US stocks suffer huge losses after Trump talks about recession

US stocks have been falling sharply since the start of daily trading on Monday after headlines focused on statements made by US President Donald Trump in a television interview conducted with him at the end of last week.

During that interview, the US president did not rule out the possibility of the US economy facing a recession due to what he believed was weakness in US stock trading, which fueled concerns about the potential negative effects of the tariffs imposed by Trump on some US trading partners.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell to 42,154 points after losing 645 points, or 1.5%. The Standard & Poor’s 500 index fell to 5,630 points after losing about 141 points, or 2.5%, with the Nasdaq for heavy industries falling to 17,487 points after losing about 710 points, or 4.00%.

Last week was full of escalation in trade restrictions, most notably tariffs, especially after Canada imposed a 25% counter-tariff on US imports. The Mexican president also threatened to impose a counter-tariff, in addition to a hostile speech by China, in which the Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman announced that his country was ready to wage “any” war against the United States if the US side wanted to wage a “tariff war” against Beijing.