US stock markets came perilously close to collapsing after President Donald Trump announced double-digit tariffs on every country and territory. The New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) trading floor was on the verge of triggering emergency “circuit breakers” due to a 6% decline in the S&P 500 Index, just shy of the 7% threshold that would have activated the measures.
MSNBC host Rachel Maddow explained that the NYSE’s circuit breakers are designed to stop trading for 15 minutes when the market drops 7% from the previous day’s close. She highlighted a sharp spike in the VIX volatility index, which rose three times since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic and again in response to Trump’s tariffs.
The S&P Index’s rapid decline illustrated the intense volatility sparked by Trump’s announcement, with one metric showing a “spike not caused by the biggest financial catastrophe since the great depression or a global pandemic,” but rather by the president’s actions. The near-miss has raised concerns about the market’s resilience to Trump’s economic policies.
Source: https://www.alternet.org/maddow-stock-market-trump