Bloodied and Bruised US Markets

According to Bloomberg, Jan-Mar 2025 quarter was full of disappointments due to the plunging indices. While the markets are under pressure, the bigger threat is weakening dollar, making other currencies safe heavens.

The S&P 500 ended the quarter down 4.6%, its worst performance in three years. The Nasdaq 100 posted its worst quarter in nearly three years, down 8.3%, after a pair of warnings last week fanned anxieties about a possible pullback in the hundreds of billions of dollars flowing into data center infrastructure. 

Making matters worse for the United States, the dollar hasn’t been behaving as normal, raising fears that America’s radical policy turns are opening the door for rival currencies to become havens.

Trump’s trade war continues to fuel concern the US economy could stall. Most economists still don’t anticipate America will fall into recession in the next year, but they do say the chance of a contraction has increased.

While many economists have spent the past three years being wrong on recession calls, another worry is the risk that a slowdown in growth will occur alongside accelerating inflation, the dreaded scenario known as stagflation.

Garnering the least support in the Associated Press-NORC poll was Trump’s signature initiative so far—tariffs. Some 60% of Americans disapprove of his trade tactics while 58% disapprove of his handling of the economy in general.