Since US President Donald Trump took office on January 20, 2025, the country’s stock markets and Bitcoin’s price have plunged. Despite the initial optimism surrounding Trump’s business and crypto-friendly agenda, the first couple of months of 2025 have not delivered the expected results.
Since Trump’s inauguration, all major US stock indexes have been in the red, with the Nasdaq down over 1 per cent so far in 2025, reported CNN.
A key factor driving the market’s struggles is worry over inflation. The Conference Board’s consumer confidence index, a major economic indicator, showed its largest monthly decline in February since August 2021, fuelling fears about rising inflation.
Apart from this, a concerning consumer confidence survey further dampened investor sentiment, pushing the Fear & Greed Index into the extreme fear zone for the first time since December 2024, reported CNN.
This shift towards caution is evident in the performance of Bitcoin, which was riding high during Trump’s inauguration. After reaching a peak of $1,06,000, the cryptocurrency has plunged by around 16 per cent in the past month and is now trading around $88,000.
With investors wary of market volatility, many are opting for safer investments like government bonds.
At the same time, last week, retail giant Walmart rattled the market by warning of slower sales growth in 2025, giving rise to fears of an economic slowdown.
In stark contrast, global markets have shown resilience. Europe’s STOXX 600 Index has risen nearly 10 per cent in 2025 while Chinese equities have outperformed the US.
According to the CNN report, analysts from Goldman Sachs said that China’s tech sector, particularly after the launch of DeepSeek’s LLM, has seen good growth. European tech companies, boosted by the ongoing developments in Ukraine, are also seeing improved performance.
Technology stocks, which have led the charge in recent years, have shown signs of vulnerability. Stocks like Nvidia, Palantir and even Elon Musk’s Tesla were among the hardest hit in a recent selloff a few days ago, with Tesla’s market value dipping below $1 trillion after an 8.4 per cent drop.