🧨 Total Carnage on Wall Street: $3 Trillion Vaporized
Trump’s Tariff War Escalates — Nasdaq Enters Bear Market, Powell Blinks, China Strikes Back
📊 Market Snapshot — April 4, 2025
🟦 Dow Jones🔻-2,200 pts (-5.5%) – Correction confirmed
🟥 S&P 500🔻-5.97% – Worst single-day drop since March 2020
🟥 Nasdaq Composite🔻-5.82% – Enters official bear market (-20% from highs)
💵 10-Year Treasury⬇️ 3.88% – Investors fleeing to safety
⚡ Bitcoin⬆️ $84,000 – Up as digital “flight to safety”
🛢️ Oil (WTI)🔻-8% – Demand shock fears surge
🔥 What Just Happened?
The “Liberation Day” tariffs just detonated the market.
After President Trump dropped unprecedented tariffs (10% baseline on all imports + steep “reciprocals” up to 54%), China retaliated with a 34% tariff on all US goods.
That one-two punch:
Torched risk sentiment
Shattered the fragile rebound
Confirmed a global trade war is here, not coming
Meanwhile, Jerome Powell held a press conference and finally acknowledged what markets already knew: inflation from tariffs is not going to be “transitory.”
🚨 Breakdown by Sector & Storyline
🧠 Tech = Ground Zero
$AAPL: -9% in 48 hours – Apple sources 90%+ of iPhones from China. Tariffs now at 54%.
$NVDA: -8% – Supply chain deeply tied to Taiwan and China, both hit with high tariffs.
$TSLA: -11% – Already under pressure from falling EV demand, now slammed by global supply costs.
The "Magnificent 7" stocks lost over $1.2 trillion in two days.
Context: These names were the market. Now they’re leading it down. Big Tech was bid up on AI and global growth. Tariffs crush both.
🏦 Banks Take a Beating
$GS, $JPM, $MS all down 7–10%
KBW Bank Index fell nearly 10% — worst day since March 2023 bank crisis
Context: Recession fears = lower rates, lower lending, fewer deals. Wall Street thrives on M&A, IPOs, and confidence. All three just left the chat.
🏘️ Housing & Retail Cracked
$RH: -40% – Supply chain disclosure spooked investors. CEO mid-call: “Oh sh*t.”
$BBY: -18% – Tech retail crushed by tariff impact on electronics
$DHI, $LEN: -4%+ – Homebuilders hit by fears of rising input costs
Context: Tariffs = higher prices = inflation. Retailers can’t pass it all on. Margins get destroyed.
🛢️ Commodities & Energy Implode
Oil dropped 8% on China news
Gold pulled back from highs but still strong
Copper and other industrials got smacked
Context: This is a demand-side shock. Global slowdown = less energy usage, less infrastructure. Oil and materials are canaries in the coal mine.
🧠 The Powell Pivot
Fed Chair Jerome Powell admitted:
“It is now becoming clear that tariff increases will be significantly larger than expected… Inflation may prove more persistent.”
Markets now expect 5 rate cuts this year, up from 3.
Context: The Fed can’t fight both inflation AND recession. Tariffs are pushing them toward choosing growth over price stability.
🌍 China Strikes Back
China announced:
34% tariffs on all US goods
Investigations into US companies (e.g., DuPont)
Warnings of “prolonged retaliation”
Context: China isn't blinking. And other countries (EU, Mexico) may follow. This is shaping up to be a multi-front trade war.
💬 Trump’s Response?
“Markets will boom. My policies will never change.”
On Truth Social, Trump doubled down. He also warned China “played it wrong” and teased further escalation.
🔮 Levels & Watchpoints
Why it Matters
S&P 500 – 5,120 Next major support zone — a breakdown here would extend the slide
Nasdaq – 15,400 Technical bear market confirmed — how deep does it go?
10Y Yield – 3.8% If yields keep falling, bond market is screaming recession
Bitcoin – $84K Is it finally decoupling from equities? Or just another hype spike?
⚠️ T&G Takeaways
✅ Recession risk is now front and center
✅ Fed is likely to pivot HARD — watch for emergency rhetoric
✅ Big Tech leadership is gone — rotation into defensives and bonds
✅ Global trade system? Officially broken. This isn’t 2018 redux — it’s bigger.
🗳️ Drop Your Take:
What’s your next move in this market?
🔲 Sit in cash
🔲 Buy the dip
🔲 Go short
🔲 Load up on gold/bitcoin
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