March was the worst month for the S&P 500 since December 2022. The benchmark index entered
its first technical correction since 2023
early in the month, and finished
March down 5.8% for the month
as the Trump administration vowed to move ahead with tariffs that put both Wall Street and Main Street on edge.
Tariffs are likely to remain top of mind for investors in April. The White House is expected to unveil its
reciprocal tariff plans
on April 2, which President Trump has taken to calling "Liberation Day." If the tariffs announced are
as steep and broad as expected
, they'll likely have an impact on every corner of the market.
Below, we look at two individual stocks and three groups of stocks to keep an eye on this month.
Tesla
Tesla (
TSLA
) is expected to report first-quarter earnings late in the month, and investors will likely be desperate for good news from CEO Elon Musk.
Tesla sales have slumped across the globe amid a consumer backlash to Musk’s work with the Trump administration and his support for Europe’s far right. Wall Street has also grown concerned that Musk, already stretched thin as the head of a half-dozen companies, is
being distracted from Tesla
by his work with the Department of Government Efficiency.
Tesla's stock has slumped nearly 40% since President Trump’s inauguration, putting shares about where they were before Trump’s re-election sent them soaring last November.
On the company’s
fourth-quarter earnings call
, Musk said the company would introduce an unsupervised Full Self-Driving (FSD) paid service in Austin, Texas, this June before rolling the service out nationally by the end of 2026. Musk boasted the roll-out of autonomous vehicles would likely make this “the biggest year in Tesla history.”
Available data suggests first-quarter sales will be deeply disappointing, which is why investors will be hoping Musk stands by the aggressive FSD timeline he laid out earlier this year.
Nvidia
March closed out the worst quarter for Nvidia’s (
NVDA
) stock since 2022. Shares of the AI chipmaker fell 13% over the month, and now sit nearly 20% off their price at the start of the year.
The release of
DeepSeek’s R1 reasoning model
, the developers of which claim was trained for a fraction of the cost of comparable American models, stalled the AI rally in late January when investors, questioning the economics that underpinned Nvidia's valuation, dumped it and other momentum stocks.
Nvidia stock has since struggled to find its footing, even after the company
blew past earnings estimates
and touted strong AI demand at its
annual GPU conference
, one of the biggest tech events of the year. The stock’s performance over the past quarter has demonstrated that it and its Magnificent Seven peers
are no longer immune
to a gloomy macro environment.
Nvidia remains the poster child of the AI revolution, and its share price—less speculative than other AI plays but still dependent on robust growth—is likely to be one of the clearest reflections of the market's risk appetite this month.
Ford, General Motors, Stellantis
Late last month, President Trump announced
25% tariffs on imported cars
and car parts. The levies on completed vehicles are slated to take effect on April 3, while those on components are expected to go into effect no later than May 3.
JPMorgan analysts estimated the global auto industry’s total “tariff bill”
could reach $82 billion
if carmakers didn’t pass any costs along to consumers. They determined the tariffs announced were better for U.S. automakers than those floated earlier in Trump’s presidency, which were directed only at imports from Canada and Mexico. Still,
the Big Three
—Ford (
F
), General Motors (
GM
) and Stellantis (
STLA
)—will take a significant hit if the tariffs go into effect as planned.
Trump has
delayed
and
diluted
aggressive tariff policies several times in his second term, and investors will be looking to see if carmakers can win a similar reprieve at some point in April. If some relief doesn’t materialize, investors will then be awaiting updates from the Big Three on their financial forecasts, manufacturing bases and supply chains.
Airline Stocks
Delta Airlines (
DAL
) is expected to report its first-quarter results on April 9, kicking off earnings season for America’s largest airlines.
Delta last month
lowered its outlook
for the first quarter, citing “the recent reduction in consumer and corporate confidence caused by increased macro uncertainty.” CEO Ed Bastian, speaking at a JPMorgan conference, noted the midair collision of a passenger jet and military helicopter in January raised concerns about flight safety, immediately weakening corporate and consumer demand. On top of that, headlines out of Washington have raised concerns about
resurgent inflation
and a slowing economy,
weighing on discretionary spending
.
Softer domestic travel demand is being matched by weaker international demand. Bookings on summer flights from Canada to the U.S.
are down 70% this year
as Canadians, angered by Trump’s tariffs and annexation threats, look to vacation elsewhere. Several longtime allies, like the U.K. and Germany, have recently warned their citizens about traveling to the U.S. amid the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown.
Investors will be looking to guidance from Delta, United Airlines (
UAL
) and American Airlines (
AAL
) for evidence these trends are continuing or even worsening.
Bank Stocks
Big banks were expected to be
one of the biggest beneficiaries
of Donald Trump’s second term in the White House. Trump on the campaign trail promised to do away with regulations he deemed bad for business. His presidency was also expected to unleash a flurry of dealmaking, with regulators taking a more laissez-faire approach to antitrust enforcement than their predecessors.
So far, the dealmaking boom hasn’t happened. Trump’s Federal Trade Commission officials have said they intend to continue pursuing antitrust enforcement against Big Tech and using merger review guidelines developed under the Biden administration. And Trump for the last two months has spent far more time pushing for tariffs than deregulation, a focus that has hammered the stock market, raised concerns about a slowing economy and depressed capital markets.
However, Trump's recent nomination of Fed Governor Michelle Bowman to serve as the Fed's top bank regulator
has the industry optimistic
about the next four years.
JPMorgan Chase (
JPM
) and Wells Fargo (
WFC
) are scheduled to kick off bank earnings on April 11. Investors will be looking for signs of waning consumer and business confidence in bank earnings and guidance, as well as executives’ thoughts on the Trump administration’s agenda.
