Why Are Markets Falling Again? Let Me Count The Ways
The market is seeing red again.
On the first trading day of the second quarter, the Dow slipped by more than 400 points, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq ended the day nearly three percent lower.
“We saw overnight China announced a tariff of up to 25 percent on about...130 U.S. products,” explained Matthew Battipaglia, Portfolio Manager at Washington Crossing Advisors.
China’s new tariffs hit a myriad of American goods, including fruits and pork, imports of which amount to around $3 billion.
The announcement comes merely weeks after President Trump slapped taxes on aluminum and steel imports from China and announced plans to tax $50 billion more worth of Chinese goods.
These trade war warning shots from two of the world’s largest economies worried investors Monday. They also added pressure to a market that was already heading downwards on negative news from the tech world.
Reports of Apple potentially ditching Intel and using its own chips for Mac computers drove Intel’s shares down by as much as nine percent. [Tesla, Facebook, and Amazon](https://cheddar.com/videos/facebooks-data-policies-are-like-cigarette-labels) also resumed their downward spirals to start the quarter.
Much like all the upheaval shaking the world, the huge swings rocking Wall Street may feel far from normal. But, for investing at least, this is normal.
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A Michigan judge is putting sponges in the hands of shoplifters and ordering them to wash cars in a Walmart parking lot when spring weather arrives. Genesee County Judge Jeffrey Clothier hopes the unusual form of community service discourages people from stealing from Walmart. The judge also wants to reward shoppers with free car washes. Clothier says he began ordering “Walmart wash” sentences this week for shoplifting at the store in Grand Blanc Township. He believes 75 to 100 people eventually will be ordered to wash cars this spring. Clothier says he will be washing cars alongside them when the time comes.
The State Department had been in talks with Elon Musk’s Tesla company to buy armored electric vehicles, but the plans have been put on hold by the Trump administration after reports emerged about a potential $400 million purchase. A State Department spokesperson said the electric car company owned by Musk was the only one that expressed interest back in May 2024. The deal with Tesla was only in its planning phases but it was forecast to be the largest contract of the year. It shows how some of his wealth has come and was still expected to come from taxpayers.