It's scary' Wall Street traders on chaos and uncertainty

Traders leaving the New York stock exchange after the bell closed on Monday were sanguine about what had been a day of mood swings on Wall Street, as waves of volatility shook the markets, created by another deluge of headlines about Donald Trump's trade war and global economic uncertainty.

- Edward Helmore

"The markets opened down a lot, then there was a rumour that the tariffs were off, and they went back up, then all bets were off again and it went down," said one, Steve Kos of Option Circle.

Kos offered a series of trading day comparisons as he walked out on to Broad Street in Lower Manhattan. "You'd have to go back to 2020 with Covid, when people thought the world was going to end. Prior to that it was 2008."

Others leaving the exchange agreed that the reaction to a false report of a 90-day pause on US tariffs, except for China, which the White House press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, shot down as "fake news", showed just how edgy the markets are.

"The markets want to go higher, but they're waiting for a reason to go higher," said a trader who offered his name as Jay; like many others, he did not want to give his full name, as he said he was not authorised to speak to the media.