By Juliet Chung

In Warwick, R.I., Chris Ciunci sold more than 800 shares of Nike. In Wichita, Kan., Ken Wagnon bought on the dips. Outside Denver, Doug Johnson checked his portfolio, matthen went back to researching family-vacation options.

President Trump's sweeping tariff plans, their sudden pause and his escalating trade war with China have turned the market into a rollercoaster. During the past several days, U.S. stock markets lost a stunning $7.7 trillion, then climbed sharply before retreating again Thursday. A steep selloff of long-term Treasurys especially alarmed analysts and investors, because the government bonds have traditionally provided an investing haven in times of upheaval.

The turmoil has rattled the market's biggest individual investors: wealthy Americans. Financial advisers who serve wealthy clients say they have been bombarded by investor calls over the past week, recalling for them tumult such as the 2008-09 financial crisis and the March 2020 onset of the Covid-19 pandemic. Clients have been looking for reassurance or wanting to game out playbooks in different tariff and market scenarios.

Rich Scarinci of Boston-based Partners Capital, which advises wealthy families worth at least $100 million on their investments, said many of his client conversations have revolved around the same question: Is American exceptionalism over?

For more than a decade, U.S. stocks, and particularly the fast-growing stocks of the largest public U.S. companies, have turned in superior performance for investors around the globe as Europe's economy lagged and China's growth slowed. Scarinci has begun to question how dominant that theme will remain if globalization slows and barriers for attracting talent to the U.S. rise.

"That world order is being called into question and there must be some replacement going forward. That's arguably the number-one question that investors, including ultrahigh-net-worth [individuals] and families, are thinking about," Scarinci said.

Monica DiCenso, head of the global investment opportunities group at JPMorgan's private bank, said some of the families she and her team work with are asking about options such as adding some exposure to Europe, Japan or foreign currencies to further diversify their portfolios. "People are saying, 'I'm not sure the U.S. is going to be the best place' " to have outsize exposure to over the longer run, she said, a stark change from prior years. DiCenso, who typically advises families worth at least $250 million, has been telling clients that it is time to consider opportunities such as fixed income.

Ciunci, the Rhode Island investor, considers himself a long-term investor who generally ignores the headlines. But the serial entrepreneur, who sold a marketing business several years ago, felt Trump's tariff regime was a fundamental shift in America's relationship with the rest of the world. He is worried about higher inflation and stagnant growth in the U.S., an environment in which few portfolios fare well.

Ciunci sold about a tenth of his portfolio to reduce risk. He dumped 15 stocks he felt would be hurt by higher tariffs, including Nike and semiconductor-chip toolmaker Applied Materials, and sold an iShares ETF, or basket of stocks, that invests in North American software companies. He put the cash into a money-market account, reasoning at least a portion of his portfolio would be protected from wild swings.

Ciunci isn't hoping the U.S. loses its place in the world but said he is considering investing some of the money into markets outside the U.S. to further diversify.

"Before, I had confidence in the mechanism of the U.S. economy, the structure. Now, I feel my portfolio is in the hands of an individual, whether I support him or not," said Ciunci, 51 years old, referring to Trump. He referred wistfully back to when stock markets moved on the release of indicators such as jobs reports. "That's minor leagues compared with what's happened," he said.

Individual reactions to market turmoil are shaped by tolerance for risk, cash on hand and political views, wealth advisers said. Some wealthy people with large investments outside stock markets were largely shrugging off the turmoil, and noting the S&P 500 was still sitting on some gains from 2023 and 2024, its best two-year run in a quarter-century, through the close Tuesday.

Doug Johnson, 53, a former stockbroker and private trust banker who now manages his family's money outside Denver, said he and his wife, Jennifer, haven't touched their portfolio and are looking at summer travel plans with their children. "What's going on in the world really hasn't impacted us," he said -- something he attributed to the diversified nature of their portfolio and his work for a membership-based network of wealthy people called Tiger 21, in which members regularly present on and defend their investment portfolios.

Still, he is looking for opportunities at home and abroad, in now-cheaper U.S. stocks as well as in foreign government bonds and global equities. "We're still U.S.-centric because the U.S. has the deepest liquidity, it has the rule of law and we live here. But we really have to be across the board in all opportunities to position ourselves for wealth preservation," Johnson said.

UBS has been urging its wealthiest clients to stay invested: Since 1945, on the 12 occasions when the S&P 500 has declined 20% from its peak, the index over the next five years recorded gains 100% of the time. The average return: nearly 53%.

For Ken Wagnon, the market turmoil has spelled a buying opportunity.

Wagnon, 86, a retired Pizza Hut franchisee who has downsized in recent years by selling off his plane and several vacation homes, felt his spirits lift last week as he watched Trump unveil on television the list of countries the U.S. was hitting with tariffs. "I knew it was going to be a long list, but I was pleasantly surprised when it was that long because that's an indication of how big the impact is going to be," said Wagnon, a three-time Trump voter.

The next morning, undaunted by the sea of red in stock markets, he called up his Charles Schwab broker and put in a buy order for several stocks of U.S. companies he has held for decades. He declined to identify the stocks but described them as a mix that includes consumer durables and technology companies. He bought some more Monday morning.

"The stock market, it overreacts," said Wagnon, who considers himself a long-term investor who looks at the performance of his portfolio over years, not months or weeks. "The only thing that happened with the stock market was we got a really good opportunity to buy some stocks."

Wagnon said he thinks the 90-day pause on most tariffs is "beyond wise" because it gives countries more time to negotiate. He has sat tight on his portfolio since Monday.

Write to Juliet Chung at Juliet.Chung@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

April 10, 2025 16:13 ET (20:13 GMT)

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