US stock market makes history today, adds and wipes out $3 trillion. Larry Fink says it’ll only get worse

The US stock market just broke every known rule of trading, economics, and logic—live on Monday morning. Wall Street kicked off with a meltdown after President Donald Trump pushed higher tariffs across major trading partners, triggering full-blown panic.

By the time the dust settled, $3 trillion in market cap had vanished in under 30 minutes. This is the first time in history traders watched that kind of money appear and disappear faster than a crypto rug pull.

Trump opened the week by warning of even more aggressive tariff hikes against China on Truth Social, as the two countries escalated threats. That came right after the administration rolled out sweeping new tariffs that already hammered global trade and sent shockwaves through every asset class.

The S&P 500 dropped 1.5%, dragging it nearly 20% down from its February high, putting it squarely inside bear market territory. That drop erased almost everything investors gained in the last year.

White House rumor sparks $3 trillion rally, then crash

The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 755 points, a 2% drop that followed two straight 1,500-point collapses last week—the worst back-to-back hits in history. The Nasdaq Composite fell 1.2% as investors dumped tech stocks to raise cash. It’s now 24% below its previous record. For a moment this morning, it looked like things were turning around. A fake headline did that.

At 10:10 AM ET, word started spreading that the White House might approve a 90-day tariff pause. Five minutes later, CNBC reported Trump was weighing that pause for every country except China. At 10:18 AM ET, the S&P 500 surged, gaining $3 trillion in value in just eight minutes. That gain was entirely based on nothing real.

At 10:25 AM ET, someone inside the administration told CNBC they didn’t know where the rumor came from. One minute later, CNBC walked back the headline. At 10:34 AM ET, the White House officially called the story “fake news.” By 10:40 AM ET, the S&P 500 had dumped $2.5 trillion of the value it had just gained.

That 30-minute swing broke records and left traders scrambling. Never before has Wall Street seen that much capital whip around off the back of pure rumor.

Traders turn to moving average while Larry Fink calls recession

While the market kept bleeding, traders started looking for any level that could stop the drop. Jonathan Krinsky, head market technician at BTIG, told CNBC that the S&P 500’s 200-week moving average—currently sitting at 4,674—could be the bottom.

That’s 8% below where the index closed Friday. If it crashes through that level, it’ll wipe out all of last year’s gains and return the index to 2023 territory, when it ended the year at 4,769.

Larry Fink, CEO of BlackRock, told the Economic Club of New York that CEOs across industries already see the US as being deep in recession. “The canary is sick,” Fink said, warning he wouldn’t rule out another 20% crash from here. That wasn’t optimism—it was a flat report. Fink added that the current climate still offers long-term opportunities, but only for those who can afford to sit through hell.

Larry also called out Washington’s failure to deliver the growth agenda it promised, saying the Trump administration needed to follow through with tax reform, reduced regulation, and faster approval for infrastructure projects. Those were the things he said would put pressure on the economy to actually grow, rather than just bounce off panic cycles.

During his interview with Bloomberg’s Erik Schatzker, Larry said, “The economy is weakening as we speak.” He said people don’t realize how tariffs hit regular Americans. “Most Americans don’t understand the extent to which tariffs are going to affect them,” Larry said. He added that 62% of Americans own equities, which means most people are directly exposed to this chaos whether they know it or not.

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