Another day of stock market mayhem as nations ask Trump to reconsider tariffs

It was another nerve-racking day on the markets as rattled investors struggled to keep pace with Trump's crushing trade moves.

Rumours of a potential pause on tariffs raised hopes, hours before the U.S. president said his plans have not changed. In fact, they seem to be escalating — and Canadian federal party leaders are steeling themselves for the consequences of a global trade war.

We're closing this page for the day, but here are some links if you're looking for more coverage on a particular topic.

• U.S. and Canadian stocks fell for a third day in a row as markets reacted to Trump.
• Carney, Poilievre and Singh laid out their plans to deal with the financial chaos.
• The Bank of Canada said the uncertainty is taking its toll on strung-out businesses and weary customers.

See you tomorrow.

I’m a senior business reporter here at CBC News. Investors spent the day searching for signs that a deal could be reached. No deal emerged and stocks swung wildly between steep losses and slim gains.

But specific sectors are still getting clobbered. Apple’s three-day loss in market value now stands at nearly $640 billion US ($912 billion Cdn).

The White House says dozens of countries have reached out to start negotiations with the Trump administration.

The next deadline for Trump’s sweeping tariffs comes at midnight Tuesday, all but ensuring another wild day on global markets tomorrow.

Trump’s tariffs announced so far were higher than expected, according to Robert Kavcic of BMO Capital Markets.

Asked by CBC News’ Andrew Nichols whether a recession is in our near future, Kavcic said, "I think we're pretty close at this point to be honest here."

The high inflation expected in the U.S. makes it difficult for the Federal Reserve to respond swiftly by cutting interest rates or pumping liquidity into the economy, Kavcic explained.

And with Canada's economy so closely tied to the U.S., "it's going to be tough for Canada to get out of this without at least one or two quarters of negative economic growth," he said.

It was a third day in the red for the global stock market.

Losses weren't quite as steep as what we saw on Thursday and Friday — there was a brief spike of green when investors thought Trump might pause tariffs — but hopes were slashed when Trump doubled down.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped more than 350 points or 0.91 per cent to nearly 38,000. The S&P 500 shed 14.22 points or 0.28 per cent, ending at 5,060 while the Nasdaq saw a slight bump of 15 points or close to one per cent. The TSX ended the day with a loss of 334 points or 1.44 per cent.

Throughout the day, there were back and forward movements, reflecting the uncertainty investors feel in the face of the global tariffs Trump announced last Wednesday.

Trump has continued to defend his tariff policy, saying he wants to restore the U.S. to 19th century-era wealth when it had tariffs against trading partners and no income tax.

"We're going to have a strong country economically again and we're going to have those factories that are empty all over the U.S. [working again]. We've lost 90,000 plants and factories … since NAFTA," Trump said, referring to the now defunct North American Free Trade Agreement.

Trump said its replacement, Canada-U.S.-Mexico Agreement on trade (CUSMA), was "much better," but added that "the problem is they cheat. They cheat like crazy. Canada cheats. Mexico cheats,” without providing evidence of what either country was cheating at.

“It's just one of those things."

CUSMA is up for renegotiation in 2026. But in a recent phone call, Liberal Leader Mark Carney says he got Trump to agree to begin talks on the agreement, with whoever is Canada’s prime minister after the federal election.

Hey there, your afternoon live page writer here. Speaking out of the Oval Office following a meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Trump says he has no intention of pausing tariffs.

Instead, the U.S. president said he'd be working out deals with individual countries.

He said he spoke with Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba this morning and had a "very good discussion" and that he told Ishiba, "You have to open up your country; we sold no cars to Japan."

Trump later turned to the European Union, calling it "very bad to us.… They don't take our cars, don't take our agriculture either."

Netanyahu pledged to eliminate Israel's trade deficit with the United States and eliminate any trade barriers between the two countries.

The leaders said they also spoke about Iran and Gaza.

Trump made a brief mention of Canada when talking about former U.S. president Joe Biden's immigration policies, which he said allowed "millions" of people across the U.S.-Mexico border, adding "they came in from Canada, too, a lot.”

If the current ban on some oil tankers is repealed, Arnie Nagy is ready to fight.

He’s a member of the Haida Nation and a former fisheries union leader who’s been fighting oil tankers since the 1970s, worried a spill could destroy a way of life that's been in his family “since time immemorial.”

“We’ve got to be united as Canadians, not divided on silly proposals,” he said, adding this is his top election issue and that Trump is being used as a distraction to push pipelines forward.

Bill C-48, passed during the 42nd session of Parliament in 2019, banned tankers that can carry more than 12,500 metric tons of oil from the northern tip of Vancouver Island to the Alaska border. Ellis Ross, Conservative candidate for Skeena-Bulkley Valley, has called for more pipelines in B.C.

Nagy believes the real economic focus for this region should be on regrowing the commercial salmon fishery, which used to employ thousands through capture, manufacture and processing and now-defunct canneries.

NDP candidate Taylor Bachrach says any repeal on the tanker ban would be “really devastating” to the people throughout the riding.

“The implications of an oil spill in a wild salmon river or on the North Coast would last for over a century,” he says. “It’s not a risk people are willing to take.”

Carney made his announcement in Saanichton, B.C., today and replied to questions from a lectern under the protection of a tent (journalists and camera folks, as well as supporters, were similarly protected under the tent).

But Carney's B.C. candidates were not so lucky. They stood a few steps behind him (dutifully on paper markers telling them where to stand) and, therefore, they were exposed to the rain, which got steadily heavier and heavier.

They were getting soaked, but Carney didn't seem to notice. Those watching did notice, and campaign staff tried to motion for the candidates to stand more closely behind Carney, out of the rain.

They did finally move, and eventually Carney noticed. In the middle of answering a reporter's question, he beckoned the candidates closer, making a remark, "I know you are from B.C., but...."

I’m Anis Heydari, a senior business reporter based in Calgary.

One part of why these sell-offs are happening on the markets days after Trump’s tariff announcements is that investors, whether big institutional players or smaller folks, just can’t seem to decide what the new trade reality is going to be.

ATB Financial’s chief economist Mark Parsons told CBC Radio’s The Calgary Eyeopener that many are just “selling off stocks until they get further notice” — as in, signs that Trump might negotiate or change his tariff plan.

In the absence of those signs, Parsons said investors aren’t confident.

It shows in the indexes halfway through Monday. Today’s bounces haven’t made up for the losses of Thursday and Friday, in most cases. It’s reminiscent of a song from the old show Jem and the Holograms where one singer says, “We’re up,” only to be interrupted by another screeching, “You’re down, start looking for another line of work.”

I’m senior business reporter Nisha Patel, taking a look at gas prices, which have tumbled in many cities across the country.

Prices at the pump are adjusting to the end of the federal consumer carbon tax, which had amounted to 17.6 cents/litre for gasoline.

Slumping oil prices are also having an impact. The national average price for gasoline is now about 136 cents/litre, the lowest since 2021, according to GasBuddy.com.