Investors Worry 'Soft Landing' Is Going Off Track

It appears the stock market will open in positive territory on Tuesday after Monday's steep selloff, though nowhere near big enough to recoup the losses. Dow futures were up about 100 points, reports CNBC, after losing nearly 900 at Monday's close. A "modicum of calm" also returned to markets in Europe and Asia, per Reuters. Few, however, were predicting a quick end to the current downturn. Coverage:

• The White House played down the market turmoil, which has largely been blamed on President Trump's tariffs, as momentary and for the greater good, reports the Washington Post. "There are a lot of reasons to be extremely bullish about the economy going forward," said White House National Economic Council Director Kevin Hassett. "But for sure, this quarter, there are some blips in the data." He predicted things would "take off" in the second quarter.

• The Wall Street Journal reports that investors are generally worried that Trump's team is going to mess up what had been a steady path toward a tricky-to-execute "soft landing"—the idea of reducing inflation without bringing on a recession. Trump himself declined to rule out the latter in a weekend interview. "That's making people quite nervous because if you get to the point where you are pushing the economy into a recession, there is no guarantee that that's just going to pass quickly," says Michael Strain of the conservative American Enterprise Institute.
• An analysis in the New York Times notes that Trump promised a "boom like no other" and an era of "soaring incomes" as a candidate. It's a sharp contrast to his current talk of a possible recession, with Trump asking people to bear some pain and look ahead to big-picture improvements. "The moment captures a fundamental challenge for Mr. Trump, a showman who makes absolute and sweeping promises that inevitably run into the reality of governing," writes Tyler Pager.
• "What's happening is very straightforward: Tariffs are what is causing the sell-offs across markets, and the risk of a slower pace of growth in the U.S. economy," says Joe Brusuelas of the tax and consulting firm RSM US, per the Post.
• So will there be a recession? An editorial in the Journal isn't so sure, but it notes that the combo of tariff anxiety and weakening consumer confidence suggests slower growth in the near future, at the very least. Trump's "deregulation and an extension of the 2017 tax reform should buoy business investment over the long term," the editors write. "But the higher costs and uncertainty caused by his tariffs are hurting the economy now. If Mr. Trump wants to quiet recession alarm, he would be wise to put his tariff plans on the shelf."

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