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.

Countries and industries were scrambling Friday to respond as President Donald Trump's latest tariffs hikes upend global trade and world markets.

China responded to the 34% tariffs imposed by the U.S. on imports from China by announcing it will impose a 34% tariff on imports of all U.S. products beginning April 10.

President Donald Trump offered a rosy assessment after the stock market dropped sharply Thursday over his tariffs, saying, "I think it's going very well."

"The markets are going to boom, the stock is going to boom, the country is going to boom," he said when asked about the market as he left the White House to fly to one of his Florida golf clubs.

Lebanon's new central bank governor vowed Friday that the institution will fight money laundering and the financing of "terrorism" and will work independently away from political intervention.

Karim Souaid, who was speaking after officially taking office in Beirut, added that he will work on restructuring the banking sector and public debt and returning money to depositors.

An obscure but consequential bookkeeping matter has become the latest flashpoint in Congress as Republicans labor to enact President Donald Trump's sprawling tax cut agenda.

Senate Republicans are looking to change how extending many of Trump's 2017 tax cuts would be scored when it comes to future federal deficits. The Congressional Budget Office has projected that extending the cuts would increase deficits by nearly $4 trillion over the coming decade.