- 2025-04-03
- Posted by: kimsite
- Categories: Commentary, Insights, News
Click here to listen to the full interview.
PRESIDENT TRUMP: I think our markets are going to take off. We just need to give them a little time. But we’re bringing in jobs, industry, and trillions of dollars. I really believe our markets are going to soar—you’ve just got to give it a little time.
CONNELL MCSHANE: That was President Trump speaking aboard Air Force One. We played that earlier as it was being relayed from his trip to Florida. A lot of people are checking their 401(k)s after today’s market drop. The President says a boom is coming, but if you look at the numbers, the Dow, S&P 500, and Nasdaq are all deep in the red. That’s an understatement—tech stocks in the Nasdaq are down 6% in a single day. The S&P 500 and Nasdaq both experienced their biggest drop since 2020.
Scott Martin joins us now. Scott is the Chief Investment Officer at Kingsview Wealth Management in Chicago. Good to see you—well, as good as it can be on a day like this.
SCOTT MARTIN: Connell, you probably never thought you’d see me again—but here I am. Feels good to be reunited, doesn’t it?
CONNELL MCSHANE: Yeah, right. We had a guy on earlier named Wiz—thought he was just a fighter pilot, but turns out he’s also a trader. He says this is a buying opportunity. Are you in that camp, or do you think things are going to get worse before they get better?
SCOTT MARTIN: Well, I’m not going to talk about myself when it comes to “ugly,” but I also wouldn’t disagree with a guy named Wiz who flies fighter jets. He made some good points—especially about people sitting on the sidelines. A lot of folks got out of the market or were already nervous before today. Even our clients at Kingsview have been uneasy as uncertainty rises.
Having cash on the sidelines is useful in times like these, but wow—when you see a stock like Restoration Hardware down 3%, Waste Management up just 1% or 2%, or Garmin dropping over 20%—those are scary numbers if you have money tied up in them.
CONNELL MCSHANE: What kind of calls were you getting today? Were people panicking, or were they asking about opportunities?
SCOTT MARTIN: Great question. Most of the people calling today were actually more focused on the opportunity side. They were saying, “We kind of expected this, so let’s see how it plays out.”
That actually worries me a little because, as investors, we’re used to seeing real panic during major downturns. The real “bottom” happens when people are completely freaking out—when my mom calls and says, “Sell everything!” even though she’s totally fine. That’s when you know it’s the flush-out moment.
CONNELL MCSHANE: So you don’t think we’ve hit that full “capitulation” moment yet?
SCOTT MARTIN: No, not yet. We might see it if we have a few more days like this. You mentioned the Nasdaq earlier—it blew through the “Century Club,” dropping 100 points, and then the “Millennial Club,” dropping 1,000. Those are major declines.
But surprisingly, when days like this happen, many people don’t even check their 401(k)s.
CONNELL MCSHANE: Yeah, just looking at simple math, it’s crazy. I remember when we thought the Nasdaq hitting 5,000 was a huge deal. Now, it’s dropping 1,000 points in a single day—it just shows how extreme today’s moves were.
SCOTT MARTIN: Absolutely. And what’s interesting, Connell, is that last night, after Trump laid out his vision—including pretty much every country you’ve ever heard of—markets reacted fast.
CONNELL MCSHANE: Yeah, some of those countries he mentioned don’t even have people…
SCOTT MARTIN: Exactly! I thought I might be next on his list. But once he put that out there, the bots, traders, and after-hours market just ran with it, selling aggressively. Hedge funds and high-frequency traders can really move the market, so individual investors need to be cautious about getting caught up in that volatility. That’s where having a money manager helps.
CONNELL MCSHANE: So what about solid companies like Apple and Amazon—great American tech companies that got crushed today? Each down about 9%. Is it time to buy, or is it too soon?
SCOTT MARTIN: I think it makes sense if you’re a long-term investor. Wiz mentioned this too—if you can buy something at a 10% discount, that’s usually a good deal. Look at JP Morgan, down about 8%. Wells Fargo, down 12%. Bank of America, down 13%. These aren’t going to zero—this isn’t 2008, and it’s not even 2020. This is just a market correction.
CONNELL MCSHANE: But is this just a hiccup, or are we entering a completely new economic reality, as some in the administration suggest?
SCOTT MARTIN: If it’s a “new economic reality,” then we’re talking about something much bigger—something like COVID-level disruption. But I don’t think that’s the case.
Look, I’d love for all manufacturing jobs to come back to America. I’d love for us to make everything here and buy only American-made products. But that’s just not how the global economy works. We have to collaborate with our trade partners—Mexico, China, Canada—to make supply chains function. And to do that, we can’t go charging in headfirst with a bazooka.
CONNELL MCSHANE: Alright, we’ve got to run, but thanks for coming on. Now that you’re free to do so more often, let’s do this again soon.
