Mark down March 3, 2025. That was the day Wall Street finally realized that US President Donald Trump was serious about tariffs. On Monday, the S&P 500 fell nearly 2 percent as Trump confirmed what we at the Atlantic Council predicted in February—that the tariffs on Canada and Mexico were not mere threats, but actually likely to be implemented. The stock markets continued to fall on Tuesday as investors processed the news.
There wasn’t up and downs during Covid. There was a big dip at the beginning followed by a huge increase, lasting well into 2022, despite all the measures, recession and GDP going down. What reduced the index was the increase in interest rates.
The financial markets are strongly detached from the real economy.