For more than a century, no other asset class has come particularly close to matching the annualized return of stocks. However, this doesn’t mean Wall Street’s journey from Point A to B is a smooth one.
Since 2025 began, the benchmark S&P 500 (SNPINDEX: ^GSPC), innovation-fueled Nasdaq Composite (NASDAQINDEX: ^IXIC), and ageless Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJINDICES: ^DJI) have navigated their way through extremes. For example, between the closing bell on April 2 and April 9, the S&P 500 endured its fifth-largest two-day percentage decline (-10.5%) since 1950, as well as logged its largest single-day point gain since its inception.
Though volatility is always present on Wall Street, and can be thought of as the price of admission to one of the world’s greatest wealth creators, bouts of heightened volatility often tug on investors’ heartstrings. With the primary catalyst for the late March-early April swoon in the S&P 500, Nasdaq Composite, and Dow Jones Industrial Average being President Trump’s “Liberation Day” tariff and trade policy announcement, we have to ask: Is Round 2 of a “Trump dump” imminent for stocks?