{"id":1435,"date":"2025-04-03T14:01:59","date_gmt":"2025-04-03T14:01:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/advisor.wellington-altus.ca\/trivestwealthcounsel\/?p=1435"},"modified":"2025-04-15T14:06:03","modified_gmt":"2025-04-15T14:06:03","slug":"https-www-baytoday-ca-business-north-american-stock-markets-tank-as-latest-tariffs-heighten-recession-fears-10470439","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/advisor.wellington-altus.ca\/trivestwealthcounsel\/https-www-baytoday-ca-business-north-american-stock-markets-tank-as-latest-tariffs-heighten-recession-fears-10470439\/","title":{"rendered":"North American stock markets tank as latest tariffs heighten recession fears"},"content":{"rendered":"

Stock markets in Canada and the U.S. plunged Thursday as investors reacted to the latest tariffs from U.S. President Donald Trump.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\u201cThe tariff news that came out last night, I think was certainly worse than the vast majority of people expected,\u201d said Mike Archibald, vice-president and portfolio manager with AGF Investments Inc.<\/p>\n

Markets are trying to re-evaluate the likelihood of a recession as a result, he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cObviously, these tariffs would be very, very negative for global growth if they stay in effect.\u201d<\/p>\n

The S&P\/TSX composite index closed down 971.41 points or 3.8 per cent at 24,335.77 as markets worried the latest round of U.S. tariffs could sink the global economy into a recession.<\/p>\n

In New York, trillions of dollars in value were wiped out in a matter of hours. The Dow Jones industrial average was down 1,679.39 points or 4 per cent at 40,545.93. The S&P 500 index was down 274.45 points or 4.8 per cent at 5,396.52, while the Nasdaq composite was down 1,050.44 points or 6 per cent at 16,550.61.<\/p>\n

After the bell on Wednesday, U.S. President Donald Trump announced so-called “reciprocal tariffs” hitting just about every country around the world including a new 20 per cent tariff on the European Union and a 34 per cent levy on imports from China.<\/p>\n

Major tech stocks led the way down, as companies like Apple stand to be affected by tariffs on countries like China, said Martin Pelletier, senior portfolio manager at Wellington-Altus Private Counsel Inc.<\/p>\n

Even gold, which has been hitting highs as investors seek a safe haven, was down.<\/p>\n

The fresh round of levies sparked concerns from economists that they could drag the global economy into a recession. Tariffs are widely expected to be inflationary, as are Canada’s retaliatory tariffs. They are also likely to weigh on economic growth.<\/p>\n

Trump seems to view this possibility as a short-term pain that will be worth the longer-term shift he’s looking for, said Pelletier.<\/p>\n

The drop in North American markets followed similar moves on markets in Europe and Asia following the news.<\/p>\n

Of course, there’s still plenty of uncertainty for investors, said Pelletier. The latest announcement by Trump came after a couple of months of tariff threats, announcements, exemptions and delays, so it’s possible what was laid out on Wednesday isn’t the final story.<\/p>\n

“Having said that, there are some important signals in the market that this is a major structural shift by the U.S. administration,” he said.<\/p>\n

“Is the market overreacting to what we saw yesterday? We don’t know, but it certainly is adjusting its expectations more to the downside risks than the upside recovery.”<\/p>\n

Archibald thinks we may have reached \u201cpeak tariff,\u201d and may be entering a negotiation phase where some could be lifted in the near future.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe question now is just, do we get some kind of negotiated outcome here that is less negative for broader markets?\u201d<\/p>\n

The Canadian dollar traded for 71.08 cents US compared with 69.83 cents US on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

“The U.S. dollar is selling off against all major currencies,” said Pelletier, leading to strength for the loonie.<\/p>\n

The May crude oil contract was down US$4.76 at US$66.95 per barrel and the May natural gas contract was up nine cents US at US$4.14 per mmBTU.<\/p>\n

The June gold contract was down US$44.50 at US$3,121.70 an ounce and the May copper contract was down 21 cents US at US$4.83 a pound.<\/p>\n

\u2014 With files from The Associated Press<\/p>\n

This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 3, 2025.<\/p>\n

Companies in this story: (TSX:GSPTSE, TSX:CADUSD)<\/p>\n

Rosa Saba, The Canadian Press<\/p>\n

View Full Article<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Stock markets in Canada and the U.S. plunged Thursday as investors reacted to the latest tariffs from U.S. President Donald Trump. \u201cThe tariff news that came out last night, I think was certainly worse than the vast majority of people expected,\u201d said Mike Archibald, vice-president and portfolio manager with AGF Investments Inc. Markets are trying […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":229,"featured_media":1436,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_oasis_is_in_workflow":0,"_oasis_original":0,"_oasis_task_priority":"","_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[25],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1435","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-other-media"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/advisor.wellington-altus.ca\/trivestwealthcounsel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1435","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/advisor.wellington-altus.ca\/trivestwealthcounsel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/advisor.wellington-altus.ca\/trivestwealthcounsel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/advisor.wellington-altus.ca\/trivestwealthcounsel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/229"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/advisor.wellington-altus.ca\/trivestwealthcounsel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1435"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/advisor.wellington-altus.ca\/trivestwealthcounsel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1435\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1438,"href":"https:\/\/advisor.wellington-altus.ca\/trivestwealthcounsel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1435\/revisions\/1438"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/advisor.wellington-altus.ca\/trivestwealthcounsel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1436"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/advisor.wellington-altus.ca\/trivestwealthcounsel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1435"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/advisor.wellington-altus.ca\/trivestwealthcounsel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1435"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/advisor.wellington-altus.ca\/trivestwealthcounsel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1435"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}