US stocks experience bloodiest week in five years as $3 trillion in market value evaporates

Major U.S. stock indexes posted their biggest one-week losses since March 2020 after Trump unveiled a plan for tariffs that exceeded expectations, sparking concerns about global growth, according to foreign media reports. ‘The reason for today's stock market selloff is that there's a real lack of buyers,’ said Carol Schleif, chief market strategist at BMO Private Wealth, adding that people have watched to see how the initial (trade) talks/retaliation go and don't know how to assess how much of a drop would be considered ‘enough.’ The Dow Jones is now down 14.9 per cent from its record close and the S&P 500 is down 17.4 per cent from its record close. The Nasdaq is down 22.7% from its record close on 16 December last year and has confirmed it is in a bear market. U.S. stocks evaporated more than $3 trillion in market value across the city today. On Friday, Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell also gave no short-term answers on how tariffs will affect monetary policy, saying, ‘We face a highly uncertain outlook, with rising risks to both unemployment and inflation.’ In addition, other stock markets in the Americas were dragged down, with Canada's Toronto stock index confirming that it had entered a correction, closing down more than 10 per cent from its all-time high set on 30 January. Argentina's main stock index was down 7.4 per cent at the initial close. Mexico's and Brazil's main stock indices sank more than 5 per cent and 3 per cent, respectively.