"The market doesn't like the tariff stuff, the added uncertainty that keeps them from planning and making decisions," said Jed Ellerbroek, portfolio manager at Argent Capital, in St. Louis, Missouri.
"Trump is ... wreaking havoc, with his advisors talking about detox, about how maybe a recession is coming, maybe not. It's unsettling, indecisive, it's bad for the economy and bad for the stock market."
Those anxieties were laid bare by a dire report from the University of Michigan, which showed consumer sentiment plummeting to its most pessimistic level in nearly two years and one-year inflation expectations spiking to 4.9%.
The report echoes other recent downbeat survey data, including a Reuters/Ipsos poll of Americans conducted March 11-12 that showed 57% of survey participants believe Trump's policies will do more harm than good.