President Donald Trump’s tariff-driven trade wars are taking a toll on stocks. The S&P has fallen more than 10% from its recent high, into what is known as “correction” territory. Is a bear market next?

Corrections are “relatively rare yet symbolically worrisome milestones for the markets,” said The New York Times. The S&P isn’t the only index taking a beating: Nasdaq and the Russell 2000 have also fallen into correction territory. The turmoil is a “reflection of the uncertainty surrounding Trump’s policies” and worries that consumers and businesses are pulling back, “driving the economy into a downturn.” That’s a surprising turn for a president who once “continually took credit for a booming stock market,” said the Times.

But this doesn’t look to be the start of a bear market, said Bloomberg. A bear market is defined as a drop of 20% or more from the recent high, which means that a correction is a signpost on the way to bear territory. The drop in stock prices will probably provoke a “flip in trade and monetary policy,” said Bank of America analyst Michael Hartnett. For now, though, “we say this is a correction, not a bear market.”

What did the commentators say?

Corrections can be a good thing. Market pros see them as “potentially healthy wipeouts of overdone euphoria,” said Stan Choe at The Associated Press. The S&P had seen two straight years of growth of more than 20%, with stock prices rising “faster than corporate profits.” The latest correction may simply be “culling too-high enthusiasm among day traders.” Corrections always carry with them a “larger fear” that a bear market is in the making, however. While the economy seems “relatively solid at the moment,” uncertainty abounds. The economy’s future “looks cloudier than usual given all the unknowns.”

Investors “spent last year wish-casting about Trump’s agenda,” Catherine Rampell said at The Washington Post. They assumed he would implement policies they favor, like tax cuts and deregulation, while pulling back from his promises to implement tariffs and reduce the workforce with mass deportations. And they may have assumed that “market losses would temper him.” But Trump really meant to do what he said he would do. “Markets are only figuring it out now?”

What next?

“Nobody can say for sure when the selloff will end,” said MarketWatch. It can be tough to tell if the correction is starting to “snowball” into a bear market. One thing to keep in mind: Three bear markets within a decade would be an “extremely rare occurrence.” The last time that happened was the 1960s. There have already been two bear markets this decade, the first when COVID crashed the markets in 2020 and again when inflation started to spike in 2022. Investors will be keeping an “eye on the upcoming economic data” to see what happens next.

The chills of winter are nearly over, with the calendar turning to spring and the snow melting. As the weather begins to warm, you can get back into the swing of live music with a series of concert tours from some big-name artists.

Ed Sheeran

Ed Sheeran has grown to become one of the most popular singers of his generation, and now the red-haired, lanky Englishman is getting ready to embark on his next concert tour. Sheeran’s “+–=÷× (Mathematics)” Tour is the singer’s fourth of his career and comes in support of a pair of his albums: 2021’s “=” and 2023’s “-.” Sheeran has been touring throughout the world over the past few years. Beginning in April, the tour will take him to 16 cities in 12 countries throughout Europe, Scandinavia and the Middle East. He previously played in several cities across the U.S. in 2024. (through September 2025)

Usher

Usher is widely recognized as one of the most influential R&B artists of all time, and now he is getting ready to go cross-continent with his “Past Present Future” Tour. The singer, who recently completed his highly anticipated residency at Caesar’s Palace and Park MGM in Las Vegas, will perform in five cities throughout Europe, the Middle East and Scandinavia, including 10 shows in London (eight of which are already sold out). Usher has been on the move this past year in the U.S., having finished the American leg of his tour in December. (through May 2025)

Gracie Abrams

These past few years have seen several Gen Z singers burst onto the scene, and Gracie Abrams is certainly among them. Since releasing her debut album, “Good Riddance,” in 2023, Abrams has been on a significant rise, and now the daughter of director J.J. Abrams is hitting the road again. Abrams’ “The Secret of Us” Tour supports her second LP of the same name and will feature shows in an astounding 32 cities across Asia, Oceania, Europe and the U.S. Abrams is “extremely grateful for the opportunity to tour this album,” she said on Instagram. (through August 2025)

Sabrina Carpenter

Speaking of Gen Z singers, there might not be a bigger name in the industry right now than Sabrina Carpenter. She has been on a stratospheric rise the past few years and at the age of 25 has already released six studio albums. Her latest “Short n’ Sweet” Tour will be in support of her sixth LP of the same name, featuring her hit singles “Espresso” and “Please Please Please.” The tour will run the majority of the year and feature 38 shows in cities across Europe, Scandinavia and the U.S., with the latter set to feature an additional North American leg. (through November 2025)

LCD Soundsystem

LCD Soundsystem remains one of the most popular “electronic” rock bands of this century, becoming one of the pioneers of the then still-recent genre. The band is currently working on their upcoming fifth LP and are embarking on a North American and European tour before it drops. The tour runs through the summer and features 22 concerts in 10 cities across the United States and Europe. As far as that new album? “Don’t ask me when that is, because we’re still working on it. But it feels very good to be putting out new music,” the band said on Instagram last November. (through June 2025)

Coldplay

When popular rock bands come to mind, Coldplay is at the top of the list. The group has released 10 LPs during their career, and is embarking on their “Music of the Spheres” World Tour in support of two they recently released: 2021’s “Music of the Spheres” and 2024’s “Moon Music.” This marks Coldplay’s first live tour since the Covid-19 pandemic and will feature 39 shows in cities throughout the U.S., Europe and Asia. There may not be a ton of time left to hear Coldplay’s new tunes: The band is “only going to do 12 proper albums,” said frontman Chris Martin. (through September 2025)

Phish

Phish is not the only rock band on this list, but they might be the one with the most devoted following. Fans of the group will follow them wherever they perform, and those loyalists will have a chance to do that this spring when the band embarks on a North American tour.

The tour will feature eight shows in four American cities and will be followed by a longer summer tour crisscrossing the United States. For those who cannot catch the concerts, there is a website offering recordings of their live shows. (through July 2025)

Kendrick Lamar and Sza

Fresh off his Super Bowl halftime extravaganza, Kendrick Lamar is still “Not Like Us,” as the acclaimed rapper and musician will be headlining his “Grand National Tour” from spring through the summer. Lamar will be joined on stage by fellow rap star Sza, and the tour will be one of his biggest yet. It will feature nearly 40 shows in 31 cities across the U.S., Europe and Scandinavia. The concert is in support of Lamar’s sixth LP, “GNX,” which was released to critical acclaim in 2024 and features his hit singles “Luther” and “Squabble Up.” (through August 2025)

Kane Brown

Kane Brown is one of country music’s up-and-coming stars, and recently released his fourth album, “The High Road,” featuring collaborations with icons like Jelly Roll and Brad Paisley. Those who want to hear the songs live are in luck, because Brown is embarking on a tour of the same name in support of the LP. The tour is a massive one, set to feature 50 shows across the U.S., Canada and Europe. The tour life is not a new one for Brown, who at the age of 31 has already embarked on numerous concert journeys since he began his career in 2016. (through October 2025)

Djo

Djo is the stage name of Joe Keery, who has gone from being an actor on the hit Netflix series “Stranger Things” to one of the most popular singers of his era. His song “End of Beginning” on his second LP made waves on social media, and now Keery is capitalizing on that success by embarking on the “Back on You World Tour.” The tour, Keery’s first as a musician, will be in support of his forthcoming studio album “The Crux.” It will feature more than 30 shows in cities across the U.S., Canada and Europe, with Keery’s former band Post Animal joining for many of them. (through June 2025)

What happened

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) said Thursday night that faced with two “terrible” options, he will vote for a House Republican stopgap spending bill, and he reportedly said he had enough Democratic votes to overcome a filibuster by his party. Only one other Democrat, Sen. John Fetterman (Pa.), has publicly said he will back the legislation. Senate passage before midnight Friday would keep the government funded through September.

Who said what

Schumer’s announcement “stunned many of his colleagues” and infuriated House Democrats, The New York Times said. Senate Democrats have “agonized” for days over what “many of them described an impossible choice between two evils.” Those opposed to the bill, The Washington Post said, argued it lacks the typical directives that “dictate how money can be spent,” enabling President Donald Trump and Elon Musk to “lay off government workers and seek to eliminate programs without congressional input.”

Schumer said Thursday that while the GOP bill is “deeply partisan” and “nihilistic,” he believed allowing Trump to “take even much more power via a government shutdown is a far worse option.” Trump would have “full authority to deem whole agencies” nonessential, “furloughing staff with no promise that they would ever be rehired,” he said, while congressional Republicans could revive only “their favorite departments and agencies,” leaving the rest to “languish” indefinitely.

What next?

The bill, now likely to pass Friday afternoon, funds the government at current levels until Sept. 30, “with some key exceptions,” The Wall Street Journal said. It cuts $13 billion for nondefense programs, boosts military spending by $6 billion, claws back another $20.2 billion of IRS funds to increase tax compliance by wealthy people and leaves Washington, D.C., with a $1.1 billion shortfall.

What happened

The White House Thursday withdrew the nomination of Dr. Dave Weldon, a vaccine skeptic and former Florida congressmen, to lead the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The Senate health committee announced Weldon’s pulled nomination an hour before his confirmation hearing was scheduled to begin.

Who said what

Weldon said the White House told him Wednesday night there were “not enough votes to get me confirmed” in the Republican-led health committee. It was a “rare setback” for a Trump nominee in a Senate that has confirmed “every controversial choice brought to a full vote,” The Washington Post said. Weldon’s withdrawal was “partly driven by concerns about the political consequences” of his “longtime promotion of the false claim that vaccines can cause autism,” especially during a growing measles outbreak that’s “become a cautionary tale for the consequences of low immunization rates.”

Weldon would have been the “first CDC director nominee to have to go through Senate confirmation — the result of a provision in a law passed during the Biden administration,” The Associated Press said. Had he been confirmed, Weldon and Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a fellow vaccine skeptic, would have wielded enormous control over U.S. vaccine policy.

What next?

It is “unclear” if the White House has a “backup candidate” in mind, The New York Times said. The CDC is being led in the interim by acting director Dr. Susan Monarez, recently the deputy director of the HHS’s new Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health.

What happened

Federal judges in Maryland and California Thursday ordered the Trump administration to rehire thousands of probationary workers they said were improperly fired across 19 agencies. Thursday was also President Donald Trump’s deadline for federal agencies to submit plans for further “mass” workforce reductions and significant budget cuts.

Who said what

The “back-to-back rulings were the most significant blow yet” to efforts by Trump and Elon Musk’s DOGE team to “drastically shrink the federal bureaucracy,” Reuters said. Judge William Alsup in San Francisco and, hours later, Judge James Bredar in Baltimore both said the White House had not followed the proper legal procedures to lay off at least 24,000 probationary employees. They also criticized the administration for blaming the mass firings on performance reviews, with Alsup calling that a “sham to avoid statutory requirements.”

Alsup said the White House Office of Personnel Management had unlawfully directed the firings of probationary employees at six agencies, taking advantage of their fewer worker protections. “It is a sad, sad day when our government would fire some good employee and say it was based on performance when they know good and well that’s a lie,” he said. Bredar’s ruling, covering 18 agencies, focused on efforts to sidestep federal “rules intended to ensure that states are ready to bear the load cast upon them when mass layoffs occur.”

Government lawyers said Trump has broad authority to fire workers and claimed that individual agencies directed the firings, not OPM. The administration “faces dozens of legal challenges to agency dismantlings” and other DOGE-related cuts and information access, The Washington Post said. Several “federal judges have grown frustrated by the inability of the government’s own lawyers to answer straightforward questions” about DOGE’s structure or activities, The New York Times said. Two judges in Washington this week ordered DOGE to hand over documents and answer questions about its role in Trump’s government downsizing, and submit to Freedom of Information Act requests.

What next?

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said the Trump administration “will immediately fight back” against the “absurd and unconstitutional” rulings. The White House also said it would release the details of each agency’s second round of cuts and mass layoffs “once the plans are enacted.”