Dow Jones Whipsaws Amid Uncertainty Over Tariffs

It comes a day after the Trump administration said that talks are ongoing with 50 countries.

Stock market numbers are displayed as traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange during morning trading in New York City on April 7, 2025. Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images

U.S. stocks seesawed on April 7, as investors embarked on the first day of trading after President Donald Trump’s baseline 10 percent tariffs on imports went into effect.

After opening sharply down, markets were gripped by volatility fueled by social media speculation that Trump was considering a 90-day pause on tariffs for all countries except China. The White House later described those reports as “fake news” in a post on social media.

As of 2:25 p.m. ET on April 7, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down less than 100 points, while the Nasdaq was up 130 points. The Dow’s modest decline came after an up-and-down morning trading that saw stocks plummet by as much as 1,600 points before making a rebound.

Elsewhere, stocks in Hong Kong plunged by 13.2 percent for their worst day since 1997. A barrel of benchmark U.S. crude oil briefly dropped below $60 for the first time since 2021, and bitcoin sank below $78,000, down from its record above $100,000 set in January, after holding steadier than other markets the prior week.

In an announcement on April 2, President Donald Trump said he would impose a 10 percent baseline U.S. tariff on nearly every country, which he said would bring manufacturing back into the United States and bolster national security around supply chains. Countries that have higher trade surpluses with the United States received higher rates than the 10 percent baseline.

In a post on Truth Social on April 7, Trump said countries had been “taking advantage of the Good OL’ USA” on international trade.

“Our past ‘leaders’ are to blame for allowing this, and so much else, to happen to our Country,” he wrote. “MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!”

Trump then criticized the Chinese regime after it announced it would be increasing its own tariffs, pointing out that China was not acknowledging his “warning for abusing countries not to retaliate.” In the April 2 announcement, the White House was critical of longstanding “non-market economies like China” that have harmed “America’s middle class and small towns” for decades.

Speaking to reporters aboard Air Force One late on April 6, Trump said he didn’t want global markets to fall but stated that he wasn’t concerned about the massive sell-off either, adding that, “sometimes, you have to take medicine to fix something.”

“I spoke to a lot of leaders, European, Asian, from all over the world,” Trump said. “They’re dying to make a deal. And I said, we’re not going to have deficits with your country. We’re not going to do that, because to me, a deficit is a loss. We’re going to have surpluses or, at worst, going to be breaking even.”

Hours earlier, a top White House adviser told ABC News that more than 50 countries have sought to speak with the Trump administration to negotiate deals around tariffs. On April 4, Trump said that Vietnam’s leader would drop the country’s rate to zero, while several other countries’ respective leaders, including Thailand, said they would work with the administration.

Taiwanese President Lai Ching-te on April 6 offered zero tariffs as the basis for talks with the United States, pledging to remove trade barriers rather than impose responsive measures and saying Taiwanese companies would increase their U.S. investments.

“They’re doing that because they understand that they bear a lot of the tariff,” White House National Economic Council head Kevin Hassett told the outlet.

In a separate interview, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told NBC News that he is rejecting the notion that the U.S. economy will enter a recession soon.

“Who knows how the market is going to react in a day, in a week? What we are looking at is building the long-term economic fundamentals for prosperity,” he said, saying the tariffs were implemented as a means to enter talks with other countries.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.