JAKARTA – US equity markets opened with sharp volatility on Monday (7/4), swinging wildly amid investor anxiety. The S&P 500 briefly rose 1% before tumbling over 2% within moments, at one point touching an intraday decline of 3.6%. The Nasdaq Composite dropped 2%, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average plunged 2.5% or around 1,000 points.

A brief moment of calm surfaced following reports that President Donald Trump was considering a 90-day delay to the tariff hike, set to be fully implemented on Wednesday.

However, the relief quickly vanished after an official White House-affiliated account on platform X (formerly Twitter) dismissed the claim as “fake news,” sending markets back deep into negative territory.

The situation on Wall Street deteriorated further after Trump reiterated over the weekend that he would not shift his trade policy merely to appease the market. “Sometimes, you need to take the medicine to cure what ails you,” he told reporters.

The tariff turmoil has now pushed Wall Street into official bear market territory—defined as a drop of more than 20% from recent highs. The S&P 500 slid 4% on the day, extending its decline from its December peak to over 20%. Much of the loss followed Trump’s sweeping tariff announcement, which he described as a “Liberation Day.”

According to Bloomberg, the policy fallout has triggered a global equity sell-off totalling USD 9.5 trillion. The Nasdaq had already entered bear market territory on Friday, followed by global indices such as Hong Kong’s Hang Seng and China’s CSI 300.

Asian markets were hit hard. The Hang Seng Index plummeted over 13%, marking its steepest one-day drop since the 1997 crisis. In China, the CSI 300 fell 7.1% after Beijing responded with a 34% retaliatory tariff on all US goods. Trump blamed the Chinese government for the sell-off in Chinese shares, accusing them of ignoring his warnings not to retaliate.

European markets also fell sharply. London’s FTSE 100 dropped as much as 6.3%, hitting a one-year low. In Germany, the DAX tumbled 10.4% after Trump likened the tariff regime to a “medicine” the world must swallow for long-term change. (EF)