The New York Stock Exchange started the day with a sharp decline due to the tension caused by the United States increasing its customs duties. At the opening, the Dow Jones index lost over 1,100 points and fell by 2.66 percent, reaching 41,103.63 points. The S&P 500 index dropped by 3.32 percent to 5,482.70 points, while the Nasdaq index went down by 4.5 percent to 16,811.42 points. The stock markets opened with a negative trend. President Trump announced yesterday that the U.S. would impose reciprocal tariffs on other countries, with a base tariff rate of 10 percent. The White House statement noted that the tariffs would remain in effect until the threat caused by the trade deficit is eliminated or reduced. U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent advised countries against retaliating with reciprocal tariffs, stating that higher customs duties would not be applied if retaliation is avoided, otherwise, the rates would escalate. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick also mentioned that there would be no exemption for tariffs and believed that retaliatory measures against customs duties by countries would not be effective. Analysts pointed out that there was a belief in the markets that the customs duties could be lower than expected, yet the announced rates were higher than what was priced in the market. Analysts mentioned that the broad customs duties aimed at major trading partners of the U.S. triggered fears of a full-scale trade war, leading them to express an increased risk of the global economy slipping into a recession. The yield on the U.S. 10-year Treasury bond dropped by 15 basis points to 4.05 percent. The dollar index also decreased by more than 2 percent to 101.68, marking one of its worst daily declines in nearly 2 years. The number of initial jobless claims in the U.S. for the week ending on March 29 dropped to 219,000, below market expectations. The country’s trade deficit shrank by 6.1 percent on a monthly basis in February to $122.7 billion. While U.S. exports grew by 2.9 percent on a monthly basis in February, imports remained flat. The decline in shares of companies with global supply chains and high dependence on imports, as well as technology firms, garnered attention. Apple shares fell by around 8 percent, while Nike’s shares dropped by 10 percent. Microsoft started the day with a decrease of approximately 3 percent, Nvidia fell by 5 percent, and Amazon, Meta, Alphabet, and Tesla recorded sharp losses, with decreases of around 7 percent, 7 percent, 3 percent, and 3 percent, respectively.