Economic fears are high after Wall Street suffered its steepest decline of the year
Now, questions are brewing as to what this could mean for Americans if the trend continues.
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Concerns are growing that the ongoing tariff war between the U.S. and its allies – Canada, Mexico and China – is helping to tank the stock market.
The Dow Jones finished Monday down nearly 900 points; the S&P 500 fell as much as 3.5% during trading and the Nasdaq fell 4%.
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The fall continued, if more slowly, on Tuesday — the Dow dropped 480 points, while the S&P 500 and Nasdaq dipped lower after a volatile day of trading.
People in Boston on Tuesday were anxious about what’s going on, but there were no signs of panic.
"I’m not making any changes right now, but you know just kind of playing it by ear and seeing how things go," one said.
The so called magnificent seven stocks – including Microsoft, Apple, Amazon, Meta and Tesla – lost about $800 billion in collective market value. Five of the largest publicly-traded companies based in Massachusetts collectively lost more than $21 billion in market value Monday, according to the Boston Business Journal.
“It will have a ripple effect on our economy, potentially impacting jobs and inflation generally," said U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal, of Connecticut.
China has now imposed a 15% tariff on chicken, wheat, corn and cotton and a 10% percent tariff on pork, beef, produce, dairy and soybeans.
But the Canadian province of Ontario walked back its threat of adding a 25% tax on electricity exported to more than 1.5 million American homes and businesses after after President Donald Trump announced Tuesday morning he's doubling tariffs on Canadian steel and aluminum coming into the U.S. – from 25% to 50% – and threatened to increase tariffs on Canadian cars in three weeks.
Blumenthal noted that “electricity from Canada constitutes about 11% of New England’s power supply" -- after some negotiations.
On top of all that, on Wednesday, a new 25% tariff kicks in on all steel and aluminum imports into the U.S.
