Monday not as bad as feared

Photo: The Canadian Press

TORONTO — North American stock markets muddled to a mixed close Monday as the effects of U.S. President Donald Trump’s latest tariff announcement continued to reverberate.

Markets began the day with a steep selloff, before suddenly spiking higher in the morning; the S&P 500 briefly rose 3.4% before giving up those gains.

A White House account on X said a rumour that Trump was considering a 90-day pause on the tariffs was “fake news,” taking the air out of the short-lived bounce.

“I think that these elevated levels of volatility are going to be with us for the next couple of weeks,” said Ilana Schonwetter, investment adviser and portfolio manager at Blueshore Financial.

“The intraday swings are obviously very, very aggressive, and I think investors need to kind of buckle down and not rush into making any decisions around either selling or buying.”

The S&P/TSX composite index closed down 334.01 points at 22,859.46.

In New York, the Dow Jones industrial average was down 349.26 points at 37,965.60. The S&P 500 index was down 11.83 points at 5,062.25, while the Nasdaq composite was up 15.48 points at 15,603.26.

Monday’s results come on the heels of big declines Thursday and Friday after Trump announced a sweeping round of global tariffs Wednesday evening, adding fuel to concerns that a recession is on the way.

Trump has referred to the market losses that resulted from his tariffs as a necessary “medicine,” part of a longer-term plan to repatriate production and factories to the U.S. But market watchers and economists warn the tariffs will be inflationary and weigh on economic growth.

“The recent tariffs will likely increase inflation and are causing many to consider a greater probability of a recession,” wrote JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon in a letter to shareholders Monday.

“I think consensus (is) that if these tariffs remain in place for an extended period of time, it is going to have a huge impact on growth this year,” Schonwetter said. “Most financial analysts and most CFOs are having a very hard time figuring out the true impact of these tariffs.”

Trump is now threatening more tariffs on China after the country announced it would retaliate to last week’s round of duties.

Canada was spared from the latest round of tariffs but already faces levies on a number of exports to the U.S. including steel and aluminum. It has enacted retaliatory tariffs on a swath of American goods.

The Canadian dollar traded for 70.29 cents US compared with 70.34 cents US on Friday.

The May crude oil contract was down US$1.29 at US$60.70 per barrel after losing about US$10 per barrel late last week.