Stock markets in the United States have plummeted further, with the S&P 500 index on the precipice of a bear market, down more than 20% from its all-time highs, writes Al Jazeera.

“The opening of the markets in the US on Monday morning saw a continuation of the trend of financial woe from last week, and confirmed that investor sentiment in the US was the same as in Asia and Europe, where markets also dropped on Monday.

But US President continues to brush off the market turmoil caused by his sweeping tariffs, likening the measures to “medicine” as panicked investors continued a massive sell-off of global stocks.

“I don’t want anything to go down but, sometimes, you have to take medicine to fix something”, - Trump told reporters on board Air Force One on Sunday. “We have been treated so badly by other countries because we had stupid leadership that allowed this to happen. They took our businesses, they took our money, they took our jobs”.

Trump doubled down on Monday, saying that oil prices were down, and calling for the US Federal Reserve to lower interest rates.

The US President has said he would not back down unless other countries balanced their trade with the US. Trump said he had spoken with many foreign leaders over the weekend who were “dying to make a deal”: “I said, ‘We’re not going to have deficits with your country. We’re not going to do that, because, to me, a deficit is a loss. We’re going to have surpluses or, at worst, going to be breaking even”.