Traders work at the New York Stock Exchange on Oct. 1, 2025.
NYSE
The Dow Jones Industrial Average and S&P 500 staged a big comeback on Tuesday, clawing back major losses from earlier in the day, as investors tried to look past the latest worries around U.S.-China trade.
The Dow was last up 424 points, or about 1%. At its session lows, it fell 615.55 points. The S&P 500 ticked up roughly 0.3% after losing as much as 1.5%. The Nasdaq Composite traded well off its lows, down just 0.2%.
Tech stocks such as Nvidia remained under pressure. However, as strong start to the earnings season serves as an encouraging sign that fundamentals remain strong. Citigroup and Wells Fargo rose 4.6% and 8.3%, respectively, on better-than-expected earnings. JPMorgan and Goldman also beat estimates, but they fell slightly.
Stocks initially sold off after China moved to tighten its grip on global shipping, adding fuel to an already volatile global trade backdrop.
Dow intraday
China imposed sanctions on five of South Korea’s Hanwha Ocean’s U.S. subsidiaries. This will forbid organizations and individuals in China from doing business with the affected companies. The move, the Chinese government said, aims at strengthening China’s security.
U.S. Treasury secretary Scott Bessent said Monday to the Financial Times that China’s recent action signals its economic weakness, adding that the country’s leaders “want to pull everybody else down with them.”
The Cboe Volatility index — Wall Street’s so-called fear gauge — rose above Friday’s closing level, signaling renewed angst on Wall Street that there will be no easy solution to this China trade fight and hedging for future losses using options may make some sense. The VIX hit a high above 22, which was also a four-month high. In afternoon trading, it sat below 20.
Trade tensions have been rising since late last week, when President Donald Trump threatened to place an additional 100% tariff on Chinese imports, sending stocks sharply lower. The Dow on Friday lost more than 800 points, while the S&P 500 posted its biggest one-day loss since April 10.
On Sunday, however, Trump dialed back his rhetoric, noting in a Truth Social post: “Don’t worry about China, it will all be fine.”
That comment sent stocks soaring on Monday. The S&P 500 and Dow each jumped more than 1% on the day, marking the former’s biggest one-day gain since May 27. The Dow had its best day since Sept. 11 and broke a five-day losing streak. Monday’s rebound retraced more than half of the S&P 500’s decline on Friday, and two-thirds of the Dow’s steep losses.
“It’s just not clear what the off-ramp is as we head into the month’s end for China and the U.S. when it comes to trade tensions, and I think that’s something the market is still trying to deal with,” said Rob Haworth, senior investment strategy director at U.S. Bank Wealth Management. “That’s some of what’s driving market sentiment now, even though … the earnings reports this morning tell us the financial sector appears to be doing well and the consumer appears still healthy.”
