Wall Street Falls Again as Markets Gird for Another Round of Trump Tariffs

Wall Street followed global markets lower early Monday ahead of the Trump administration’s latest tariff rollout later this week.

Futures for the S&P 500 sank 1.2%, while futures for the Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 0.7%. Futures for the Nasdaq, where many of the biggest U.S. companies trade, tumbled 1.6%.

Tesla’s woes continued as Elon Musk’s electric car company slid 6.1%. Tesla is down 42% since Trump took office Jan. 20, with losses driven in part by the public perception of Musk’s oversight of the new Department of Government Efficiency that’s slashing government spending.

Tesla sales in Europe and the U.S. have fallen, partly due to Musk’s political shift to the right. Protestors have targeted the automaker’s showrooms, vehicle lots and charging stations, with some resorting to vandalism, including burning privately owned vehicles.

Apple shares were down less than 1% after France’s antitrust watchdog fined the tech giant $162 million over the rollout of a privacy feature resulted in abuse of competition law.

Shares of the mortgage company Rocket fell 3.5% after it announced that it is buying competitor Mr. Cooper in an all-stock deal valued at $9.4 billion. Mr. Cooper shares soared more than 26%. The deals comes just weeks after Rocket acquired real estate listing company Redfin.

The price of gold hit a record high before inching back down to $3,149 an ounce. Investors continue to pull out of equities in search of traditional safe havens like gold.

Markets worldwide have been anxious over a potentially toxic mix of worsening inflation and a slowing U.S. economy because households are afraid to spend due to the deepening trade war, escalated U.S. by President Donald Trump.

Trump has dubbed Wednesday “Liberation Day,” when he will roll out tariffs tailored to each of the United States’ trading partners that he promises will free the the country from foreign goods.

The details of Trump’s next round of import taxes are still sketchy. Most economic analyses say average U.S. families would have to absorb the cost of his tariffs in the form of higher prices and lower incomes. That has contributed to significant decline in U.S. consumer confidence this year, which has alarmed investors.

On Friday, the S&P 500 fell 2% for one of its worst days in the last two years. It was its fifth losing week in the last six, helping to drive the index down 5% this year. The Dow sank 1.7% and the Nasdaq composite fell 2.7% and is down more than 10% in 2025.

Many of the countries that run trade surpluses with the U.S. and depend heavily on export manufacturing are in Asia, Stephen Innes of SPI Asset Management said in a commentary.

“Asia is ground zero. Of the 21 countries under USTR (U.S. Trade Representative) scrutiny, nine are in Asia,” Innes noted.

Tokyo’s benchmark fell 4.1% to 35,617.56, while the Hang Seng in Hong Kong lost 1.3% to 23,119.58.

The Shanghai Composite index declined 0.5% to 3,335.75.

In South Korea, the Kospi fell 3% to 2,481.12, while Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 sank 1.7%, closing at 7,843.40.

Taiwan’s Taiex lost 4.2%.

European markets opened lower. Britain’s FTSE 100 slid 1.4%, while France’s CAC 40 and Germany’s DAX each fell 2%.

Thailand’s SET lost 1.3% after a powerful earthquake centered in Myanmar rattled the region, causing widespread destruction in the country, also known as Burma, and less damage in places like Bangkok.

Shares in Italian Thai Development, developer of a partially built 30-story high-rise office building under construction that collapsed, tumbled 27%. Thai officials said they are investigating the cause of the disaster, which left dozens of construction workers missing.