Wall Street sell-off accelerates as recession fears flare

Wall Street stocks fell early Monday — with losses deepening close to midday — after U.S. President Donald Trump declined to rule out the chance of a recession while companies grappled with growing tariffs.

Investors have been increasingly concerned about a possible downturn as Trump piled a growing list of tariffs on imports, hitting everyone from manufacturers reliant on goods from Canada and Mexico to producers affected by retaliatory levies.

The tech-focused Nasdaq Composite Index lost 3.6% around 11am (1500 GMT) to 17,542.75, while the broad-based S&P 500 shed around 2.0% to 5,657.36.

The Nasdaq was bogged down by retreats in the so-called Magnificent Seven tech stocks, which include Google parent Alphabet, Amazon, Meta and Nvidia.

Tesla stocks in particular slumped by more than 8.3 %

Minutes into trading on Monday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average slid 1.1% to 42,320.56, while the S&P 500 Index fell 1.6% to 5,677.76.

The Nasdaq Composite Index plunged 2.3% to 17,782.54.

The fluctuations came after stock markets appeared somewhat assuaged at the end of last week on Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell's comments that the U.S. economy was in a good place.

But on Sunday, Trump told a Fox News interviewer that he disliked predicting things like a recession, when asked directly about such a possibility.

"There is a period of transition, because what we're doing is very big — we're bringing wealth back to America," Trump said.

He added, however, that this takes some time.

"Market participants are losing faith in the notion that President Trump will forestall a market decline with a reversal in his policies if those policies are the basis for a material decline in stock prices," said Patrick O'Hare of Briefing.com in a note.

Looking ahead, investors are eyeing a consumer inflation report due midweek for further signals on how the economy is faring.

They will also be weighing the possibility of a government shutdown as lawmakers seek to avert a closure by Friday.