How One of the Wildest Weeks in Market History Unfolded (2025)

Ryan Dezember and Sam Goldfarb

Fri, Apr 11, 2025, 9:00 PM 5 min read

The biggest one-day rally since the financial crisis. The most volatile stretch since the Covid meltdown. A bond selloff that sent yields surging. A steep slide in the dollar. And rattled investors driving gold to new records.

Yet one of the most tumultuous weeks in years for financial markets ended with all three major U.S. indexes up 5% or more.

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For Wall Street, it was a bruising run. Traders described scenes of tension, where the rapid surges and dives made it difficult to determine the prices of various investments. And the sheer violence of the moves left many exhausted and bracing for more trouble ahead.

With the Dow Jones Industrial Average ending Friday on a 600-plus point gain, Jed Ellerbroek, portfolio manager at Argent Capital Management in St. Louis, said the declines earlier this week and last had clients calling to ask whether or not to buy more shares. Meanwhile, he grew concerned watching individual investors pumping more money than usual into big stock funds.

Such investors might be expecting a scenario like the 2020 Covid crash, which was short-lived and led to an epic rally. They might have forgotten how stocks fell more than 50% in the 2008 crash and took years to recoup the losses, Ellerbroek said.

“That leaves me feeling like this downturn probably has more to go,” he said.

The S&P 500 rose 1.8% on Friday to end the week up 5.7%. The tech heavy Nasdaq Composite increased 2.1%, for a weekly gain of 7.3%. The blue-chip Dow added 1.6% Friday to lift its weekly rise to 5%.

All three indexes remain below where they were trading when President Trump launched his tariff blitz last week from the White House Rose Garden. All three are down on the year.

The volatility began last week after Trump shocked investors, economists, business leaders and trade partners with a barrage of tariffs that were far steeper than anyone expected. A four-day selloff ensued, but it was Wednesday when the wild ride peaked.

A sharp climb in Treasury yields was alarming investors ahead of the opening bell Wednesday when Trump took to social media to say that it was “a great time to buy.” By the day’s end, U.S. stocks had staged a historic rally after another online post from the president announced a 90-day pause on some tariffs and signaled a willingness to negotiate on trade.