Live Stock Market News: Nasdaq Composite Down 4.5% & Dow Drops 1,200 Points

The Nasdaq Composite is now down 1007 points late in trading, or about 5.72%.

The S&P 500 is down 4.58% while the Dow Jones is down 3.73%.

The only S&P 500 sector that’s up today is Consumer Staples, which are up .73%.

Energy is down 6.96% and Information Technology is down 6.54%.

As of 10:40 a.m. ET, indexes are reaching new lows.

• Nasdaq Composite: Down 5.10%
• S&P 500: Down 4.01%
• Dow Jones Industrial Average: Down 3.56%

For comparison, the Nasdaq was down closer to 4% at the market’s open this morning. We could be headed for even steeper losses as the day continues.

I have CNBC on in the background and one of their hosts – thankfully not Jim Cramer – called the U.S. market uninvestable right now.

His basic point is that stocks currently trade for 21 times this year’s earnings, but those earnings estimates are almost certainly going to fall. The S&P 500 has traded at a premium in part because of expectations of strong earnings growth this year.

That growth doesn’t appear likely to happen. There are a couple of added headwinds of 1.) increased risk of recession, and 2.) companies that are forced to re-shore will take a hit to earnings. You can argue with whether or not companies like Nike re-shoring manufacturing is a long-term positive for the country, but it’s almost certainly a near-term negative for stocks.

If you’re wondering how Donald Trump is reacting to the market meltdown today, here’s what he posted on Truth Social this morning:

The response is another data point that Trump seems far more unconcerned with the stock market’s reaction versus his first Presidency.

We just covered some of the winners in the market today, let’s see which stocks are getting hit the hardest:

• Retailers and Clothing: Williams-Sonoma is down 14.3%, Deckers Outdoor down 13.6%, Ralph Lauren down 13.3%, and Nike down 10.9%. The root cause of each decline is the same, companies with overseas supply chains that could now see significant tariffs attached to their products.
• Consumer Electronics: Dell is down 13.%, HP is down 13.3%, and Best Buy is down 12.4% as consumer electronics will have significant tariffs levied on them. Among the Magnificent 7, Apple is getting hit the hardest. Its stock is down 9.1%.

While most stocks are down today, some are seen as potential winners from a trade war. Let’s look at some of the stocks that are up today while the rest of the market melts down:

• First Solar: Is up 5.53% as high tariffs on China could protect the company’s business.
• McKesson: Is up 3.6% as healthcare distributors as seen as a place of safety in a trade war.
• Kroger: Up 3.8% as groceries are seen as another area of safety if a trade war breaks out.

While the market is plummeting, one stated goal of the Trump Administration is cutting 10-year Treasury yields. As of this morning, 10-years are yielding 4.036%. 

That’s down from 4.8% in early January and 4.4% on March 27th.

Markets have opened for the day and losses are slightly improved from premarket trading.

As of 9:35 a.m. ET, the Nasdaq is down 4.2%, S&P 500 down 3.2%, and the Dow Jones down 2.7%. 

We are approaching the opening bell, let’s see how the market reacts.

Moments before the opening bell, Nasdaq Futures are down 4.4%, S&P down 3.7%, and the Dow down 2.95%.

The question is whether this selloff accelerates throughout the day or fears could be tempered. One big unknown is how forceful responses are from other countries.

It’s worth noting that European markets are down far less today. The FTSE 100 in Britain is down 1.6% while the German DAX is down 2.3%. This continues a trend of other countries dramatically outperforming the United States since Trump began announcing tariffs in mid-February.

Shortly after tariffs were announced last night we noted in our live blog covering the event they appeared to be based upon trade imbalanced more than actual tariff rates.

Today, the White House announced the formula they used. You can see it below:

While this calculation looks complicated, it does essentially boil down to (exports – imports) / imports.

The way these tariffs were calculated is adding to the market selloff today because they create tariff rates that are so high there’s no real way for other countries to negotiate.

For example, a country with a weighted 2% tariff on the United States might have a 24% tariff rate imposed on them by Trump’s reciprocal tariffs. Vietnam recently announced a sweeping reduction on US tariffs but was still targeted by 46% reciprocal tariffs.

This increases the probability these tariffs are less a negotiating tactic and something Trump sees as a revenue-generating tool that will remain in effect. Most economists consider tariffs effectively a tax, which would mean these tariffs represent the largest tax increase in recent American history.

As you can see, there are many ways to look at these tariffs, but there is no debating their rates are very high and would put the United States significantly ahead of any other developed country in terms of tariff rates.

Here are some stocks to watch and where they’re trading right now shortly before market open:

• Apple: -7.9%
• Nike: -14.2%
• Crocs: -13.9%

All three stocks have significant exposure to tariffs via overseas supply chains. The VanEck Vietnam ETF (Bats: VNM) itself is down 8.9% in premarket trading.