Market Falls In Asia Including India Following Crumble in US. Is Trump To Blame?

A worrying scenario is emerging globally with US market crumbling. By this time, a mammoth 4 trillion US dollars have been wiped out as a result of massive sell-off in US markets. This has led to a cascaded effect in stock markets of other countries, particularly Asian, including that of India. 

The US sell-off is the withdrawing of money from the stock by various investors. Several factors including Trump’s war tariff has been thought to have contributed to this. The sell-off has wiped out $4 trillion from the S&P 500's peak last month. Notably, this was the timewhen Wall Street was cheering much of Trump's agenda.

Tech-heavy Nasdaq in New York has to see the worst day since 2022. The benchmark S&P 500 that tracks the biggest American companies, also witnessed sharp fall over 8 per cent from its February high. 

On Monday (10th March), the S&P 500 ended trading at 2.7 per cent lower. This is its lowest closing level since September as well as the biggest daily percentage decline since December. The Dow Jones Industrial Average, in a similar way, dropped 2 per cent, for its lowest close since November 4, which was the day before Trump's election as President. The Nasdaq Composite plunged 4 per cent to a near six-month low.

The Nasdaq however said that a correction occurred last week, having tumbled more than 10 per cent from its December all-time high. MSCI's global stock index also fell more than 2 per cent for its biggest one-day drop, touching its lowest level since January 13.

Trump’s Statement and the market Fall:

Stocks markets’ sharp fall in the US, according to experts, are based on concerns about the negative economic impact of President Donald Trump's tariffs.

It followed Trump’s comment in a TV interview that the world's biggest economy was in a "period of transition", when asked about the possibilities  of a potential recession.

In a Fox News interview broadcast on Sunday, Trump appeared to acknowledge concerns about the economy. "I hate to predict things like that," he said. "There is a period of transition because what we're doing is very big. We're bringing wealth back to America. That's a big thing."

After trading closed on Monday with a sharp fall, a White House official told reporters: "We're seeing a strong divergence between [the] animal spirits of the stock market and what we're actually seeing unfold from businesses and business leaders." They added: "The latter is obviously more meaningful than the former on what's in store for the economy in the medium to long term."

“The amount of uncertainty that has been created by the tarif wars with regard to Canada, Mexico and Europe is causing boards and C-suites to reconsider the pathway forward”—according to Peter Orszag, CEO of Lazard. 

Tesla Share Falls by 15%:

Elon Musk, a prominent aid of US president Trump, also had to see a huge loss of his company  Tesla. The company saw a decline of about 15.4 per cent. Again, artificial intelligence (AI) chip giant Nvidia was down by more than 5 per cent. Other major tech stocks including Meta, Amazon and Alphabet also saw a steep decline.

Down in Other Asian Countries:

The US market debacle has left its cascading effect on other countries. In early trade on Tuesday, Japan's Nikkei 225 was down 2.5 per cent, while South Korea's Kospi was 2.3 per cent lower and Australia's S&P/ASX 200 was off by 1.8 per cent. 

Indian Scenario:

Indian stock markets have also felt the blue. It opened sharply lower today (11th march), in parallel to the global market turmoil. The Sensex plunged over 400 points, opening at 73,691.70, while the Nifty slipped to 22,331.45. 
The rupee also weakened, which stood at 87.38 against each U.S. dollar.

In early morning trade today, Tata Steel and NMDC emerged as key losers amid broader market weakness. Tata Steel fell 0.92% to Rs 149.67, and NMDC Ltd. dropped 2.01% to Rs 64.61. Other notable stocks that fell included SAIL (-1.31%), IDFC First Bank (-1.46%), and YES Bank (-1.16%). 

The Indian stock market had to face other hurdles with IT stocks witnessing a sharp selloff. The Nifty IT index tumbled  1.47%, shedding 553.25 points. The attributable factors for this fall can include weak global demand, concerns over a slowdown in tech spending, and rising cost pressures.

Wipro dropped 2.21%, followed by Mphasis (-1.88%), Coforge (-1.79%), and L&T Technology Services (-1.69%). LTIM slid 1.52%, while Tech Mahindra (TECHM) and HCL Tech declined 1.41% and 1.47%, respectively. Even TCS, known for its stability, was not out of decline. However it saw a minor dip of 0.10%.

The overall weakness in IT stocks hints growing investor concerns over slow global tech demand and shrinking profit margins.