April 2025: tariff whiplash and five Tuesdays
April 2025 compressed a whole market cycle into eight days. Sweeping tariffs were announced on April 2, with a 10 percent baseline and far higher rates for many countries. Trillions in market value evaporated. Then a 90-day pause on April 9 delivered the S&P 500's biggest single-day gain since 2008. Underneath the noise, the calendar held steady: 30 days, opening on a Tuesday, weeks 14 to 18.
The month's shape
Thirty days, Tuesday to Wednesday, with five Tuesdays, five Wednesdays and four of everything else. Five Tuesdays is a lot of Tuesday. That makes 22 business days and 8 weekend days.
The moon ran first quarter on April 5 and last quarter on April 21. Full came on Sunday, April 13; new on April 27. The full one is April's Pink Moon.
Tariff whiplash in one line
Here is the line worth keeping. After the April 2 announcement, April 9 brought the 90-day pause and a record one-day rebound. Markets fell hard, then jumped harder. Investors got a full education in eight days.
The announcement set a 10 percent baseline, with far higher rates for many countries. Trillions in market value evaporated before the pause arrived.
A somber April
April carried real grief. In Santo Domingo, the roof of the Jet Set nightclub collapsed onto a packed merengue concert on April 8. The collapse killed 236 people.
On April 22, gunmen killed at least 26 tourists near Pahalgam in Indian-administered Kashmir. It was the deadliest attack on civilians there in a quarter century. Pope Francis died on April 21 at 88, a day after his final public appearance in St Peter's Square.
His funeral on April 26 drew some 250,000 mourners and dozens of world leaders to St Peter's Square. He was buried at Santa Maria Maggiore, as he had asked.
Sport, screens and dire wolves
Alex Ovechkin scored his 895th career goal on April 6, passing Wayne Gretzky to become the NHL's all-time leading scorer. A Minecraft Movie opened April 4 with roughly $313 million worldwide, the biggest opening weekend of 2025 to that point.
Ryan Coogler's Sinners topped the box office late in the month. It matched its opening the next weekend, a near-zero drop rarely seen in two decades. Liverpool clinched a record-tying 20th English league title on April 27.
Science supplied its own headline. On April 7, Colossal Biosciences unveiled three pups gene-edited from gray wolves to carry dire wolf traits. The company billed it as a first de-extinction; scientists debated the claim. Nintendo priced the Switch 2 at $449.99 on April 2, for a June 5 launch.
April 2025 got its market madness done by the 9th and closed on a Wednesday. The Pink Moon kept its own schedule.