NORTH CAROLINA (WTVD) — A volatile day on Wall Street ended with stocks largely finishing down, as a sell-off in the final thirty minutes of the trading session erased an intraday rebound.

“This is today’s world. It’s faster moving, a lot more volatile ups and downs. It’s just going to be what it is. It’s not going to be that smooth ride that we were used to 15, 20 years ago,” said Jason Deshayes, CEO of Cook Wealth.

The Dow Jones finished down 670 points, the NASDAQ fell 65 points, and S&P 500 dropped 71 points; NASDAQ and S&P 500 each closed at their lowest point since November 2024.

“There’s a lot of uncertainty right now between the tariffs. There’s a change in tax code that’s happening at the end of the year. We just don’t know. In those times of uncertainty, we do often see people be a little more cautious, maybe not investing as heavily,” said Deshayes.

In the immediate aftermath of President Donald Trump announcing 25% tariffs would go into effect on products from Canada and Mexico, and an addition 10% tariff on goods from China, governments from those three countries announced reciprocal tariffs on US products.

“I think that we’re still in that stage of wait and see and really how much is this long lasting? There’s been a lot of economic activity and political activity in the last month and a half. And I would expect that until that settles down a little bit, we’re not going have a lot of clarity until that gets more to a firm state,” said Deshayes.

Economists are anticipating that consumers will likely feel the impact of higher prices.

“Automotive, electronics, almost all of our apparel and footwear comes from China. You would see lumber, so housing prices may go up. Appliances- anything with metal in it right now is being hit,” said Dr. Rob Handfield, who is the Bank of America University Distinguished Professor of Operations and Supply Chain Management at NC State.

January data from the Personal Consumption Expenditures Price Index showed Americans were already acting more cautiously, with consumers spending less and saving more. Last month, The Yale Budget Lab estimated the tariffs could cost the average household up to $2,000 annually.

“You may have a single component in an automobile, for instance, that travels across the Canadian and the Mexican border multiple times before it’s assembled and put into a vehicle that is brought here,” said Handfield.

While big box retailers had greater flexibility in utilizing the thirty-day pause to stock up on inventory to try and mitigate the impact of tariffs, smaller businesses were in a more difficult position.

“It’s definitely more difficult for small business. Small businesses are generally buying from wholesalers and wholesalers right now are being hit hard with these tariffs,” said Handfield.

Then there are some businesses that logistically cannot stock up supplies, including restaurants.

“You can’t really stockpile because we make everything from scratch. We don’t make bunches of it because we want to bring to the people quality and freshness,” said Darwin Aguilar Cano, Manager at Gringo A Go Go.

Cano said much of the food they purchase originates in Mexico.

“Some of my vendors already came to me and already warned me about how prices are going to go up,” said Cano.

He said they are not planning on adjusting their offerings, switching ingredients, or finding a new supplier, opting to focus on quality.

“If I use a can of tomatoes, it won’t be the same as fresh tomatoes. Salsa won’t taste the same,” Cano explained.

However, he acknowledged there may be price changes.

“We’re going to have to be doing some type of adjustment on the prices for us to keep being in business,” said Cano.

A separate Triangle restauranteur shared a similar reaction, telling ABC 11: “What I know to be true is that the tariffs on Mexican products will make our ability to run business very difficult.”

President Donald Trump has cited the flow of fentanyl and illegal immigration has two reasons behind the tariffs, while sharing his desire for companies to bring back manufacturing and products to the United States. In a press conference Monday, he specifically cited North Carolina’s furniture market as one that could be positively impacted.

“I used to go there to buy furniture for hotels, and it’s been wiped out. That business now all went to other countries. Now it’s all going to come back into North Carolina,” said Trump.

However, Handfield said scaling back up is difficult.

“It’s not that simple for an industry to come back to the U.S. once it’s been offshored. The transition can take three to five years, probably hundreds of millions of dollars. You have to train people. You have to build a facility. You have to deal with the regulations. You have to deal with all the logistics of getting this stuff in. You have to essentially rebuild not just the facility, but the entire supply chain,” said Handfield.

Amid the volatility, Deshayes IS preaching patience, urging investors to avoid emotional decisions.

“Don’t change the overall plan because if you do that and you start pivoting based on the day’s news, you’re effectively trying to time things. I’ve very rarely seen that work out,” said Deshayes.