A video showing Fox News‘ Dow Watch numbers drop as Trump announces his tariffs has gone viral on social media.
The footage is set to the Curb Your Enthusiasm TV show’s theme tune, and zooms in on the Dow Jones ticker as it falls rapidly from 43,425.64 to 43,370.23 in 18 seconds. It has been viewed more than 391,300 times on X, formerly Twitter.
I put the Curb Your Enthusiasm music to the stock market falling in real time as Trump announces his tariffs. My masterpiece lmao pic.twitter.com/syNwWAgIv2
— Armand Domalewski (@ArmandDoma) March 4, 2025
Why This Matters
The Dow Jones, which tracks 30 publicly owned large companies trading on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) and Nasdaq, is one indicator of confidence in the market.
On Monday, the Dow Jones closed 649.67 points lower its opening, after the President announced he would be placing “tariffs—25 percent on Canada and 25 percent on Mexico.” He also announced on Truth Social that he will be placing “external” tariffs on agricultural goods, but did not elaborate further on what these would be, or how they would be implemented.
Another stock tracker, the S&P 500, which tracks the stock performance of 500 of the largest companies listed on several stock exchanges in the United States, dropped 104.78 points across the day. Additionally, per CNN‘s “fear and greed” index, “extreme fear” is currently the driving factor behind market moves.
Evan Vucci/AP Photo
The Wider Picture
Although Trump frequently threatened to implement tariffs on neighboring countries in his first term, he ended up renegotiating the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA).
Canadian Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau, has said the tariffs, which went into effect at midnight, “violate the very trade agreement that was negotiated by President Trump in his last term.”
President Trump has said these tariffs are being implemented to stop the flow of fentanyl into the United States, and to stop undocumented migrants from crossing the border.
Mexico has sued the United States over gun trafficking, citing that between 70-90 percent of all guns recovered at Mexican crime scenes have been trafficked there from the U.S. Additionally, 86 percent of all fentanyl taken into the United States was carried by American citizens and PM Trudeau stated: “less than one percent of the fentanyl intercepted at the U.S. border comes from Canada.”
Trump has said tariffs will result in more manufacturing getting done in the United States, but some company owners and American manufacturers have said the charges on imports will potentially push up global supply chain costs, hitting their profits.
Trump in his speech yesterday said: “What they have to do is build their car plants, frankly, and other things in the United States, in which case they have no tariffs.”
Ford CEO Jim Farley told investors in February that tariffs on Canada and Mexico would “blow a hole in the U.S. industry that we have never seen.” This is due to their cross-North-America supply chain, a supply chain which was supported by Trump’s USMCA agreement.
Klaus Adam, Professor of Economics at University College London told Newsweek: “I see no chance of U.S. manufacturing benefiting. Short-term there will be enormous costs from relocation & supply chain interruptions. In the long-term, tariffs reduce competitive pressure, which is generally not a recipe for success (except perhaps for infant industries).”
Ethan Cairns/The Canadian Press via AP
What People Are Saying
The White House: “President Donald J. Trump is proceeding with implementing tariffs on Canada and Mexico under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) to combat the extraordinary threat to U.S. national security, including our public health posed by unchecked drug trafficking … President Trump continues to demonstrate his commitment to ensuring U.S. trade policy serves the national interest.”
Canadian PM Justin Trudeau: “Because of the tariffs imposed by the U.S, Americans will pay more for groceries, gas, and cars, and potentially lose thousands of jobs. Tariffs will disrupt an incredibly successful trading relationship. They will violate the very trade agreement that was negotiated by President Trump in his last term.”
Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum: “United States [needs] to do its job in the U.S., to make the arrests that need to be made in order to halt the trafficking of drugs in its own country.”
Klaus Adam, Professor of Economics at University College London told Newsweek: “A general reorientation away from the U.S. will take place now no matter what. EU will try getting Mercosur completed and perhaps on getting free trade deals in the future with Canada and Mexico.”
What Happens Next
The stock market fall has created concern around where the market goes from here. It is far too early to tell whether the tariffs will have a positive effect on domestic manufacturing, or if businesses will suffer due to having to pay more for items from overseas.
