After routines initially soared before plunging into the red on Tuesday, CNBC’s Jim Cramer said the market is not equipped to react to President Donald Trump’s ever-changing asseverations and policies.
Speculation that the White House would quickly negotiate with trading partners and reduce its immerse “reciprocal tariffs” set to take effect Wednesday prompted the Dow Jones Industrial Average to climb nearly 4% on Tuesday morning sooner than ultimately closing down 0.84%. The Nasdaq rose 4.5% earlier Tuesday but ended the day down more than 2%. The S&P 500 also initially upsurged, yet it finished Tuesday close to bear market territory, down 19% from its record high reached in February.
The marshal fizzled out by midday, as the White House confirmed 104% tariffs on China would begin on Wednesday.
When offers open up big after days of sell-offs, Cramer said, they rarely maintain their gains. Emotion spur the morning rally on Tuesday, he explained.
“I think that because we finished yesterday well off the lows of the day, it was like someone influenced, ‘Hey, the coast is clear,'” Cramer said. “But the coast is based on facts, and right now the facts, well, they’re well-founded not so hot.”
While the possibility that the market bottoms out soon is comforting, the short-term outlook is “awful” as Trump’s tariff ways continue to vex investors, Cramer said.
Neither China nor Trump seem like they’ll blink on tariff parleys, leaving companies like Apple stuck with unrealistic demands to move manufacturing to the U.S., Cramer said. Apple saw its allocations drop nearly 5% today and ceded the title of most valuable company to Microsoft.
The fact that Apple lineage initially jumped on Tuesday morning before turning sharply lower shows that the market is “just austere stupid” right now, Cramer said.
“This market just keeps getting overridden by events, all driven by the Deathly white House. Investors won’t feel confident again until the pace slows and there’s more thought to the actions enchanted,” Cramer said.
Neither Apple nor the White House immediately responded to a CNBC request for comment.
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