The stock market took a historic plunge in the United States on Thursday after the latest round of sweeping Trump administration tariffs were announced on Wednesday.

As investors tried to assess the potential economic impact of the tariffs, the Dow Jones Industrial Average plunged 1,679 points to close at 40,546. The S&P 500 plummeted 274 points (amounting to roughly $2 trillion) – marking its biggest one-day drop since the Covid-19 pandemic affected financial markets in 2020, and the Nasdaq composite tumbled 6%, its biggest decline since March 2020.

From CBS News: Nearly every major industrial sector suffered declines, with tech players, banks, retailers, apparel makers and airlines among the hardest hit. Best Buy shares sank roughly 18%, United Airlines fell 16% and Nike slid 16%, Apple fell 9%, e-commerce giant Amazon slid nearly 9%, Meta (the parent company of Facebook and Instagram) dropped nearly 9%, and AI powerhouse Nvidia saw its stock drop nearly 8%.

Additionally, overseas markets also slumped on Thursday: in Asia, Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 index briefly dipped 4%, before closing down 2.8%; while South Korea’s benchmark Kospi fell 1.1%; Germany’s DAX fell 3%; France’s CAC 40 lost 3%; and Britain’s FTSE 100 shed 1.5%.

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