What's Next?
The day Wall Street and Main Street shook
As I write this, the stock market is on pace for its 15th worst day in history. It would be the worst day since September 2022. Apple is on pace to have its worst day since March 2020. Nike is currently down 14%.
This comes on the heels of the tariff announcements yesterday by the Trump administration aimed at bringing manufacturing back to the U.S.
Here is the full list of tariffs.
Judging by the reaction of the stock market today, it didn’t expect this level of tariffs. On top of that, I expect businesses across the world didn’t either. It caught both Main Street and Wall Street by surprise.
So what’s next?
Will these tariff levels stay in place? Will these levels be decreased? Will they remain at all?
Does this create an economic slowdown that puts the U.S. in a recession? Will it cause inflation to spike back up?
Is there further stock market selling to come? Or is this now a buyable bottom where we see a market bounce?
Personally, I’m surprised that the market isn’t down even further today. Now that could still happen and the selling could carry over into tomorrow and next week. We don’t know.
What we do know is that next Friday, April 11th, Q1 earnings begin. What are companies going to do about guidance? What is their commentary going to be? One eye is going to be on what companies say over the coming weeks and the other will be on what the Trump administration does.
We also have not seen the stock downgrades come yet. What happens when those do? Will there be more selling to come, or will it all be baked in by the time the downgrades come out?
Yes, I know a lot of questions. A lot of questions that nobody knows the answers.
It will take time. The answers won’t come tomorrow or next week.
These are the days you unplug and go for a nice walk. I plan to do so, I hope you do as well.
I will discuss my Q2 outlook as well as a Q1 recap in Saturday’s Investing Update. Be sure to watch for it.
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