Trump tariffs lead to wild week on Wall Street

US financial markets concluded one of the most volatile weeks since the Covid-19 pandemic as President Donald Trump is swift and furious with his tariff plans that prompted retaliation from China.

When the dust settled, all three major benchmarks recorded profits on Friday, adding to the weekly advance.

The Dow Jones industrial average was 5% per week, almost 6% for the S&P 500 and 7% for the NASDAQ composite.

Still, the three major indices remained negative for the year.

Volume and volatility

The final numbers didn’t come without biting my nails. The CBOE’s volatility index, also known as the Wall Street Fear Gauge, hit a five-year high as the Dow saw a swing of over 2,000 points in several sessions.

CBOE Volatility Index (Commentary: Google)

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The Dow scored 2,692 points on WednesdayThe biggest day points of history rise. Total trading volume for the day approached $30 trillion, a high since at least May 2019, as tracked by the Dow Jones Market Data Group. This is the same as Trump suspending tariffs in some countries in a surprise pivot.

BlackRock CEO Larry Fink Focusing on the market resilience during a conference call with investors on Friday, he said he was optimistic about the capital market.

“We don’t see a systemic risk of not having a pandemic,” Fink said. “The financial system is safe, healthy and has shown elasticity. The market trades liquidity and more volumes than any other time. All of this volatility has proven the market is very successful and very well-functioning.

Customs duty progress

Uncertainty about the tariffs that investors have been settled has argued that the White House is launching the deal by US trade representative Jamieson Greer.

“He has confirmed that over 15 offers already on the table, which is surprising in just a few days. And, like I said, I’ve heard of it from over 75 countries around the world.”

President Donald Trump keeps the charts when making mutual tariff remarks at an event at the Rose Garden, entitled “Make America Wealthy” at the White House in Washington, DC on April 2, 2025. (Brendan Smialowski/AFP via Getty Images))

Bond Market: 10-year-old Ministry of Finance revenue 4.5%

Government bonds are flashing more troubling signals as investors withdraw money over looming recession concerns. As yields rise, prices drop. The 10-year Treasury, a benchmark for borrowing costs such as mortgages and personal loans, reached a high of 4.5% since February. Over 50 basic point jumps per week were the biggest in over 40 years.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bescent I was asked about this trend on Wednesday.

“We have a very large leverage player who is experiencing losses that have to be leveraged,” he told Maria Bartiromo in an interview with Mornings with Maria. “I believe there’s nothing systematic about this. I think what’s going on in the bond market is unpleasant, but normal release.”

CEOs of major banks consider Trump’s tariffs: “Substantial turbulence”

Bescent was also asked about the weakening and behaviour of the US dollar by the Chinese.

“They have actually undermine currencies that are losers for everyone, and when I hear all of these stories, all of these stories about the dollar no longer becoming a reserve currency, it doesn’t seem like a very good reserve to me if you become a Chinese who willing to use currency as a trading tool,” Bescent said.

The euro and Japanese yen are up 8% against the greenback.

Our recession?

A handful of Wall Street dials the odds that a US recession is possible. Jamie Dimon, CEO of JPMorgan Chase, shared his views this week.

“I’m hearing that from everyone right now.” I’m going to cut back a bit, I’ll wait and see what happens. “It’s kind of a recession,” Dimon said in an exclusive interview Wednesday. In “Morning with Mary.” When asked if he was personally expecting a recession, Dimon replied: “I’m going to postpone it to my economist at this point, but I think it’s probably the outcome.”

His company ratcheted the odds of the recession at 60%, but Goldman Sachs is now looking at 45% chances of America hitting America.

Consumer fear

The University of Michigan Consumer Survey on Friday was Consumer sentiment The index fell to 50.8 this month from 57 in April, falling every month for the fourth consecutive year.

“This decline was unanimous and prevalent across age, income, education, geographical region and political affiliation,” said a survey by consumer Joan Huss.

Consumer sentiment plunged in April. (Photographer: Getty Images/Patrick T. Fallon via Getty Images/Bloomberg)

The fear of a recession, the rapid urge to see tariff uncertainty plunge into consumer sentiment

“Sentiment has lost more than 30% since December 2024 amid growing concerns about the development of the trade war that has been oscillated throughout the year. Consumers have reported multiple warning signs that increase the risk of a recession. Business conditions, personal finances, income, inflation and labor market expectations all continue to deteriorate over the month,” HSU added.

inflation

The consumer price index in March fell 0.1% compared to February, but rose 2.4% each year, but still outweighed the 2% federal reserve mission.

Although costs have been eased, prices for items such as eggs and uncooked ground beef remained up by 60% and 10%, respectively.

Gold Safe Haven

Precious metals saw some volatility this week, but it rebounded to an all-time high of $3,222.20 per ounce. Since March 2020, the weekly profit was the biggest. Even before the tariff war escalated, several strategists gave bullish views on yellow metal, inflation hedges and traditional safe havens.

Gold rebounded to an all-time high of $3,222.20 per ounce this week. (Photo: via Arne Dedert/DPA/AFP Getty Images/Getty Images)

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“Traditionally, inflation and real yields have been the main drivers of gold prices, but recent central bank purchases have emerged as the main catalysts for the current rise in gold prices,” according to a research notes from early April by Francisso Blanche and Irina Scholschetze, Global Commodity Research at Bank of America. The team will watch Gold reaches $3,500.

Bitcoin

The largest cryptocurrency by market value rose on Friday, slightly above $83,000. Still, it fell 21% from the all-time high of $106,734.51, which reached December 2024.