Elon Musk on Tuesday described Peter Navarro, a senior White House trade advisor, as "truly a moron" and "dumber than a sack of bricks" in a growing rift over Donald Trump's tariff policy.

Musk, a key aide to the president, has signaled opposition to the tariffs, and the Tesla CEO hit out after Navarro described him as "not a car manufacturer" but "a car assembler."

China said Tuesday it would "fight to the end" and take countermeasures against the United States to safeguard its own interests after President Donald Trump threatened an additional 50% tariff on Chinese imports.

The Commerce Ministry said the U.S.'s imposition of "so-called 'reciprocal tariffs'" on China is "completely groundless and is a typical unilateral bullying practice."

In the early days of the Great Depression, Rep. Willis Hawley, a Republican from Oregon, and Utah Republican Sen. Reed Smoot thought they had landed on a way to protect American farmers and manufacturers from foreign competition: tariffs.

President Herbert Hoover signed the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act in 1930, even as many economists warned that the levies would prompt retaliatory tariffs from other countries, which is precisely what happened. The U.S. economy plunged deeper into a devastating financial crisis that it would not pull out of until World War II.

President Donald Trump's sharp tariff hikes last week have sent the stock market into a tailspin, raised alarm bells among Wall Street executives, and heightened many economists' worries that the U.S. could tip into recession.

The tariffs, set to take effect Wednesday, include a 10% blanket duty on nearly all countries and additional import taxes on 60 nations. The increases are so large and are taking effect so rapidly that they are likely to be disruptive to the economy, economists say, even if they are partially rolled back through negotiations in the coming weeks or months.

Wall Street could soon be in the claws of another bear market as the Trump administration's tariff blitz fuels fears that the added taxes on imported goods from around the world will sink the global economy.

The last bear market happened in 2022, but this decline feels more like the sudden, turbulent bear market of 2020, when the benchmark S&P 500 index tumbled 34% in a one-month period, the shortest bear market ever.

Microsoft has fired two employees who interrupted the company's 50th anniversary celebration to protest its work supplying artificial intelligence technology to the Israeli military, according to a group representing the workers.

Microsoft accused one of the workers in a termination letter Monday of misconduct "designed to gain notoriety and cause maximum disruption to this highly anticipated event." Microsoft says the other worker had already announced her resignation, but on Monday it ordered her to leave five days early.

President Donald Trump remained defiant on Monday as global markets continued plunging and fears of a recession grew after his tariff announcement last week.

He said other countries had been "taking advantage of the Good OL' USA!" in a post on Truth Social, his social media platform.

China on Monday accused the U.S. of unilateralism, protectionism and economic bullying with tariffs, while calling on representatives of American companies, including Tesla, to "take concrete actions" to resolve the issue.

Putting "America First" over international rules harms the stability of global production and the supply chain and seriously impacts the world's economic recovery, Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesperson Lin Jian told reporters.

Iran 's rial currency traded Saturday at a record low against the U.S. dollar as the country returned to work after a long holiday, costing over 1 million rials for a single greenback as tensions between Tehran and Washington likely will push it even lower.

The exchange rate had plunged to over 1 million rials during the Persian New Year, Nowruz, as currency shops closed and only informal trading took place on the streets, creating additional pressure on the market. But as traders resumed work Saturday, the rate fell even further to 1,043,000 to the dollar, signaling the new low appeared here to stay.

Middle East stock markets tumbled Monday as they struggled with the dual hit of the United States' new tariff policy and a sharp decline in oil prices, squeezing energy-producing nations that rely on those sales to power their economies and government spending.

Benchmark Brent crude is down by nearly 15% over the last five days of trading, with a barrel of oil costing just over $63. That's down nearly 30% from a year ago, when a barrel cost over $90.