"Black Monday" strikes, global risk assets plummet

On April 7, a wave of tariffs swept across the globe, fueling widespread market panic and intensifying the sell-off in risk assets. Following a nearly 10% decline last week, U.S. stock futures opened sharply lower on Monday. SP 500 and Nasdaq futures both plunged more than 5% at one point, before narrowing losses to 2.39% and 3.17% respectively as of press time. Dow futures were down 2.42%.

Asia-Pacific markets also suffered steep losses at the open. Japan’s Nikkei Index plummeted 8.1%, South Korea’s KOSPI dropped 5.14%, all three major A-share indexes fell more than 4%, and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index plunged 9.28% at the open.

The crypto market saw a broad-based sell-off in close correlation with U.S. equities. Bitcoin moved sideways near $83,000 over the weekend, but began breaking key support levels early Monday, dropping to a low of $77,100 — its lowest level in nearly a month. Other major cryptocurrencies also posted significant declines. Ethereum tumbled 13.5% to $1,580. The total global crypto market cap fell from $2.4 trillion to $2.16 trillion, a 10% drop. Total liquidations across the network over the past 24 hours reached $886 million. The market is currently in a state of extreme fear.