Trump dealt an unexpected blow to Wall Street
Good morning. At a White House event yesterday, Trump's handwritten notes were once again caught on camera. This time, they read like a Tesla sales pitch .
In today's big story, Wall Street assumed that the stock market would act as a check on Donald Trump's new administration. That isn't panning out .
What's on deck
Markets: February was a bad month for big-name hedge funds. March is looking worse .
Tech: BI reviewed a copy of xAI's internal org chart. Here's who's reporting to Elon Musk .
Business: Southwest as you know it is going, going, gone .
But first, Wall Street is getting cut out of Trump 2.0.
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The big story
Another wild day on Wall Street
The stock market's volatility has been dizzying.
After a brutal sell-off on Monday, which saw the worst session for the Nasdaq since 2022 , the markets plunged deeper into the red yesterday. This week has been nothing short of jaw-dropping, and it's not over yet.
The markets have been responding to President Donald Trump's tariff policy and his commitment to pushing forward with a trade war against some of America's biggest partners, including Canada and Mexico, BI's Matthew Fox writes .
The president had announced a plan to double US tariffs on Canadian steel and metal imports to 50%, in retaliation to Ontario imposing a 25% tariff on the electricity it exports to the US.
Hours later, this was no longer the case. Trump reversed course after Canada suspended the new electricity charges. US tariffs of 25% on metal imports — including from Canada — still took effect today.
Europe, which is also impacted by the latest tariffs, hit back this morning, announcing tariffs on $28.4 billion worth of US goods , including on boats, bourbon, and motorbikes.
So far, a surprising loser has emerged in Trump's second term: Wall Street.
As markets have started to flash warning signs about the tariff whiplash, the Trump administration's response has been a bit of a shrug, BI's Emily Stewart writes. Trump 2.0 isn't as concerned about investors' feelings — or, more importantly, holdings — as they'd hoped.
It's a sharp contrast to Trump's first administration, which in part tracked its success through the lens of the stock market. So, what's changed? As Emily writes: One man stood between Trump and a recession. Now he's gone .
3 things in marketing
1. It's getting harder for markets to ignore the weakening US consumer. Consumer strength has been a pillar of the post-pandemic economy, but a weaker outlook for consumer demand has slashed first-quarter expectations for airlines and retailers. Inflation, high interest rates, and tariff uncertainty are pushing shoppers into a save-not-spend mindset.
