Mercantilism For Dummies has taken your 401(k) hostage

Published April 4, 2025 4:50am ET



The White House waited until after the closing bell on the afternoon of April 2, “Liberation Day,” before President Donald Trump announced the details of his long-awaited tariff regime. For the sake of the nearly two-thirds of people who have money invested in the stock market, it’s probably good that the administration did.

In the immediate aftermath of Trump’s announcement that he would impose a universal 10% minimum tariff on all imports into the United States with no exceptions, S&P futures plummeted by more than 3% and Nasdaq futures by more than 5%. Dow Jones Industrial Average futures fell by 2.5%, and gold prices, viewed as a hedge against the risk of the collapse of other equities, surged above a record of more than $3,200 per ounce.

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