How Today's Stock Rout Stacks Up to Other Trade-War Milestones

(Bloomberg) -- Donald Trump’s threat to impose tariffs against Mexico over illegal immigration has pushed the S&P 500 Index down by about 1%.

And while any day in which the U.S. stock market retreats by more than 1% is nothing to sniff at -- today would be only the seventh time the S&P 500 has declined as much this year -- how does it actually stack up to other milestone days during the tariff standoff?

• March 22-23, 2018: S&P 500 slumps 2.5% after Trump orders tariffs on $50 billion of Chinese imports for alleged intellectual-property abuses. The index falls 2.1% the following day after China hits back.
• May 29, 2018: Stocks decline 1.2% after the U.S. moves ahead with tariff plans against China following a brief truce.
• May 13, 2019: The S&P 500 plunges 2.4% after China announces that it would boost tariffs on $60 billion of U.S. goods as of June 1.
• May 31, 2019: The index slips 1% (as of 2 p.m. in New York) to a 12-week low after Trump threatens Mexico with escalating tariffs “until such time as illegal migrants coming through Mexico” comes to an end.

To contact the reporter on this story: Brandon Kochkodin in New York at bkochkodin@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Joe Weisenthal at jweisenthal@bloomberg.net, Michael Tsang

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