Just How Bad Was the Trump Tariff Stock Market Sell-Off on Thursday?

U.S. stocks plummeted on Thursday after President Trump on Wednesday announced sweeping tariffs that economists say are likely to weigh on global growth and reignite stubborn inflation.

The magnitude of the sell-off was unusual. Here are some data points that explain just how rough a day it was for the stock market:

• The S&P 500 fell 4.8%, its worst day since June 11, 2020, when concerns about a second wave of Covid-19 infections dashed hopes for a quick return to pre-pandemic life. Aside from that day, there have been only 4 worse days this decade, and all of them were in March 2020 at the height of the Covid rout. The benchmark index is now at its lowest level since August.
• The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 1,679 points, its fourth-largest decline this decade and also the biggest since June 2020. The blue-chip index lost nearly 4% in Thursday’s sell-off, putting it about 430 points—or 1%—from a technical correction. The Dow is at its lowest level since September
• The Nasdaq Composite plummeted nearly 6%, its worst day since March 16, 2020, the day after the Federal Reserve dropped interest rates to near zero. With Thursday’s losses, the index sits nearly 18% off its recent highs, putting it perilously close to a bear market. The tech-heavy index is trading at its lowest level since August.
• Apple stock plummeted 9.4%, also its worst day since March 2020. The decline wiped about $315 billion off the iPhone maker’s market capitalization, the second-largest decline for a single stock on record. 
• The Magnificent Seven as a whole lost a little over $1 trillion in market value, about equal to the combined market caps of JPMorgan Chase (JPM) and Netflix (NFLX)—the S&P 500’s 13th and 19th largest companies, respectively—and slightly less than the gross domestic product of Saudi Arabia.
• The small-cap Russell 2000 fell 6.6%, its worst day since June 2020. 
• Thursday’s sell-off was incredibly broad. The equal-weight S&P 500 declined 4.8%, its biggest drop since June 2020 and enough to put it in a correction. Four in five S&P 500 stocks lost ground on Thursday, with about 15% of the index recording declines of 10% or more.