U.S. stock indexes ended mixed Wednesday, closing out a chaotic month for equity markets following President Donald Trump’s ever-changing tariff policies and growing recession fears. The S&P 500 gained 0.15% Wednesday while the Dow Jones Industrial Average increased 0.35% at close. Meanwhile, the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite fell 0.09%.
After a turbulent start to the month, stocks had posted a recent recovery over the past few days as Trump administration officials hinted at the possibility of reaching trade deals that that could cool an ongoing trade war. But news of the economy’s 0.3% Q1 contraction—which came before the full effects of April’s tariffs are even accounted for—sent indexes tumbling early Wednesday as recession fears increased, though the S&P and Dow Jones recovered by the end of the trading day.
The Commerce Department’s announcement of a contracting economy is due to business uncertainty around Trump’s tariff plan and slowing consumer spending. The news also marks the first contraction since the first quarter of 2022, and a dramatic turn from the 2.4% growth in gross domestic product experienced in the last quarter of 2024.
Though stocks took a beating in the aftermath of Trump’s “Liberation Day” tariff announcements on April 2, they had slowly been recovering in the ensuing weeks amid hopes the president would pare back his policies or reach deals with trading partners.
So far, no deals have emerged, and the Trump administration is giving conflicting accounts of where negotiations stand. Wednesday afternoon, Trump top trade advisor Peter Navarro said the White House is close to negotiating a tariff deal with India.
Trump’s first 100 days
The president is closing out his first 100 days in office with one of the worst starts for the stock market of any president in recent memory.
From January 20 to late April, the S&P 500 dropped almost 8%, Fortune‘s Ben Weiss and Irina Ivanova reported Tuesday, the worst kick-off to a new presidential term since Gerald Ford took over after Richard Nixon resigned.
“The U.S. stock market and the dollar have fared worse over the last hundred days than they fared during the first hundred days of all other presidential terms since 1980,” John Higgins, chief markets economist at Capital Economics, wrote Monday in a research note titled, “Surely the next 100 days won’t be as turbulent as the last?”
Major earnings later Wednesday will be closely watched by Wall Street: Qualcomm, Meta, and Microsoft all report after the closing bell.
