After former President Donald Trump’s sweeping new trade tariffs rattled global markets this week, CNBC’s Jim Cramer warned that Monday could bring a catastrophic market crash—possibly the worst single-day drop since the infamous Black Monday of 1987, when the Dow Jones Industrial Average plummeted 22.6% in one session.
Speaking on his show Mad Money, Cramer said,
“If the president doesn't try to reach out and reward these countries and companies that play by the rules, then the 1987 scenario... has the most cogency.”He added ominously, “We will know it by Monday.”
Markets have already been in a tailspin.
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Dow Jones plunged 1,679 points on Thursday, followed by another 2,231-point loss on Friday, marking the worst two-day slide since the COVID crash in March 2020.
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The Nasdaq and S&P 500 fell 5.8% and 5.5%, respectively.
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The panic spread globally, with European, Asian, and Indian markets also deep in the red.
Despite the selloff, Cramer noted that strong U.S. job data may prevent a full-blown recession.
“It makes it less likely a crash will necessarily lead to a recession,” he said.
Cramer, who says he was “in cash for the crash” in ’87, added, “I know what this feels like.”
But not everyone is buying into the panic. While Cramer has made accurate calls during previous crises like the dot-com bubble and 2007 recession, he also famously recommended Bear Stearns, Lehman Brothers, and Merrill Lynch just before they collapsed in the 2008 financial meltdown. That history has led many to take his current doomsday warning with a pinch of salt.
