Stocks on Wall Street plummet, causing 401(K) losses in the trillions in just minutes

Following President Donald Trump’s announcement of widespread tariffs starting at 10 percent — with much higher rates for specific countries — US stocks tumbled in after-hours trading.

Futures monitoring America’s primary S&P 500 index fell by two percent, while the Nasdaq dropped by three percent within minutes, marking a significant decline not witnessed since the onset of the Covid pandemic.

This sudden plummet occurred as Trump criticized foreign nations for allegedly ‘ripping off’ the United States, declaring tariffs that would impact countries worldwide.

Wall Street is worried that tariffs will slow growth, boost inflation and further rattle stock markets in Asia and Europe when they reopen Thursday.

Most Americans’ 401(K)s are invested in stocks and funds that track the S&P 500 and the other indices. 

A fund that tracks the S&P 500 fell 2.2 percent in after-hours trading, while one that is tied to the Nasdaq-100 dropped 3.3 percent. A fund that follows the Dow Jones slipped 1 percent. 

Stocks of major importers took a hit late Wednesday. Nike plunged 6 percent, and General Motors fell 3 percent. Companies already struggling amid tariff concerns, like Nvidia and Tesla, each lost about 3 percent. Five Below dropped 11 percent, while Gap tumbled 12 percent. 

Wall Street’s main markets close at 4pm in New York, but traders can continue buying and selling regular stocks until 8pm in after-hours trading.

Beyond that, investors can trade futures contracts overnight, except for a one-hour break starting at 5.30pm. each day. Futures track the prices of major indexes like the S&P 500, Nasdaq, and Dow Jones, as well as gold and other commodities.

Americans have already seen their retirement funds take a hit based on after-hours trading and futures. If prices don’t recover, they’ll face  a bigger blow when markets open at 9.30am in New York on Thursday. 

The US President said his ‘liberation day’ announcement was a ‘declaration of economic independence’.

S&P 500 plunged two per cent in ten minutes

President Donald Trump (Mark Schiefelbein/AP)

The first of eight pages of reciprocal tariffs that the White House announced during Wednesday’s event in the Rose Garden 

The White House announced a baseline 10 percent tariff on all imports, effective April 5, with higher rates for countries imposing steeper duties on US goods.

Mr Trump confirmed that from midnight in Washington, a 25 percent tariff would be imposed on all foreign cars imported to the US.

Trump held up a chart while speaking at the White House, showing the United States would charge a 34 percent tax on imports from China, a 20 percent tax on imports from the European Union, 25 percent on South Korea, 24 percent on Japan and 32 percent on Taiwan.

The president used aggressive rhetoric to describe a global trade system that the United States helped to build after World War II, saying ‘our country has been looted, pillaged, raped, plundered’ by other nations.

Trump declared a national economic emergency to launch the tariffs, expected to produce hundreds of billions in annual revenues. 

He has promised that factory jobs will return back to the United States as a result of the taxes, but his policies risk a sudden economic slowdown as consumers and businesses could face sharp price hikes on autos, clothes and other goods.

‘Taxpayers have been ripped off for more than 50 years,’ Trump said in remarks at the White House. ‘But it is not going to happen anymore.’

Before he spoke, stocks had risen through the day.

President Donald Trump holds up his signed executive order at the conclusion of his event in the Rose Garden introducing substantial reciprocal tariffs 

Vice President J.D. Vance (from left), Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins attend President Donald Trump’s Liberation Day event in the White House Rose Garden 

The S&P 500 rose 0.7 percent, but only after careening between an earlier loss of 1.1 percent and a later gain of 1.1 percent. The Nasdaq and Dow had also been up before they dropped sharply on Trump’s words.

The president kicked off speech just after 4pm  by giving a blistering tirade, slamming ‘friend and foe’ for ‘ripping off’ America. 

He condemned ‘foreign scavengers.’ And he talked of other nations that had ‘pillaged, raped and plundered’ the U.S. and ‘foreign cheaters’ who ‘ransacked’ American factories. 

It took nearly 20 minutes before Trump shared the tariff details. 

‘For nations that treat us badly we will calculate the combined rate of all their tariffs, non-monetary barriers and other forms of cheating. And because we are being very kind … We will charge them approximately half of what they charge us,’ Trump said. 

Trump then held up a large sign that showed the calculations. 

As Trump went through the chart, he knocked even some of the U.S.’s closest allies for charging import taxes. 

‘The European Union. They’re very tough, very, very tough traders. You think of European Union, very friendly. They rip us off. It’s so said to see. It’s pathetic,’ Trump said. ‘Thirty-nine percent, we’re going to charge them 20 percent, so we’re charging them essentially half.’ 

Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem gives a wave as she’s acknowledged by President Donald Trump during his nearly 50-minute remarks Wednesday to introduce sweeping tariffs

Trump called Vietnam ‘great negotiators’ and said they were ‘great people.’ 

‘They like me, I like them. The problem is they charge us 90 percent. We’re going to charge them 46 percent,’ he said.   

Trump blasted Taiwan and said they ‘took all of our computer chips and semiconductors.’ 

Taiwan will be charged 32 percent. 

‘Japan – very, very tough, great people,’ Trump continued. 

Japan will be hit with a 24 percent tariff. 

Trump also said that India was ‘very, very tough’ while complimenting Prime Minister Narendra Modi as a ‘great friend of mine.’ 

‘But I said, “You’re a friend of mine but you’re not treating us right,”‘ Trump said, pointing out that India will now be charged 26 percent.  

President Donald Trump holds up a giant chart showing some of the reciprocal tariffs his administration plans to charge foreign countries. Every country will be charged at least a 10 percent tariff to import goods to the U.S. 

The largest tariff will hit the African nation of Lesotho, at a rate of 50 percent. 

Canada and Mexico were exempt from Wednesday’s tariff announcement, due to the president already charging them 25 percent excluding the goods outlined in the trade agreement from Trump’s first administration. 

‘They all understand, we’re gonna have to go through a little tough love maybe? But they all understand. They’re ripping us off and they understood,’ Trump said.  

Trump had been heralding the tariff announcement as ‘Liberation Day’ for weeks but up until the event kicked off, it appeared some of the details hadn’t been fully worked out.