
We’re suddenly talking about the Great Depression when discussing Trump’s stock market

Stocks are on the rebound Tuesday, bouncing back from another miserable day on Wall Street. But American financial markets are sounding all sorts of alarm bells that one day in the green can hardly overcome.
That’s because investors have been sending a clear message: President Donald Trump’s trade war is making America an unsafe place to invest .
We know this by looking at the broader markets and the assets that traders are buying and – let’s face it – mostly selling.
US stocks
Trump’s stock market is throwing off some jaw-dropping statistics. How extraordinary? We’re now making comparisons to the Great Depression.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average has tumbled 9.1% in the first three weeks of April, the 129-year-old index’s worst performance for any April since 1932. The only other April that was worse: April 1931.
The broader S&P 500 has plunged 14% over the course of Trump’s first term – the worst performance through April 21 for any president since records began in 1928, according to Bespoke Investments .
Even with a modest rebound on Tuesday – major indexes rose over 2% each – Trump has a long way to bounce back to avoid history. The next-worst start to a term for the US stock market in the first 63 days of trading was under former President Franklin Roosevelt in 1941, with a decline of just over 9%.
Dollar
Meanwhile, traders have given up on the US dollar. During Trump’s new term, the US dollar has fallen 5.5%, by far the record dating back to when data started being collected during former President Gerald Ford’s term beginning in 1974. The only other presidential term for which the dollar started off even remotely close to this abysmal a start: Trump, during his first term, when the dollar fell 3% in the first 63 days of trading.
The dollar hit a three-year low Monday .
Bonds
Typically, when investors get nervous, they pour money into the perceived safety of American Treasury bonds – historically the safe-haven assets to rule all safe-havens. But not this time: Government bond have sold off sharply. Yields, which trade in opposite direction to prices, have surged.
The 10-year US Treasury yield has risen to 4.4% just a month after it plunged below 4%. Bonds don’t usually swing that quickly.
Foreign stocks
As traders have pulled money out of American stocks and bonds, they’ve been pouring money into investments around the rest of the world. The MSCI All World index, excluding the United States, has risen 2.9% over the course of Trump’s new term. That’s roughly on par with the start to former President Joe Biden’s term and only slightly below Trump’s first term – two periods when US stocks were also booming.