UPDATED with closing prices. U.S. stock markets recoiled at President Donald Trump‘s retaliatory tariffs, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average closing down almost 1,700 points and the Nasdaq and S&P 500 suffering their worst days since 2020.

Not since the Covid shock of March 2020 had major indices registered such a negative reaction. The tech-heavy Nasdaq slid 6%, while the S&P (only in recent weeks down from its all-time high) slipped 5%.

Individual stock moves filled the board with red, with Apple and Meta down 9% and Amazon 9.5%. Entertainment shares were not spared, with Disney down 9%, Warner Bros. Discovery off by 13%, Fox Corp. crashing 10% and Roku tumbling 16%.

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U.S. stock markets plummeted after the opening bell Thursday as investors registered shock at President Donald Trump’s sweeping retaliatory tariffs.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 1,570 points, though in percentage terms the decline was a somewhat-less-alarming 3.7%. Even so, the Nasdaq was down almost 5% and the S&P 4% (a level of decline rarely seen) and the U.S. dollar also was slumping.

Markets are on track for their worst day since March 2020, during the panic of the onset of Covid.

Individual stock moves made the board almost completely red, with Apple and Meta down 8% and Amazon 9.5%. Entertainment shares were not spared, with Disney down 6%, Warner Bros. Discovery off by 8%, Fox Corp. slipping 5% and Roku tumbling 15%.

While the entertainment industry took some comfort in the fact that services and digital wares are not subject to the tariffs, the broader economic impact is expected to be harsh and immediate. Inflation and jacked-up costs for businesses of all sizes are expected to take a toll on the economy, and advertising spending is apt to be pulled back as corporations look to cut costs.

Trump unveiled the tariffs Wednesday in a meandering White House Rose Garden news conference. Futures markets began sinking as he was talking. A baseline 10% reciprocal tariff was put in place on all trading partners, with varying country-specific rates. China, India, Taiwan, Thailand, and Vietnam are slated to be hit with tariffs of 34%, 26%, 32%, 36%, and 46%, respectively. The European Union also faces a 20% tariff. The measures will take effect in stages over the next week.

The severity of the tariffs is the start of a far-reaching overhaul of the trading system and global economic landscape that has existed since World War II. Already, the markets have stumbled due to uncertainty, but Thursday dawned with more unknowns than ever. How will companies respond to the command to bring manufacturing Stateside? Will other countries retaliate? Will the notable defections in the Republican Party (with Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky criticizing the tariffs on the Senate floor and on Fox News) create political impediments?

Krish Sankar, a tech analyst with TD Cowen, addressed the “disruptive” move by Trump in a note to clients. With White House officials insisting on the need for steeper-than-forecast tariffs as a way to bring manufacturing back in the U.S., Sankar assessed the potential for the tech hardware businesses he covers.

“We believe there is some scope for U.S.-based capacity for server manufacturing to increase further in the near/medium term, limited capacity for PC notebook manufacturing, and de minimis for smartphones,” he wrote.

A primary question for the corporate world is whether top execs will swiftly respond to the trade crackdown and move their operations to the U.S., an expensive proposition. Some analysts believe it is more likely that a number of major players will simply wait things out, with Trump in his lame-duck term. “Shifting things around is going to be quite complicated,” Derrick Kam, Asia economist at Morgan Stanley, told the Wall Street Journal. 

U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick made the media rounds Thursday morning to defend the tariffs. He said repeatedly during a CNBC interview that “America needs to protect itself.” As to the rest of the world, “These countries need to fundamentally alter the way they do business.”