Stock Market Today: Dow Drops 971 Points on Powell Pressure

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Stocks opened lower Monday, and selling accelerated throughout the session. Today's declines were a result of continued losses in several of Wall Street's biggest stocks and growing chatter over President Donald Trump's desire to fire Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell.

The three main indexes all started the day with losses of 1% or more. At the close, the blue chip Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 2.5% at 38,170, the broader S&P 500 was off 2.4% at 5,158, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite was 2.6% lower at 15,870.

Big drops for several mega-cap stocks created notable pressure, with Nvidia (NVDA, -4.5%), Amazon.com (AMZN, -3.1%) and Apple (AAPL, -1.9%) among the worst Dow Jones stocks today.

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UnitedHealth Group (UNH) continued its historic post-earnings slide, too, dropping 6.3% to bring its two-day decline to 27%.

Tesla stock slides ahead of earnings

Tesla (TSLA), meanwhile, slid 5.8% ahead of its turn on the earnings calendar, slated for after Tuesday's close.

The latest drome came after Reuters reported the electric vehicle maker could delay the release of its lower-priced Model Y until 2026.

TSLA stock is now down 44% for the year to date amid slowing sales and backlash against CEO Elon Musk. Analysts expect the automaker's first-quarter results to show declines in both its top and bottom lines.

Discover pops on Capital One merger approval

In single-stock news, Discover Financial Services (DFS) was the best S&P 500 stock amid the broader sell-off, gaining 3.6% after regulators approved Capital One Financial's (COF, +1.5%) $35.5 billion purchase of the digital banking and credit card company.

The merger will create the eighth biggest U.S. bank, with assets of roughly $637.8 billion, and is expected to close on May 18.

Netflix gains in delayed earnings reaction

Netflix (NFLX) was another notable gainer Monday, rising 1.5% after the streaming giant reported earnings late Thursday. (Friday was a stock market holiday, with markets closed in observance of Good Friday.)

For the three months ending March 31, Netflix said first-quarter earnings were up 25.2% year over year to $6.61 per share, while revenue rose 12.5% to $10.5 billion.

This was the first quarter that Netflix did not disclose its subscriber numbers.

And while Trump's tariff uncertainty has created headaches for several U.S. companies, Netflix maintained its full-year revenue forecast, noting "there's been no material change" to its "overall business outlook" since its last earnings report.

Trump accelerates attacks on Powell

Arguably, the biggest impact on the markets today was Trump's increasing attacks against Fed Chair Powell.

The president posted this morning on Truth Social that the economy will slow "unless Mr. Too Late, a major loser, lowers interest rates, NOW," which sent the 10-year Treasury yield up 8.2 basis points to 4.409% and the dollar tumbling to a three-year low.

Powell's term ends in a little over a year from now, in May 2026. But Kevin Hassett, director of the National Economic Council, said last Friday that the president is "studying" whether the head of the U.S. central bank can be removed from his post before then.

Today's price action "sends a clear signal risk to Fed independence is negative for all major U.S. asset classes and provides a partial foretaste of what might come if President Trump – who again tweeted his demand for preemptive Fed rate cuts – were to actually try to fire Powell," say Evercore ISI analysts.

Gold prices gain as the dollar drops

The drop in the dollar boosted gold prices, which also got a lift from their safe-have status. Gold futures closed up 3% at $3,406.20 per troy ounce – a new record high.

Mason Mendez, investment strategy analyst at Wells Fargo Investment Institute, remains favorable on gold "as a potential hedge against concerns around U.S. economics and geopolitics."

However, he suggests investors be patient and buy on pullbacks, "which may provide a more attractive return for the level of risk being taken."

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With over a decade of experience writing about the stock market, Karee Venema is the senior investing editor at Kiplinger.com. She joined the publication in April 2021 after 10 years of working as an investing writer and columnist at a local investment research firm. In her previous role, Karee focused primarily on options trading, as well as technical, fundamental and sentiment analysis.