U.S. stocks dropped sharply as of Monday, February 23, 2026, after President Donald Trump increased temporary tariffs to 15% on imports from other countries. This move escalated the trade tensions, following the recent Supreme Court ruling that struck down Trump’s previous ‘reciprocal’ tariff plan on imports from around the world. In the meantime, investors continued to dump companies that could potentially be vulnerable to the artificial-intelligence revolution.
U.S. Markets Slide After Tariff Announcement
The S&P 500 fell 1% following the U.S. president’s declaration on Saturday regarding the upgrade of tariffs, which was up 10% as he announced on Friday. The Supreme Court’s decision prompted Trump to raise the tariffs that could last up to 150 days.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 821 points, which is down 1.7%, along with the Nasdaq composite dropping to 1.1%. Additionally, oil prices also dropped alongside the U.S. dollar weakening against the Japanese yen and the euro.
Trump’s immediate action towards more aggressive tariffs indicates how uncertain the global economy is, even after the Supreme Court’s declaration of not providing legal authority to institute his sweeping ‘reciprocal’ tariffs. The new tariff would last up to 150 days, until Congress extends it further. Apart from this tariff momentum, Trump is also moving forward on other avenues to place more permanent tariffs on countries and industries, worsening the situation. While he said that these measures are part of “making America great again.” (TRUTH)
The Trade Minister of South Korea, Kim Jung-Kwan, said on Monday that the uncertainty would worsen if the Trump administration continues imposing new tariffs under the alternative laws. Kim also added that, given the uncertainties regarding the future tariff measures, he urged the private and public sectors to cooperate to strengthen the market.
For countries like China and other countries in Asia, the tariff upgrade was subject to higher import duties on their exports, which was a potential relief. Subsequently, the share prices in Asia mostly advanced, with Hong Kong’s Hang Seng gaining 2.4%. While in South Korea’s Kospi rose more modestly to 0.6%.
Mixed Global Market Reactions
On Wall Street, investors dumping companies under the suspicion of getting caught off guard by the AI-powered rivals hit big losses. CrowdStrike fell 11.4%, widening its loss for the year so far to 25%. AppLovin also sank 9.7%. Across the cybersecurity industry, the new tool from Anthropic, which can scan the codebase for security vulnerabilities and suggest targeted software patches for humans to review, has pressured the stock prices in the cybersecurity sector.
Although Bitcoin remained above its intra-month low, it briefly fell below $64,000. While gold continued to rise as investors found a haven in such assets during uncertainties.
With Nvidia’s earnings report releasing on Wednesday, Wall Street can expect more big moves. Companies like Alphabet and Amazon are concerned about the high costs of spending a huge amount on Nvidia’s chips, and whether they will be able to recoup their investment through huge productivity and future profits.
Global markets reacted unevenly, with European indexes mostly dropping, and the 10-year Treasury yield fell to approximately 4.03%, reflecting the market, while the Asian markets rose.
