The New York stock market experienced a widespread decline on Monday.
Although U.S. President Donald Trump announced a one-month delay on tariffs against Mexico, the three major indices all fell due to concerns over the ongoing trade war. The Nasdaq declined by over 1%.
Tesla CEO Elon Mus, a key figure in Trump’s second administration, saw significant losses for Tesla amid fears that the company would become a target of trade retaliation.
Decline
The three major indices in the New York stock market started with sharp declines but recovered following the news of the delay on tariffs against Mexico.
The Dow Jones even reversed its trend and rose in the latter half of the trading session.
However, it faced another round of losses towards the end.
The Dow closed down 122.75 points (0.28%) at 44,421.91.
The Standard & Poor’s 500 dropped 45.96 points (0.76%) to close at 5,994.57, while the Nasdaq fell by 235.49 points (1.20%) to finish at 19,391.96.
The S&P 500 fell below the 6,000 mark for the first time since January 17.
The CBOE Volatility Index (VIX), the “Wall Street Fear Index,” surged by over 13%. It jumped 2.19 points (13.33%) to 18.62.
Experts, however, believe the impact of these tariffs will be short-lived. They remain optimistic that the New York stock market, including the S&P 500, will continue its upward trend this year.
Tesla’s Sharp Decline
Tesla saw a drop of $20.92 (5.17%), closing at $383.68.
Concerns emerged that countries facing Trump’s tariffs might target Tesla as a prime example of retaliation, especially with Musk, the head of the newly established Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) and CEO of Tesla, in the spotlight.
General Motors and Ford, which have assembly lines and parts factories in Mexico and Canada, also struggled.
General Motors fell by $1.56 (3.15%) to close at $47.90, while Ford dropped $0.19 (1.88%) to finish at $9.89.
Nvidia Drops 2.8%
Semiconductor company Nvidia saw a decline of $3.41 (2.84%), closing at $116.66.
Apple also fell significantly, dropping $7.99 (3.39%) to $228.01.
Alphabet declined by $2.79 (1.37%) to $201.23, and Microsoft (MS) closed down $4.14 (1.00%) at $410.92.
Amazon slipped by $0.26 (0.11%) to $237.42.
Among the M7, only Meta Platforms saw a rise.
Meta, which has an open-source AI model that is more open than China’s DeepSeek’s open weights, rose by $8.28 (1.20%) to close at $697.46 amid optimism about AI.
International Oil Prices Rise
After falling over the weekend, international oil prices bounced back.
However, the rise was significantly curtailed after announcing a one-month tariff delay against Mexico.
West Texas Intermediate (WTI), the benchmark for U.S. oil, saw its March futures surge by 3.65% to reach $75.18 per barrel in early trading but gave back some gains following the news of the tariff delay.
WTI finished up $0.63 (0.87%) at $73.16 per barrel.
Brent crude, the international benchmark, closed at $75.96 per barrel, up $0.29 (0.38%) for the April futures contract.
