US President Donald Trump is no longer monitoring his presidency’s success through the stock market. Instead of tracking the S&P 500 index, his team now focuses on the 10-year Treasury yield. This shift comes after a recent sharp sell-off in stocks due to his persistence with tariffs.
On Tuesday, the president continued his plan to levy tariffs on goods from Canada, Mexico, and China, despite a decline in the benchmark index. The S&P 500 fell by as much as 2% before paring some losses and finishing the day 1.2% lower. The Nasdaq 100 also entered correction territory.
Trump’s team has signaled that they are no longer concerned with boosting investor confidence through economic indicators like the stock market. Instead, they focus on borrowing costs for Americans, which is often tied to government bond yields.
The 10-year Treasury yield slid by 4 basis points on Tuesday as concerns about tariffs’ effect on economic growth overshadowed fears of higher inflation. The yield has fallen by 35 basis points in the past 10 days.
This change in focus comes after Trump’s team downplayed predictions from Wall Street forecasters that he’d step in if markets became too volatile. The president’s recent posts have been focused on tariffs, immigration policy, and a peace deal between Russia and Ukraine, with no mention of the stock market.
In contrast to 2020 when Trump used the stock market as a benchmark for his presidency, this time around he has remained quiet about the market’s performance despite stocks trading lower than their pre-election levels.
Source: https://www.businessinsider.com/stock-market-trump-tariffs-trade-war-bond-market-yields-2025-3