well those who have retired or are near retirement have been watching the stock market freefall in distress and now confusion over the about face on tariffs which caused investments to take a nose dive and millions of Americans to lose significant amounts of their savings even as markets rallied today following the trade policy change retirees were left wondering if their accounts will recover senior correspondent Brenda Flanigan takes a look my fellow Americans this is Liberation Day waiting for a long time the president's new tariffs launched a global trade war that sent stocks plunging worldwide as markets whipsaw worried folks watch their retirement investments tank and their futures unravel i am almost 65 and I'm trying to budget for retirement in a few years and what I saw happen to my 401k last week was terrifying i lost the gains of one year in one day beverly Brown Roues a Jersey social justice advocate who turned out to protest Donald Trump's policies at a hands-off rally where others voiced fears over diminishing 401ks especially for people on fixed incomes we have such a high cost of living already in New Jersey housing property taxes um the cost of maintaining a home are already uh at crisis level significant drops in our retirement accounts albeit short-term could leave many New Jerseyians unable to cover basic expenses some 70 million Americans 42% of working folks rely on 401ks and even those not close to retirement don't know what to make of this gyating stock market i think we're all just feeling scared and stressed by it and then just like wanting to kind of like I just want to I was I want to go through my bank account and like start like oh maybe we should um you know not spend on this and cancel that and just kind of like sit sit tight for a while concerns are driving a flood of angry complaints to members of Congress including Senator Andy Kim's office as people recalibrate tom Flarity is now putting off retirement despite major surgery two weeks ago I had open heart surgery so where I said is hey I'm like okay I'm done i'm going to you know pull the chips in got enough money saved and then you know sprinkle dust just happened all last week and and including yesterday and today so now it's like hold on a second what do you do he's a financial expert familiar with the markets but he feels caught in a political power play nervous anxious excuse the French off because this this just did not need to happen and to me it's just a damn game the president's apparently wielding tariffs as leverage saying he wants to even trade imbalances with other nations a policy pushed by adviser Peter Navaro elon Musk recently called Navaro quote a [ __ ] but Trump noted last night I'm telling you these countries are calling us up kissing my They are they are dying to make it here please please sir make a deal i'll do anything i'll do anything sir meanwhile Treasury Secretary Scott Bessence dismissed concerns over retirement accounts telling NBC's Meet the Press that's a false narrative americans who want to retire right now that Americans who have put away for years in their savings accounts I I think the uh don't look at the day-to-day fluctuations of what's happening and you know in fact most Americans don't have everything in the market the people who really lose are the ones who sell um during the panic financial planner David Hos urges caution he says while the markets remain this volatile folks probably should not be cashing out stocks to spend on big ticket items you might want to think about putting putting that off and unfortunately that affects the entire economy because people people will be doing that and when the market is doing well a lot of people are very comfortable taking on risk but when when the waters get choppy then you know there's there's this desire to pull back it's one of those periods where you have to take a deep breath financial planner Sharif Muhammad says hold on touch base with your advisor the market will rebound but for now Trump is driving the narrative and the Dow i'm Brenda Flanigan NJ Spotlight News [Music]