Investing.com-- U.S. stocks fell Monday, continuing the previous week’s selloff amid concerns that President Donald Trump’s tariff policies could hit U.S. economic activity.
At 10:15 ET (14:15 GMT), the Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 325 points, or 0.8%, the S&P 500 index fell 100 points, or 1.7%, and the NASDAQ Composite dropped 495 points, or 2.7%.
The major U.S. stock indexes experienced heavy weekly losses last week, when Trump imposed 25% tariffs on Mexico and Canada, but later exempted most of the goods for a month, creating uncertainty around his trade policies.
Sentiment was hit further after President Trump did not rule out the possibility of a U.S. recession this year and flagged short-term economic turbulence from his trade and fiscal agenda in a Sunday Morning Futures interview on Fox News.
When asked about the possibility of a recession, Trump said he did not wish to make predictions, stating that there was a “period of transition because what we’re doing is very big.”
Trump imposed 25% tariffs on Mexico and Canada last week, but later exempted most of the goods for a month, creating uncertainty around his trade policies.
The U.S. president also increased tariffs on Chinese goods, which prompted retaliatory levies from China. He is set to implement worldwide reciprocal tariffs from April 2, which could further erode market sentiment.
Elsewhere, markets were assessing the outcome of a leadership election in Canada’s ruling Liberal Party. Former central banker Mark Carney won 86% of the vote to succeed Justin Trudeau as the country’s Prime Minister, topping ex-finance minister Chrystia Freeland.
Carney hit out at Trump in an address following the ballot, saying he is "attacking Canadian workers, families and businesses."
The main economic release this week will be the all-important consumer price index for February, which is due to provide an updated glimpse into the path of U.S. inflation.
Wednesday’s report will encompass the first full month of Trump’s administration since he returned to the White House in late January. Prices grew at the fastest path since August 2023 in the opening month of 2025.
Economists anticipate that the headline figure cooled to 2.9% from 3.0% in the twelve months to February. Month-on-month, it is seen easing marginally to 0.3% from 0.5%.
The number will be among the last the Federal Reserve receives before its next policy gathering on March 18-19. The central bank pushed pause on an easing cycle at its last
A slew of other crucial economic indicators are also set to be released this week, including the all-important consumer price index and the Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey , a key proxy of labor demand.
This follow’s Friday’s official monthly jobs report, which showed that the U.S. economy added 151,000 jobs in February, slightly below expectations, and the unemployment rate edged up to 4.1%.
A raft of quarterly earnings from tech industry players are expected to be unveiled this week, including returns from Oracle (NYSE: ORCL ).
The results will come after Trump said the company, in conjunction with ChatGPT-maker OpenAI and Japan’s SoftBank (TYO: 9984 ), would make a sizeable investment into artificial intelligence infrastructure.
Other tech sector earnings will come from Adobe (NASDAQ: ADBE ) and DocuSign (NASDAQ: DOCU ), while retailers Dick’s Sporting Goods (F: DKS ) and Kohl’s (NYSE: KSS ) could also offer some insight into the state of the U.S. consumer.
Oil prices slipped lower Monday, adding to last week’s more than three-year lows last week on concerns over slowing demand amid uncertainty over the impact of U.S. trade tariffs.
At 10:15 ET (14:15 GMT), Brent futures slipped 0.4% to $70.07 a barrel, while U.S. West Texas Intermediate futures fell 0.3% to $66.83 a barrel.
Chinese consumer and producer inflation data, released over the weekend, showed a persistent deflationary trend in the world’s biggest oil importer, adding to underlying concerns.
(Ayushman Ojha contributed to his article.)