Trump Unleashes 'Beautiful Clean Coal' Policies As Wall Street Tanks, S&P 500 Hits 1-Year Low

President Donald Trump on Tuesday unveiled sweeping plans to revive U.S. coal production to meet the nation's rising energy demands, marking a dramatic policy reversal from the climate-focused agendas of the Biden and Obama administrations.

Meanwhile, Wall Street plunged deeper into negative territory as escalating tariff tensions with China reignited fears of a global economic slowdown.

"We're ending Joe Biden's war on beautiful clean coal once and for all," Trump declared. "We're going to reopen those plants, put miners back to work, and get approvals very fast."

Trump's order directs federal agencies to fast-track mining permits, slash environmental regulations, and expand coal leases on federal lands.

"Pound for pound, coal is the single most reliable, durable, secure, and powerful form of energy on Earth," the president added.

According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, coal production in 2023 totaled 578 million short tons, less than half the 1.17 billion short tons produced at its peak in 2008.

The decline, the EIA noted, has been driven by rising costs, tougher environmental rules, and increased competition from natural gas and renewables.

“We’ll be signing a bill to unleash the might of our beautiful clean coal industry in this country,” Trump said.

Shares of Peabody Energy Corp. BTU, the largest private-sector coal company in the world, rose 9% in after-hours trading, and Warrior Met Coal Inc. HCC rose 6.5%.

Wall Street Selloff Deepened

While Trump was touting coal's comeback, Wall Street was in full-blown retreat.

Major indexes erased hefty morning gains in a volatile session that saw risk sentiment collapse after White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt confirmed Trump's 104% retaliatory tariff on Chinese imports would go live at 12:01 a.m. ET Wednesday.

"China made a mistake by retaliating, and the president is punching back harder," Leavitt said, ruling out any delay or exemption to the tariffs.

The news sent a jolt through financial markets, reversing a sharp morning rally and pushing the S&P 500 index to its lowest levels in a year.

The S&P 500 closed at 4,892, down 1.57%, after having surged as much as 3.7% earlier in the session.

The Nasdaq 100 ended the day at 17,104, falling 1.95% from the previous close, despite hitting a 4.1% intraday gain during the morning rally.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average finished at 37,663, shedding 0.8%, after climbing as much as 2.5% at its session peak.

Mega-Cap Tech: From Rally To Rout

Among the Magnificent Seven, losses were led by Apple Inc. AAPL, which closed down 5%, falling more than 9 percentage points from its intraday highs.

Tesla Inc. TSLA ended 4.9% lower, while Amazon.com Inc. AMZN dropped 2.9%.

The iShares Semiconductor ETF SOXX, which had surged more than 3% in morning trading, ended lower by 4%, signaling broad risk aversion toward chipmakers. AI darling Nvidia Corp. NVDA closed 1.4% lower.

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