Trump’s ‘Illogical and Absurd’ Tariffs Trigger Broad Market Slump, Sending U.S. Media and Tech Stocks Even Lower

President Trump’s sweeping and severe new tariffs on more than 180 countries prompted a sell-off in stock markets in the U.S. and abroad, raising investor alarm over looming trade wars and accelerating inflation as the levies threaten to increase prices for consumers.

At the open of regular U.S. trading Thursday, the S&P 500 index was down 3.4% and the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite tumbled 4.5%, continuing the ongoing slide in financial markets since Trump took back the White House. Trump unveiled the new “reciprocal tariff” plan after the close of U.S. markets Wednesday.

The resulting stock-market carnage spanned industries, hammering tech, retail and automotive companies (including Elon Musk’s Tesla, down more than 4%) particularly hard. Big losers in the tech sector seeing declines were Amazon (-6.8%), Apple (-8.2%), Meta (-7.4%), Alphabet (-3.6%) and Nvidia (-5.7%).

Media players pulled lower included Disney (-4.9%), Netflix (-2.2%), Warner Bros. Discovery (-4.9%) and Fox Corp. (-1.8%).

Trump’s “jaw-dropping” reciprocal tariffs are “illogical and absurd,” Wedbush Securities tech analyst Dan Ives wrote in a research note issued April 3. The tariff numbers the White House unveiled Wednesday are “factually incorrect” about the levies countries charge the U.S., according to Ives. “We have to assume this is the start of a negotiation and these rates will not hold… stocks will sell-off massively but ultimately our view is these numbers would throw the U.S. into a clear recession and cause stagflation almost immediately” if Trump’s tariff rates remain in place.

Other analysts also see Trump’s moves as short-term negotiating tactics. “The unveiling of new U.S. tariff terms has jolted markets, but the extreme nature of the proposed measures points to a high likelihood that these will ultimately prove short-lived,” Tom Lee, managing partner and head of research at Fundstrat Global Advisors, wrote in a note.

Still, regardless of near-term impact, “the changes set in place by the U.S. government will likely have permanent consequences for global trade and companies who operate globally,” independent media analyst Brian Wieser wrote in a note Wednesday. He said “retail media and digital media will be significantly impacted by these tariffs,” especially given the steep levies on China (54%) and Vietnam (46%), which are “meaningful” trading partners for tech giants Meta and Amazon.

Trump branded April 2 as “Liberation Day in America.” The president asserted during his unveiling of the new tariffs Wednesday at the White House that other countries have “ripped off” the United States with asymmetric levies for decades.