From CNBC, April 3:
Stock prices fell sharply on Thursday after President Donald Trump the day before announced sweeping tariffs of 10% on all U.S. trading partners and higher levies on countries with which the U.S. has a trade deficit.
With Thursday’s decline, the S&P 500 — a proxy for the broad U.S. stock market — has now slid more than 11% from its record high in February, putting the index in correction territory, defined as a drop of 10% or more from recent highs.
Investors and economists alike fear that Trump’s tariff policies could ignite a trade war with the nation’s trading partners and push inflation higher, two factors that could push the U.S. toward an economic slowdown. Should a recession become imminent, markets could sell off — and quickly. Just ask Berkshire Hathaway chairman and investing legend Warren Buffett.
“There is simply no telling how far stocks can fall in a short period,” he wrote in his 2017 letter to shareholders.
But should a major decline occur, he continued, “heed these lines” from Rudyard Kipling’s classic poem “If,” circa 1895.
“If you can keep your head when all about you are losing theirs ... If you can wait and not be tired by waiting ... If you can think — and not make thoughts your aim ... If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you ... Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it.”
....MUCH MORE
