US stocks opened sharply lower Monday after President Donald Trump said the US economy would see “a period of transition” and refused to rule out a recession, in an interview that aired Sunday.

Fears of an economic downturn are driving a stock market sell-off that has wiped out $4 trillion from the S&P 500’s peak last month, when Wall Street was cheering much of Trump's agenda.

President Donald Trump on Sunday declined to explicitly rule out a full-blown recession for the U.S. economy this year during an interview with "Sunday Morning Futures."

Lutnick suggested Trump may be open to striking a deal on some tariff measures and could announce changes as early as Wednesday.

Stocks looked set to rally after Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick signaled the U.S. may be willing to compromise with its neighbors on tariffs, helping calm a market that has been fretting about escalating trade tensions in recent days.

U.S. stock index futures fell on Monday as worries persisted that the Trump administration's tariff policies could affect the world's largest economy, while EV maker Tesla declined following a bearish brokerage forecast.