President Trump marked his 50th day in office this week, but the U.S. stock market also saw its weakest 50 days of a presidency since President Barack Obama’s first term in 2009 — during the height of the financial crisis.
The U.S. stock market lost $5 trillion in value over the past three weeks, prompting the White House to urge calm as the falling stocks have some Americans worried about their retirement.
President Trump has said there will be an "adjustment period" for the U.S. economy in the wake of an escalating trade war that's spooked investors this week.
Monday was the worst day on Wall Street since President Trump's inauguration, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average plummeting after the president refused to rule out a recession in an interview over the weekend.
"I hate to predict things like that. There is a period of transition because what we're doing is very big," Trump told Fox News.
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On Tuesday, Trump sought to downplay recession fears, telling reporters, "I don't see [a coming recession] at all."
However, the Dow still dropped almost 900 points.
On Wednesday, sweeping new tariffs on steel and aluminum imports went into effect, prompting retaliatory tariffs from the E.U. and Canada on U.S. exports, including whiskey and motorcycles.
Trump escalated the trade tit-for-tat further Thursday, threatening 200% tariffs on European wine and spirits. Experts predict the compounding tariffs will lead to higher prices for American consumers.
"It's not just the imported items that are susceptible to price increases, domestic producers if they are facing less price competition from foreign competitors, they're likely to boost prices too," Greg McBride, Bankrate's chief financial analyst told CNN.
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Still, President Trump doubled down on his tariff policies, declaring, "We've been ripped off for years and we're not going to be ripped off anymore. No, I'm not gonna bend at all."
A new Ipsos/Reuters poll this week found that 70% of Americans, including a majority of Republicans, think President Trump's trade policies will push prices higher.
Stocks continued to spiral downward before rebounding on Friday.
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