President Donald Trump doesn’t care about Wall Street’s panic. That’s the message he sent loud and clear on Thursday, sitting in the Oval Office with reporters as he signed executive orders.
When asked whether the one-month pause on tariffs for certain imports from Canada and Mexico had anything to do with the stock market, he shot that down immediately.
“Nothing to do with the market,” he said. “I’m not even looking at the market, because long term the United States will be very strong with what is happening here.” He made it clear—this isn’t about stocks. It’s about trade.
“This is very much about companies and countries that have ripped off this country, our country, our beloved United States. And they’re not going to be ripping us off anymore. So, you know, I think that has an impact on the market.”
Tariffs spook Wall Street as Trump abandons them
The stock market hasn’t had a great week. Major indexes are in the red, and investors are scrambling to figure out whether Trump will do anything to stop the bleeding. Wall Street has operated under the idea of a “Trump put”—the belief that he wouldn’t let the market crash too hard. But that assumption is getting weaker by the day.
Instead of dialing back on trade tensions, the administration is doing the opposite. Trump just slapped 25% tariffs on some of the U.S.’s biggest trading partners, and it’s hitting the market where it hurts. The Nasdaq Composite is down 7.5% since mid-February, bank stocks are falling, and oil prices are slipping. On the other side, traditional safe havens like gold and U.S. Treasury bonds are rallying.
Despite the turmoil, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick says this isn’t about short-term stock movements. “The president wants American growth and American prosperity, OK? And the fact that the stock market goes down half a percent or percent, it goes up half a percent or percent, that is not the driving force of our outcomes,” he said on CNBC. He believes interest rates will drop by 1% or more, and the stock market will “explode” later on.
For now, investors aren’t convinced. Wall Street came into 2025 expecting tax cuts and deregulation to push stocks higher. Instead, they’re dealing with trade wars and slow growth signals.
Economic warning signs keep piling up
Trump’s tariffs are forcing investors to rethink how serious he is about a protectionist agenda. We all thought he might change his mind in the end like he did in his first term, but so far, Trump’s not budging.
The Conference Board’s consumer-confidence index, for example, posted its largest monthly decline in February since 2021. A survey of manufacturers, released Monday, pointed to a steep decline in new orders, along with a jump in input costs.
Meanwhile, the Atlanta Fed’s GDPNow tracker is flashing warning signs and predicts first-quarter growth at negative 2.8% annualized, though other models still show some growth. JPMorgan economists think the higher tariffs will slow economic activity because businesses are paying more for imports and passing those costs onto consumers.
That said, the U.S. economy isn’t expected to go into recession just yet. Goldman Sachs predicts tariffs will shave 0.2% off growth this year, which is a small hit compared to what Canada and other trading partners could face.
There is one bright spot—bonds. The Bloomberg U.S. Aggregate Bond Index is up 2.7% this year, thanks to investors moving on to safer assets like gold. But inflation is still above the Fed’s 2% target, which limits how much the central bank can cut rates, as Fed chair Jerome Powell reiterated during January’s FOMC post-minutes press conference.
