Wall Street Wipes Out $2 Trillion, Apple Eyes Worst Day Since COVID-19 Pandemic, Oil Plummets: What's Driving Markets Thursday?

President Donald Trump‘s sweeping new trade tariffs sent shockwaves through global markets on Thursday, triggering a massive sell-off that echoed the COVID-19 pandemic-era routs, as investor risk appetite vanished in a flash.

Wall Street saw a staggering $2 trillion in market cap erased, with the U.S.’s biggest 10 companies shedding $1 trillion alone.

Apple Inc. AAPL plunged 8.7%, staring down its worst day since March 2020 and wiping out nearly $300 billion in value. NVIDIA Corp. NVDA tumbled 6.4%, losing $171.9 billion, while Amazon.com Inc. AMZN dropped 8%, on pace for a $166 billion hit.

The S&P 500 fell nearly 4%, poised for its worst session since September 2022, and sank to a seven-month low. Small caps took the brunt of the sell-off, with the Russell 2000 plunging over 5% and officially entering a bear market, now down more than 20% from its 2024 peak.

Fears of retaliatory action from key U.S. trading partners dragged every major sector into the red, except for defensive plays like consumer staples and utilities.

Consumer discretionary stocks were slammed. Apparel names posted double-digit losses: Ralph Lauren Corp RL, Nike Inc. NKE, Lululemon Athletica Inc. LULU and Garmin Ltd. GRMN each dropped between 10% and 16%.

Cruise lines were also hit hard: Norwegian Cruise Holdings Ltd. NCLH sank 13%, Carnival Corp. CCL fell 10%, and Royal Caribbean Ltd. RCL slid 9%.

Bond markets saw a mild flight to safety. Treasury yields edged lower, yet the U.S. dollar weakened 1.6%, with the DXY index heading for its worst day since November 2022.

Commodities weren’t spared. Oil prices nosedived on fears of a global slowdown, worsened by OPEC+’s surprise move to raise output. West Texas Intermediate crude plunged 7.5%, slipping below $70 per barrel.

Bitcoin BTC/USD showed relative resilience in the carnage, dipping just 1% and holding above $81,600.

According to Benzinga Pro data:

• The SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust SPY fell 3.6% to $544.20.
• The SPDR Dow Jones Industrial Average DIA tumbled 3% to $409.26.
• The tech-heavy Invesco QQQ Trust Series QQQ plummeted 4.2% to $456.21.
• The iShares Russell 2000 ETF IWM nosedived 5.4% to 191.63.
• The Consumer Staples Select Sector SPDR Fund XLP outperformed, up 1.2%; the Technology Select Sector SPDR Fund XLK tanked, down 5.6%.

• Lamb Weston Holdings Inc. LW up 7.8%
• Five Below Inc. FIVE down 26%,
• Molina Healthcare Inc. MOH, up 7.8%
• Kohls Corp. KSS down 25%
• VanEck Vietnam ETF VNM down 10.2%
• iShares MSCI Mexico ETF EWW up 4.7%,
• iShares MSCI Taiwan ETF EWT down 4%.

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