The US stock market is on track to have lost almost 8 percent during the first 100 days of Donald Trump’s second term in the White House.
This would mark the worst start for a new administration since Gerald Ford served as the 38th president from 1974 to 1977.
The S&P 500, which tracks the 500 biggest companies in the US, has declined 8 percent since inauguration day, largely due to the volatility around Trump’s sweeping tariff plans.
The index, which hit a record high in mid-February, last fell further over the course of a president’s first 100 days in office in 1974 when Ford entered the White House after the resignation of Richard Nixon, The Financial Times reported.
Trump will hold a rally in Michigan on Tuesday to mark his first 100 days in office.
It will be his largest public event since returning to the White House in a state that has been especially rocked by his trade war, especially on the automotive industry, and his combative attitude toward Canada.
It comes as the President has seen a drop in his approval rating in Daily Mail polling for the first time, with voters worried about how tariffs will impact their wallets.
The president’s approval in the Daily Mail/J.L. Partners poll fell nine points from 54 percent on April 17 – when his popularity was at a record high – to 45 percent this week.
The S&P 500, which tracks the 500 biggest companies in the US, has declined 8 percent since inauguration day, largely due to the volatility around Trump’s sweeping tariff plans
The decline is universal with voters increasingly concerned by issues that were critical to Trump’s victory over Kamala Harris in the presidential election: rising prices and the economy.
Six in ten say the economy is bad or getting worse, including 49 percent of Republicans. Many believe food, and their favorite products, are getting more expensive.
‘He is pushing things like tariffs that will hurt us economically in the future,’ one male GOP voter from California, who backed Trump in 2024, told the survey.
However, Trump still has strong support from his loyal base with more than 50 percent approval among men, white Americans and Republicans.
It is the first time since the inauguration voters have indicate their views are becoming more negative, with Trump’s bold tariff policies sparking a furious international response and volatility in the financial markets.
In 1974, US stocks were caught up in a protracted sell-off driven by a recession and soaring oil prices, the Financial Times reported.
Stocks also fell by almost 10 percent when Nixon assumed the presidency in 1973.
Some 50 years later, Trump’s proposals of reciprocal tariffs on most of the world’s countries have plunged markets into uncertainty, experts have warned.
The President has seen a drop in his approval rating in Daily Mail polling for the first time, with voters worried about how tariffs will impact their wallets
US stocks have not seen such a large decline in the first 100 days of a presidency since Gerald Ford entered the White House in 1974
‘We’ve decided to have a fight with every kid in the playground at the same time,’ David Kelly, chief global strategist at JPMorgan Asset Management, told the outlet.
‘Markets are telling us that there is doubt about whether the US has the advantage when they’ve taken on the whole rest of the world.’
Stocks plummeted after Trump’s ‘liberation day’ tariff announcements, but have recovered much of the losses after the President postponed the majority of levies for 90 days.
More than 10 of America’s largest banks have recently slashed their end of year price targets, according to the Financial Times.
Lisa Shalett, chief investment officer at Morgan Stanley Wealth Management, said investors ‘have a right to feel exhausted’.
The tariffs ‘catalysed the market chaos’, she told the outlet, ‘with on again, off again tariff policies promulgating maximum uncertainty periodically punctuated by statements from the administration aimed at reassurance and de-escalation.’
Trump has repeatedly dismissed the negative stock market reaction to his tariff proposals.
