Dow Jones Falls for Second Straight Session as Tariff Shock and AI Fears Grip Wall Street This Week
The Dow Jones Industrial Average opened Monday, March 2 under heavy pressure, with futures pointing lower as Wall Street carries a bruising February into the new month — the index's worst monthly performance since April 2025 and its first losing month after an eight-month winning streak.
The Dow closed Friday, February 27 at 48,977.92, down 521 points or 1.05% on the session, dragged lower by a hotter-than-expected producer price index reading that rattled confidence in Federal Reserve rate cuts and revived fears that tariff costs are being passed directly to consumers.
Tariffs and Inflation Drive the Dow's February Collapse
The week's sharpest single-day loss came Monday, February 23, when the Dow dropped 822 points to close at 48,804 after President Donald Trump escalated tariff policy, announcing a new 15% rate on U.S. imports through separate legal authority, days after the Supreme Court had struck down the prior mechanism used to impose duties.
American Express and Goldman Sachs led financial sector declines throughout the week, falling 8.16% and 7.64% respectively on Friday alone, as private credit contagion fears amplified the broader selloff. Nvidia extended its month-long slide, dropping an additional 4.1% on Friday as analysts questioned whether the pace of AI infrastructure spending by major tech firms is sustainable at current valuations.
Block's announcement that it would cut more than 4,000 jobs — nearly half its workforce — added a fresh layer of concern, hitting financial technology stocks and reinforcing the narrative that AI disruption is beginning to reshape corporate payrolls in real time.
ISM Manufacturing Data and MongoDB Earnings Move Markets March 2
Wall Street enters March 2 with two immediate catalysts on the calendar. January construction spending and the February ISM Manufacturing PMI are both due today ET, providing the first hard read on how tariff uncertainty filtered into economic activity during the month now closed.
MongoDB is also expected to report earnings today, a closely watched print given the recent selloff in software names. Any guidance cut could deepen pressure on the Nasdaq, which finished February down roughly 2.6% and has now broken through the floor of its medium-term rising trend channel on technical charts.
The 10-year Treasury yield slipped below 4% in early trading Monday, down more than 30 basis points from January's peak of 4.31%, as investors rotated toward bonds amid private credit market anxiety. Gold, by contrast, climbed more than 11% in February, approaching its late-January record close as hard asset demand surged on dollar weakness and tariff uncertainty.
