Republican Senator Insists 'Buy Stocks Today' as Market Suffers Steepest Losses in Years

As Wall Street reels from one of its worst trading days in years, Sen. Bernie Moreno (R-OH) is urging investors to see the silver lining—insisting that now is the time to buy stocks.

"I would go out and buy stocks today," Moreno told reporters, dismissing concerns over the historic selloff in the wake of President Donald Trump's sweeping tariffs. "Lots of opportunity, lots of companies that have great valuation. There's no reason that Apple stock should be down."

The S&P 500 plummeted 4%, the Dow Jones tumbled 1,600 points, and the Nasdaq cratered 5.97%, with nearly $1 trillion in market value wiped out—led by Apple's $321 billion loss as the tech giant took a 32% earnings hit from the tariffs. Major retailers, financial firms, and semiconductor companies also suffered double-digit losses.

Moreno's optimism was met with skepticism from analysts and investors. The
"tariff announcement was more impactful than expected and viewed by many as the worst-case scenario" for businesses reliant on global supply chains, Nationwide's chief market strategist, Mark Hackett, told Forbes.

UBS strategists warned that the odds of a bear market—a 20% or more decline—are now rising, while Bank of America's Savita Subramanian cautioned, "There is no tariff playbook."

Meanwhile, Trump himself brushed off the market turmoil, insisting things are "going very well."

"The markets are going to boom, the stock is going to boom, the country is going to boom," Trump said Thursday afternoon. But for now, investors appear unconvinced.