Wall Street weathered another chaotic day of trading Monday, with false reports about a potential tariff reprieve briefly sending stocks higher before the White House rebuffed the idea and brought the prospects of a severe economic downturn back to the forefront.

The S&P 500 swung from a loss of as much as 4.7% to a gain of as much as 3.4% in morning trading, the biggest intraday swing for the S&P 500 since March 2020 and the COVID-19 pandemic. Volatility surged. The CBOE Vix Volatility index, known as Wall Street’s fear gauge, also rose to levels last seen during the pandemic-induced sell-off in March 2020.

The S&P 500 ended the day with a drop of 0.2% and 17.6% below its February peak. The index is on the precipice of a bear market — a rare marker of extreme market pessimismk.

The overarching concern for investors hasn’t changed. They are worried that steep tariffs imposed by the United States on huge swaths of imports, and the tit-for-tat response from China and other countries, will sink global growth and fuel inflation. Analysts noted that the cause of Monday’s brief rally — a false report that President Donald Trump is considering delaying the new tariffs — showed just how desperate investors are for any sign that the White House is hearing their concerns. And it means turmoil in the markets won’t end any time soon, said Edward Yardeni, an independent Wall Street economist.

“This one is likely to last a while given the intransigence of the Trump administration on the issue of tariffs,” he said. “The stock market clearly believes this is a disastrous policy.”

Asked earlier in the day about the possibility of a 90-day pause on the expansive tariffs announced by Trump last week, Kevin Hassett, director of the National Economic Council, said on Fox News, “I think the president is going to decide what the president is going to decide.”

It appeared the comments, aired live, were then misinterpreted as Hassett saying the president is considering a pause, before the false information gathered steam on social media.

Hedge fund manager Bill Ackman had said Sunday that he supported Trump’s attempt to fix global tariffs but implored the president to call a “90-day time out” Monday. Otherwise, “We are heading for a self-induced, economic nuclear winter, and we should start hunkering down,” he said. “May cooler heads prevail.”

Analysts have warned that the damage to the economy will depend on how long tariffs remain at elevated levels.

“The quicker this issue is resolved, the better because some of the negative effects increase cumulatively over time and would be hard to reverse,” Jamie Dimon, CEO of JPMorgan Chase, wrote in his annual letter to shareholders Monday.

Some bank economists are already forecasting that the economy will slip into recession later this year. Others hold out hope that the strength of the economy before Trump took office can withstand the current turmoil before being boosted by more business-friendly policies later this year.

On Monday, Trump doubled down, threatening China with a 104% tax on its exports to the United States starting later this week if it doesn’t rescind its tariffs on American products. After Trump announced last week that he would impose a new 34% tariff on China, Beijing responded by threatening to impose a 34% tax on U.S. imports.

China’s levies are set to go into effect later this week, shortly after the Trump administration’s “reciprocal” tariffs on dozens of countries are imposed. On Saturday, a 10% “baseline” tariff came into effect on nearly all goods coming into the United States.