Dow tumbles 500 points as new Trump tariffs rekindle market rout: Live updates

Stocks fell on Tuesday after President Donald Trump placed additional tariffs on Canadian steel and aluminum coming into the U.S., rekindling a market rout that’s put the S&P 500 on the cusp of a correction.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 580 points, or 1.4%, its fifth decline of more than 400 points in March. The S&P 500 dropped 1%, bringing its decline from an all-time high reached in February to 10%. The Nasdaq Composite was trading 0.5% lower, extending further into correction territory. The tech-heavy index, which has seen the brunt of the selling over the last three weeks, is 14% off its high.

The S&P 500 was briefly in the green at one point during the trading session before Trump declared on Truth Social that Canadian steel and aluminum duties would double to 50% from 25%, effective Wednesday. This is the latest in a series of disorderly trade policy moves that have stoked fears of tipping the U.S. economy into a recession.

On Monday, the Nasdaq saw its worst day since September 2022, dropping 4%. The 30-stock Dow lost nearly 900 points. Citigroup this week lowered its rating on U.S. stocks to neutral from overweight, pointing to a “pause in U.S. exceptionalism” as the reason.

“There’s clearly a tolerance for pain on the part of the administration in pursuit of trade goals that are not necessarily entirely economic in nature,” said Ross Mayfield, Baird investment strategist. “At this point I’m still in the camp that we’re not on the doorstep of a recession, but maybe a slowdown or growth scare. Non-recession sell-offs tend to be shorter and milder than the recessionary ones.”

Delta Air Lines added to recession worries Tuesday, as the airline slashed its earnings outlook due to weaker U.S. demand, pushing the stock down more than 8%. Other travel-related stocks followed suit with Disney down nearly 5% and Airbnb off by 4%.

Along with haphazard tariff moves, comments from the administration in recent days has stoked investors’ fears about the economy. Over the weekend Trump said the economy was going through “a period of transition.” The remarks arrived after Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told CNBC on Friday that there could be a “detox period” for the economy as the Trump administration slashes federal spending.

Investors are eagerly anticipating the release of February’s consumer price index due Wednesday.

“It’ll be really important that we don’t see an upside surprise on CPI because at this point, the Fed does have plenty of dry powder to step in to cut rates and try to boost demand if the economy were to meaningfully slow,” Mayfield added. “But they can only really do that if they feel that inflation expectations and inflation are well anchored.”

The sell-off Tuesday would have been worse were it not for a rebound in some technology shares that got hit hard on Monday. Nvidia, which lost 5% on Monday, was up about 2% on Tuesday.