Wall Street Rollercoaster: Dow Plummets 500 Points Amid Earnings Chaos

Stocks Open Mixed as Investors Ride the Earnings and Trade Talk Wave

Hold onto your hats, folks! U.S. stocks kicked off Thursday, April 17 with a wild ride as the market swung like a pendulum, fueled by tariffs and a deluge of macroeconomic news.

Investors were glued to the edge of their seats, riding the rollercoaster of trade talks, but it was the earnings results that sent the Dow Jones Industrial Average into a nosedive. Opening lower, it quickly shed a whopping 500 points as UnitedHealth shares took a brutal hit.

On the flip side, the S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite dared to defy gravity, opening slightly higher at +0.3% and +0.4%. This mirrored the futures market's crystal ball, with TSMC shares skyrocketing after the contract chipmaker announced a mind-blowing 60% surge in first-quarter net profit.

But don't get too comfy, folks. The S&P 500 and Nasdaq were still feeling the heat, with bearish sentiment putting the squeeze on risk assets.

Meanwhile, the drama was unfolding on two fronts, both of which could have been market lifesavers. First up, President Donald Trump didn't hold back, slamming Fed Chair Jerome Powell as always being "late and wrong."

This came hot on the heels of Powell's comments about the U.S. tariffs leaving the central bank in a pickle, trying to juggle taming inflation and boosting growth.

Trump took to Truth Social, demanding that the Fed slash interest rates, pointing out that the European Central Bank had already cut rates multiple times - and was gearing up to do it again. Sure enough, the ECB went ahead and announced a 25-basis-point interest rate cut, bringing its key rate down to 2.25%.

In his fiery post, President Trump declared that "Powell's termination cannot come fast enough!"

With stocks taking a beating this week, led by chipmaker Nvidia, the Dow and S&P 500 were staring down the barrel of a more than 1% dip for the week. The tech-heavy Nasdaq had already shed a staggering 2.5% over the past five days. As we head into a shortened trading week, investors are desperately hoping for a positive close, with tariffs and monetary policy dominating their every thought.

And let's not forget about the crypto world, where Bitcoin (BTC) and other cryptocurrencies were feeling the chill of the broader risk-off sentiment, with BTC hovering around $84,500 in the past 24 hours.