Wall Street’s Dow Jones on track for worst April since the Great Depression

The Dow got crushed on Monday, dropping nearly 1,000 points as traders scrambled through a selloff that’s dragging the index toward the worst April since 1932, according to Dow Jones Market Data.

The S&P 500’s performance under Donald Trump’s presidency is now the worst showing for any president this far into office, based on Bespoke Investment Group’s data going back to 1928.

The damage is tied to a mix of policy chaos, trade tension, and collapsing investor confidence. With Trump back in the White House and already butting heads with Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell, Wall Street isn’t waiting to see how bad it gets.

There are real fears that Trump might fire Powell, which is only adding fuel to a market that’s already overheating from confusion. 

Investors are seeing corporate earnings start to drop, with many companies warning that tariffs are slicing into future profits. The ongoing negotiations on trade are dragging, and most people in the market aren’t betting on quick results.

Investors ditch traditional safe zones as market panic deepens

The usual safety zones are gone. Government bonds are taking a hit. The U.S. dollar is falling too. Traders are cornered with nowhere to escape. Scott Ladner, chief investment officer at Horizon Investments, said his firm already scaled back its U.S. equity exposure weeks ago.

“It’s impossible to commit capital to an economy that is unstable and unknowable because of policy structure,” Scott said. “It’s the hallmark of the ‘no confidence’ trade.”

Right after Trump won the last election, stock prices flew on the hope of tax cuts and deregulation. Investors thought the boost to business would lift everything. But instead of building on that, the administration turned to tariffs. That change flipped the mood.

On April 2, Trump pushed out a new batch of tariffs, and markets reacted instantly. The Dow began to sink, and it hasn’t found its feet since.

Even after Trump backtracked on some tariff timelines, the market didn’t buy it. The hit was already made. Bond markets are throwing their own red flags. Usually, during selloffs, U.S. Treasurys rise in price because investors rush into them. That’s not happening.

In April alone, the 10-year Treasury yield moved up 0.16 percentage points. That means bond prices are dropping too. People are unloading what’s supposed to be the safest bet in town.

But the classic hedge is shining again. On Monday, gold futures hit a new record high. With everything else falling apart, gold is the one place investors are moving into. It’s the fallback when nothing else feels safe.

Another signal flashing red is the VIX, often called Wall Street’s fear gauge. It’s still holding high levels, a sign that investors expect more wild swings in the coming weeks. The combination of trade war fears, a hostile stance toward the Fed, and weak earnings projections are all feeding into that outlook.

Retail investors are just as bearish as the professionals. The American Association of Individual Investors reported that over 50% of its respondents have expected stock prices to fall for eight weeks in a row. That’s the longest stretch of bear sentiment the group has seen since it started tracking this data in 1987. The mood on Wall Street is downright bleak.

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