At long last the market has been liberated from Nvidia (Ticker: NVDA).
Barely four short weeks ago the investment universe was pinning the future of the bull market on Nvidia’s (Ticker: NVDA) quarterly earnings report. Without solid earnings and revenue beats by the AI chipmaker, the market’s momentum would dry up and the rally would reverse - or at least that's what the financial pundits said back then. Without spectacular forward guidance on that crucial post-earnings conference call, the bears would take charge, the strategists opined at the time.
Well, maybe they weren’t entirely wrong. Stocks have indeed stumbled since that supposedly critical day. Then again, the move downward has come despite Nvidia posting fairly impressive results. As a result, it's hard to judge whether or not that particular day actually did make or break the bull run.
Either way, the market has moved on. And based on yesterday’s action, a new drop-dead date has dawned.
The fate of the financial world will no longer be determined by Nvidia’s next public release. Alas, it will now be decided on April 2, otherwise known as “Liberation Day.”
President Trump has been promoting April 2 as the day which his many promised import taxes will go into effect. Trump had previously promised levies on a wide variety of goods imported from foreign countries, including autos, pharmaceuticals, microchips, copper and lumber to name a few.
The S&P soared by over 1.7 percent on Monday after investors felt increasingly assured that the most punishing tariffs may not be put into effect on Liberation Day. According to the Wall Street Journal and Bloomberg, the President’s product-specific tariffs will likely not be enacted on April 2. Furthermore, the administration’s highly touted 25 percent tariffs on Mexican and Canadian goods may not take effect next week.
So with so much riding once again on a single calendar date, what are wealth managers doing to prepare themselves and their client portfolios?
Tom Graff, chief investment officer at Facet, views tariffs as a “definite negative” for the economy. However, he believes the recent market sell-off was more about valuations correcting than tariff fears. Ultimately, he believes think the tariff effect will be “meaningful, but still relatively small.”
“We think emerging markets are more vulnerable to tariffs than the U.S. That hasn't played out so far in 2025, but we think that is a short-term phenomenon driven by positioning shifts. We went underweight emerging markets during the election in part anticipating that tariffs could be coming,” Graff said.
Moreover, Graff also does not see the upcoming Liberation Day as being a big deal by itself.
“I'm remembering the recurring ‘infrastructure weeks’ during the first Trump Administration. This is political marketing,” Graff said.
Similarly, Chuck Etzweiler, chief research officer & senior vice president at Nepsis, remains skeptical as to whether the first quarter correction is fully attributable to the discussion surrounding tariffs.
“Yes, the S&P 500 and Nasdaq composite indices are negative for the year and led mostly by the Mag 7, but the equal-weighted version of the S&P 500 and several dividend focused indices are positive. Could it be the excuse that traders needed to take profit in the momentum growth plays? Only time will tell,” Etzweiler said.
Etzweiler added that he took full advantage of the most recent sell-off and “bought more shares of some of the great companies we already own at what we believe to be a discount.” In his view, since the companies he purchased are likely not to be affected by any proposed tariffs, the fundamentals did not change.
When it comes to Liberation Day, Etzweiler believes it very well could turn out to be a major market event. And if not, then that’s fine with him too.
“If a sell-off occurs we have our shopping list out and ready to scoop up shares of great businesses on sale and if a rally ensues so be it as well,” Etzweiler said.
Finally, Brian Storey, head of multi-asset strategies at Brinker Capital Investments, believes the uncertainty being created by all the tariff talk could end up being a “more substantial negative overhang on financial markets than the potential intermediate-term economic impact of the tariffs themselves.”
“While the days leading up to this ‘Liberation Day’ and the days that follow are likely to experience heightened volatility across global equity markets, we think that this date is a more important one for short-term traders than longer-term investors,” Storey said.
Added Storey: “For those investors with a multi-year time horizon, we think this period will end up being less signal and more noise. Accordingly, we are encouraging investors to stick to their longer-term financial plans and not let the uncertainty and heightened emotion concerning tariffs and tariff talk drive their actions.”
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