Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange in New York, the United States, April 3, 2025. [Photo/Xinhua]

Major stock indexes across the globe plunged sharply on Monday, as investors dumped riskier assets amid mounting fears over U.S. President Donald Trump's sweeping tariffs.

Panic sentiments took hold of the market once trading opened in the morning. The day of April 7, with similarities to the 1987 stock market crash, is being seen as another "Black Monday" by analysts and the media.

Washington's controversial new set of tariffs has stirred tensions since its announcement on Wednesday, hitting global markets hard, sparking backlash from other countries and drawing widespread criticism from economists and investors.

Global turbulence 

Major markets across the globe witnessed a turbulent day.

Three major benchmarks of the U.S. stock market met with major setbacks on Monday.

The S&P 500 Index, which is composed of 500 leading companies listed in the United States, dived as much as 21.41 percent from its record high on Feb. 19 and entered the technical territory of the bear market in the morning session.

As of 9:40 a.m. Eastern time (1340 GMT), the Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 2.63 percent, the S&P 500 shed 3.14 percent, and the Nasdaq Composite Index dropped by 3.85 percent.

Later, false reports that the White House would pause most of Trump's tariffs for 90 days had pumped up the market, leading to a sudden surge. However, as the White House denied the news, the market declined again. The up and down within hours indicate how desperate investors were for any potential relief from the tariffs.

All the leading European benchmark indexes opened in the red on Monday, down by 4 to 7 percent compared with the closing prices on the previous trading day.

Britain's blue-chip stock index, the FTSE 100, dropped by about 5 percent, France's CAC 40 went down by over 5 percent, and the pan-European STOXX 600 index dropped over 6 percent in morning trade.

Germany's DAX index was among the hardest-hit, opening down by 9.5 percent before paring back part of the losses later in the morning. The significant gains since the beginning of the year have thus been almost completely wiped out.

The S&P/ASX 200 -- Australia's benchmark share market index -- closed down 4.2 percent on Monday in a plunge worth more than 100 billion Australian dollars (60.1 billion U.S. dollars). The Australian Broadcasting Corporation reported that it was the index's biggest one-day fall since May 2020.

Singapore's Straits Times Index on Monday plunged by 8.7 percent at the open. The sharp drop marked the index's steepest single-day decline since an 8.9 percent plunge during the 2008 global financial crisis, and exceeded the 8.4 percent fall seen in March 2020 amid COVID-19.

A pedestrian passes a screen showing stock market information in Tokyo, Japan, April 7, 2025. [Photo/Xinhua]

Fear and fury 

The aggressive tariffs that triggered the global stock market plunge have drawn widespread criticism of the U.S. government, amid fear and fury across the globe.

Trump's tariffs have a shocking effect on stock markets, Gilles Moec, chief economist at AXA Group, told Les Echos, a French economy-specialized daily.

"This shock has no real precedent in history, which amplifies market volatility because investors have no point of reference," he said.

Moec noted that the current damage to global stock markets is "entirely self-inflicted by the U.S. authorities," unlike past stock market crises which were reflections of then macroeconomic situations.

Richard Branson, British entrepreneur and co-founder of Virgin Group, said it is time for Washington to change course. "Otherwise, America will face ruin for years to come," he warned.

Branson noted that companies should be given enough time to adapt, and the current market response is preventable.

Hasan Tevfik, a research analyst at advisory firm MST Marquee, also warned of severe consequences for the U.S. economy.

"The U.S. economy has endured a barrage of headwinds, all self-inflicted, and the end consequence will be a contraction in the economy that was humming along, exceptionally, over the last couple of years," he told the Australian Financial Review newspaper.

This photo taken on April 7, 2025 shows a screen at the foreign exchange dealing room of the KEB Hana Bank headquarters in Seoul, South Korea. [Photo/Xinhua]

Independent Australian economist Saul Eslake noted the uncertainty surrounding Trump's next decisions and what he called the "madness" of the White House. He warned that the impact on the Australian economy was likely to be worse than the Treasury's forecast that the country is well-placed to avoid a recession despite the "damage" being done by the U.S. tariffs.

Doom and gloom 

Investors have lost trillions of dollars since the tariff announcement on Wednesday. Recession odds are rising, and massive trade wars are looming. With no constructive response in sight, market confidence has been severely hit.

DBS economists in a weekly review released on Monday noted that global markets and economies are still struggling to absorb the seismic tariff shock, with risk aversion and market selloff.

"The key reason for that is that despite the spate of announcements, there is still substantial fear that more measures are to come. Perhaps more critical is the notion that nations trying to do a deal with the U.S. will not be able to rest easy upon signing agreements, as no deal with the U.S. seems to be reliable any longer," wrote DBS economists Taimur Baig and Radhika Rao.

David Gerald, president of the Securities Investors Association (Singapore), told The Straits Times, "If tariffs are sustained, they could contribute to higher inflation and slower global growth, which may in turn trigger further volatility and potential sell-offs in markets globally, including Singapore."

Germany's Friedrich Merz, who is expected to become the next chancellor, also fears that U.S. trade policy could further escalate the turmoil in global stock markets. "The situation on international equity and bond markets is dramatic and threatens to worsen further."

JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon warned on Monday, "The recent tariffs will likely increase inflation and are causing many to consider a greater probability of a recession."