Markets rebound, volatility
U.S. markets recovered from an April sell‑off with the S&P 500 bouncing back partly on hopes that a 90‑day tariff pause could de‑escalate trade tensions. Still, investors remain jittery — volatility is elevated as traders price policy uncertainty alongside economic risks. (webanditnews.com)
United States stocks have clawed back much of their April 2025 tariff shock, but the rebound has not erased the market’s nerves. (cnbc.com) The S&P 500 jumped 9.52% on April 9, 2025 after President Donald Trump said he would cut new tariff rates on most trading partners to 10% for 90 days while talks continued. The White House kept higher duties on China in place. (cnbc.com) That rally followed a sharp selloff tied to the original tariff rollout, and traders quickly treated the pause as temporary rather than final. CNBC reported on April 10, 2025 that investors were already focused on what happens when the 90-day clock runs out. (cnbc.com) Volatility is the market’s estimate of how violently prices may swing next, and Wall Street tracks it with the Cboe Volatility Index. Cboe says the index reflects the market’s consensus view of expected moves in the S&P 500 over the next 30 days. (cboe.com) That gauge spiked during the April 2025 tariff panic and stayed central to trading even after stocks bounced. FRED’s Cboe Volatility Index series shows the measure remained far above its long-run calm-period lows during that stretch. (fred.stlouisfed.org) The reason traders still care is that tariffs hit two parts of the outlook at once: company costs and consumer prices. Federal Reserve researchers wrote in March 2026 and April 2026 that the tariff changes of 2025 raised pressure on retail prices and sharpened interest in measuring those effects in real time. (federalreserve.gov) That leaves investors trying to price three moving targets at once: whether tariff rates stick, whether inflation stays hot, and whether the Federal Reserve has room to cut interest rates. The market can rise on relief and still stay jumpy if none of those questions has a settled answer. (federalreserve.gov) The rebound, then, is not a clean signal that the trade fight is over. It is closer to a reset in expectations after a policy shock, with stocks recovering faster than certainty did. (cnbc.com)
