Raising red flags after President Donald Trump’s Liberation Day global tariff plans, CNBC host Jim Cramer has predicted a market blood bath that could expand into a crash similar to 1987’s “Black Monday.”

“If the president doesn’t try to reach out and reward these countries and companies that play by the rules, then the 1987 scenario… the one where we went down three days and then down 22% on Monday, has the most cogency,” the veteran market commentator commented on April 2. “We will not have to wait too long to know. We will know it by Monday.” He commented days ahead of April 7 market movement.

Jim Cramer’s ‘Black Monday’ prediction after Trump tariffs

Jim Cramer sounded the alarm on the potential stock market crash soon after a Donald Trump announced a base 10% tariff on all imports in addition to more severe country-specific levies, including 26% on India and 34% on China. “It’s tough to build a new, weaker, world order on the fly. Frantically trying to do it but don’t see anything yet that takes the October 87 scenario off the table yet. Those who bottom-fished are sleeping with the fishes… so far,” he then tweeted on X.

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In a previous social media post, he recounted the Black Monday of 1987 experience: “Look i don’t want a repeat of ’87 of course. But i traded during that period and remember each day well.. We knew to sell.. and we are proud we did. But we felt like idiots because the week BEFORE the crash was so bad and we were late to sell.”

What happened on 1987 Black Monday stock market crash

With Jim Cramer’s “Black Monday” prediction having gone viral on the internet, one can’t help but the turn back the pages of history and revisit the unexpected stock market crash of October 1987. Unfolding on October 19, 1987, the infamously coined global financial crisis saw the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) —  stock price index computed by Dow Jones & Co. — dropping 22.6% in a single trading session. It’s “a loss that remains the largest one-day stock market decline in history,” according to FederalHistoryReserve.org.

The catastrophic one-day percentage drop in the stock market fashioned a snowball effect with the crash continue worldwide. According to the Corporate Finance Institute, the crash started in Hong Kong and spread throughout Asia and Europe before reaching the United States.

Financial crisis has already begun?

On a similar note, financial markets witnessed a turbulent week as stocks continued their freefall after Trump’s Wednesday tariff announcement. According to CBS News’ Saturday morning (EDT) report, the S&P 500 fell 322 points (nearly 6%), closing at 5,074 — the largest one-day fall in the broad-based index since March 16, 2020. Meanwhile, the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 2,231 points (5.5%), and is down 14% since its peak in February. The Nasdaq Composite slipped 963 points (5.8%).

Global markets also witnessed a massive fall on Friday. Asia, Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 slumped 2.8%, South Korea’s Kospi slipped 0.9% in overnight trading. On the European trading scene, Germany’s DAX lost 2%, France’s CAC 40 in Paris slid 1.6% and Britain’s FTSE 100 dropped 1.7%.

Others join Jim Cramer in voicing fears in light of Trump tariffs

Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell was yet another high-profile figure to sound the alarm on the 10% universal duty on all US imports and “reciprocal” tariffs on nearly 90 countries, and their consequent impact on the economy. “While uncertainty remains elevated, it is now becoming clear that the tariff increases will be significantly larger than expected,” he said in a speech on Friday in Arlington, Virginia. “The same is likely to be true of the economic effects, which will include higher inflation and slower growth.”

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On the flip side, Dan Ives of Wedbush Securities of Wedbush Securities, stated in a report, “The economic pain that will be brought by these tariffs [is] hard to describe and can essentially take the U.S. tech industry back a decade in the process while China steamrolls ahead.” Similarly, Solita Marcelli, chief investment officer Americas at UBS Global Wealth Management, said in a research note, “In the near term, we believe the effective tariff rates could be higher still, and without President Trump taking active steps to reduce tariffs over the next three to six months, we are likely to enter a downside scenario, including a meaningful U.S. recession and lower equity markets.”

With international market focussing on retaliatory measures to counter Trump’s sweeping tariff imposition, billionaire hedge fund manager Bill Ackman also highlighted the significance of Monday for the United States. Taking to his X profile on Saturday (US time), Bill Ackman also tweeted, “Monday will be one of the more interesting days in our country’s economic history.” He even claimed, “I would therefore not be surprised to wake up Monday with an announcement from the President that he was postponing the implementation of the tariffs to give him time to make deals… The problem, however, can’t be resolved in days, so why wouldn’t a pause make sense to give the president time to properly resolve this critical issue and to allow companies large and small the time to prepare for changes in their supply chains?”

With US tariffs prompting international retaliation, China said on Friday that it would impose a 34% tariff on imports of all US products starting April 10.