On 2 April 2025 the US announced new tariffs: taxes on goods coming in from almost every country. In the next two trading days the S&P 500, the big US index, fell about 10.5%.
← From ZeroWhat happened Why so fast The numbers The trap Where you see it In one lineNext · 4.5The election changed less than the headlines
Markets had expected tariffs, just smaller ones. The surprise was the size. Prices move most on the gap between what people expected and what happened.
Europe fell too. The Euro Stoxx 50, an index of big euro area companies, lost about 8% in the same two days. US shares lost about $6.6 trillion of value: a two-day record.
The first headline is not the end. On 9 April most of the new tariffs were paused for 90 days, and the S&P 500 rose 9.5% in one day: its biggest daily rise since 2008.
A world index fund holds shares from many countries. Its factsheet shows the split by country. That split tells you which news reaches your money, and how much.
Markets move on surprises, fast and both ways. The first headline is rarely the whole story.
Do it today
Check your index fund’s split by country.
Episode done · saved to your path