Dow Jones Drops 1,400 Points a Day After Trump Tariff Announcement

April 3, 2025 TruthUSA

All three major U.S. stock indexes saw declines on Thursday morning.

The three major U.S. stock indexes dropped on Thursday morning after President Donald Trump announced sweeping tariffs of 10 percent or higher, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average plunging by approximately 1,400 points at one point in the early trading period.

Aside from the Dow Jones tumbling, the S&P 500 Index dropped by 3.2 percent, and the Nasdaq Composite slid by more than 4.2 percent at around 9:35 a.m. EST.

Major multinational companies also saw declines. Nike saw an 11 percent decline, Apple dropped by about 7 percent, Gap was down by 12 percent, Target was down by 9 percent, Amazon shed more than 6 percent, Five Below dropped by 22 percent, Dollar Tree tumbled by 9 percent, and HP Inc. shed 13 percent, among others.

On Wednesday evening, Trump announced a minimum tariff of 10 percent on imports from all countries into the United States, with the tax rate running much higher on products from certain countries such as China and those from the European Union.

In stock markets abroad, indexes fell worldwide. France’s CAC 40 dropped by 3.1 percent, and Germany’s DAX lost 2.4 percent in Europe. Japan’s Nikkei 225 dropped by 2.8 percent, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng lost 1.5 percent, and South Korea’s Kospi dropped by 0.8 percent.

Yields on Treasurys tumbled in part on rising expectations for coming cuts to rates, along with general fear about the health of the U.S. economy. The yield on the 10-year Treasury fell to 4.03 percent from 4.20 percent late Wednesday and from roughly 4.80 percent in January. That’s a huge move for the bond market.

A major technology group, the Consumer Technology Association (CTA), voiced concern over the tariffs and said it would effectively cause “massive tax hikes” on American consumers that will drive up inflation.

“These tariffs will raise consumer prices and will force our trade partners to retaliate. Americans will become poorer because of these tariffs. This will not be a golden age–but a return to the global economic catastrophe of the Smoot-Hawley tariffs of the 1930s that will disproportionately hurt low income and hardworking Americans,” the group said in a statement.

In announcing the tariffs, the Trump administration said in a statement that “foreign trade and economic practices have created a national emergency, and [the president’s] order imposes responsive tariffs to strengthen the international economic position of the United States and protect American workers.”

“Large and persistent annual U.S. goods trade deficits have led to the hollowing out of our manufacturing base; resulted in a lack of incentive to increase advanced domestic manufacturing capacity; undermined critical supply chains; and rendered our defense-industrial base dependent on foreign adversaries,” the statement said.

China was mentioned multiple times in the statement, with the White House saying that the communist-run country’s “non-market policies and practices have given China global dominance in key manufacturing industries” and have led to reductions in U.S. industry and manufacturing.

“Between 2001 and 2018, these practices contributed to the loss of 3.7 million U.S. jobs due to the growth of the U.S.-China trade deficit, displacing workers and undermining American competitiveness while threatening U.S. economic and national security by increasing our reliance on foreign-controlled supply chains for critical industries as well as everyday goods,” it said.

Amid the jitters around the stock market, Vice President JD Vance appeared on “Fox and Friends” and sought to reassure Americans that it will take some time for the tariffs to be felt by everyday consumers.

In the interview, Vance suggested that short-term pain under Trump’s tariffs would lead to long-term economic health. He said that the tariffs would make it more difficult to send American jobs to other countries.

“Frankly, a lot of people have gotten rich from American jobs moving overseas,” Vance said. “But American workers have not gotten rich. And, frankly, American companies have not gotten wealthy from the increasing growth of foreign competitors manufacturing overseas.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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