Donald Trump's tariffs have made the market unpredictable. Here's what to do.

Donald Trump's tariffs are destabilizing the market and caused the S&P 500 index to drop as much as 5% on April 7th before trimming losses.

Transcript

00:00The stock market is in meltdown mode amid the global trade war.

00:04On Monday, the benchmark S&P 500 fell as much as 5% before pairing losses.

00:09The index has now fallen roughly 20% from recent highs and is flirting with bear market

00:14territory.

00:15Fueling the stock selling is President Trump's wide-ranging tariffs.

00:19Experts across Wall Street have been surprised at the magnitude of the tariffs announced

00:23by Trump, which they see as destabilizing the global economic outlook.

00:27Trump ratcheted the stakes even higher midday on Monday, vowing to impose additional tariffs

00:32of 50% on China unless the nation withdraws its retaliatory levies on U.S. goods.

00:38And he's given them a deadline of Tuesday.

00:40It's created a hyper-volatile market environment.

00:42Here are four pieces of advice the average person can follow.

00:46First, don't sell while the market is down.

00:48Be patient and wait for a rebound.

00:50Second, seek out safe havens like gold or treasury bonds, or even less risky parts of

00:55the stock market, like consumer staples.

00:57Third, resist the urge to day trade in an attempt to perfectly time market swings.

01:02The fluctuations are too unpredictable, and it's nearly impossible to get the timing exactly right.

01:07And fourth, make sure to have some cash set aside.