Stock Market Confidence in American Leadership

STATISTA: America Last? 

by Felix Richter,

Apr 4, 2025

The U.S. stock market had its worst day since 2020 on Thursday, as investors were trying to digest President Trump’s sweeping tariff announcements from the day before. The surprisingly high additional tariffs – a 10 percent baseline tariff on all imports plus significantly higher rates for countries considered “bad actors” in trade – sent shockwaves around the world, as they threaten to upend the status quo of the global economy in one fell swoop.

Global markets plummeted in the wake of the announcement, as the repercussions of the U.S. turning back time to the early 1900s will be felt everywhere from China to Europe - nowhere more so than in the United States, though. Unsurprisingly, the U.S. stock market was most heavily affected by the “Liberation Day” selloff, as the S&P 500 fell 4.7 percent, the tech-heavy Nasdaq plummeted 6 percent and the Dow Jones lost 4 percent, wiping out $2.5 trillion in market capitalization of U.S.-listed stocks. The so-called Magnificent 7 alone shed more than $800 billion in market cap on Thursday on what has been the worst day for U.S. stocks since the Covid-19 pandemic rattled markets in early 2020.

For now, Trump’s “America First” policies have put the country last - at least in terms of stock market performance. The S&P 500 has dropped 10 percent since Inauguration Day, as the Trump administration’s policies are widely feared to drive up inflation, erode consumer confidence and ultimately cause a recession. When asked about the stock market fallout and the warnings of economists, administration officials keep repeating that Trump’s policies will eventually make America great again and that every American will profit in the long term. People tend to be rather impatient when they see their retirement savings melt like ice cream in the sun, however, which is why it will be interesting to see if and when some of Trump’s supporters will sour on the president and his protectionist policies.

You will find more infographics at Statista

STATISTA: Tech Giant Drag Down Market

by Felix Richter,

Apr 4, 2025

Even before Thursday’s steep stock market selloff in the wake of “Liberation Day”, which saw the so-called Magnificent 7 lose more than $800 billion in market capitalization, 2025 was not a good year for U.S. tech giants and their shareholders. In the first quarter, Nvidia and Apple, the world’s most valuable companies for large parts of the past 12 months, were the largest negative contributors to the S&P 500’s lackluster performance, dragging the index down 1.42 percentage points and 1.06 percentage points, respectively. That means, the two companies alone accounted for more than half of the index’s negative 4.27 percent return in the first quarter of the year, with other Mag 7 stocks such as Tesla, Microsoft, Amazon and Alphabet dragging the index down even further.

According to Howard Silverblatt, senior index analyst at S&P Dow Jones Indices, the information technology and communication services sectors, i.e. most things tech, were responsible for 93.3 percent and 14.4 percent of the S&P 500’s total return of minus 4.3 percent in the first quarter. Excluding companies from these two sectors, the index's return would have been positive at 0.6 percent. Excluding just the Magnificent 7 would also have been enough to turn things around for the S&P 500, which would have returned 0.5 percent without the largest and most well-known tech companies in the world.

You will find more infographics at Statista