Nasdaq falls on US recession fears

BarcelonaThe US Nasdaq stock index, which is made up mainly of technology companies, lost 4% on Monday and is at its lowest level in six months due to fears that the tariff policy of US President Donald Trump will cause a slowdown in the country's economy or even a recession.

The Dow Jones, the benchmark index of the New York Stock Exchange, and the S&P 500, which groups together the main industrial companies in the US, also registered red numbers, but with falls of less than 3% in both cases. In the case of the S&P 500, the index was 9.4% below its historical maximum on Tuesday, registered in February, while the Nasdaq reached its peak in December and is now 13.4% below. These three indices will reopen the session at 3:30 p.m. (Spanish time).

Trade tensions caused by the measures approved by Trump have created economic uncertainty in the US. In addition, consumer confidence and business activity indices have shown signs of slowing down in the United States since the new president returned to the White House for a second term. In fact, last Sunday Trump himself did not rule out that the US economy could enter a recession in the future due to tariffs, just at a time when investors have shown concern about the tariffs imposed on imports from China, Canada and Mexico, the three main US trading partners.

Finally, Washington has applied two one-month extensions to the new barriers on both American countries, but has pushed forward those applied to China, which responded with tariffs on products manufactured in the United States that come into effect this Monday. In addition, the US president also has threatened new tariffs in the European Union and Japan (two other key trading partners for the US), although they have not yet been specified. In Europe, markets are also registering slight declines on Monday.

Tesla continues to fall

The hardest hit were technology companies, especially those with higher valuations: chip giant Nvidia fell 5%, Microsoft 3.34% and Amazon 2.36%. Meanwhile, electric car maker Tesla, controlled by billionaire Elon Musk, a close political ally of Trump, lost more than 15.4%. The company, which has seen significant sales declines across Europe, is continuing its sharp downward trend of recent months, especially since Musk was appointed by the US president to head the reorganisation of the federal government; a position from which he has pushed through agency and programme closures and mass layoffs of civil servants.