on itself with hedge funds forced to sell down equities and other risky assets to raise cash and meet margin calls. The CBOE Volatility Index, Wall Street’s fear gauge, closed Friday at the 45 level, an extreme level seen mostly only during bear markets.
“Margin calls are going out as we speak,” said Chris Rupkey chief economist at FWDBONDS. “For a third straight day investors in U.S. equity markets have turned (a) huge thumbs down on the White House Liberation Day tariffs which have rocked Wall Street.”
The price of bitcoin, which usually trades like another big tech stock but had bucked the broader market meltdown last week, fell under the $80,000 Sunday in another sign of de-risking on Wall Street.
Global markets tumbled as they opened staring with Asia. Japan’s Nikkei 225 plunged 8%.
