EL PASO, Texas (KTSM) — U.S. stocks took a dive in after-hours trading Wednesday as investors digested President Donald Trump’s decision to impose sweeping tariffs on a range of U.S. trading partners that surprised markets during a “Liberation Day” event held at the White House.
Dow futures plummeted 2.7 percent, S&P 500 futures sank 3.9 percent, and futures tied to the Nasdaq 100 plunged 4.7 percent.
U.S. stocks closed higher Wednesday afternoon before Trump’s announcement on tariffs, but a selloff began as he unveiled his plan, holding up a chart that outlined how rates would increase depending on the country.
Financial markets around the world have been shaky lately because of uncertainty about Trump’s trade war.
“We don’t know what’s going to happen to the markets within a short-to-mid timeframe,” Bobby Blanco, a certified wealth strategist with Strategic Wealth in El Paso, said. “Typically, if we look at the market over the past 100 years or even the past couple decades, we’ve seen the market take off after short periods of volatility.”
Despite the market roller coaster, wealth strategists are urging investors not to ditch their long-term financial goals over short-term uncertainty.
“Often times these are fluctuations in someone’s portfolio. A fluctuation doesn’t mean you take a loss, it just means the market has dropped temporarily. But once you sell and once you take action, you actually realize that loss,” Blanco said. “Often times is that when the market is down like this, these are opportunities to buy, not sell. Fear is what drives people to sell and that’s how you lose money.”
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