'Woah, look at that!' CNN expert staggered as he watches stocks plunge in real-time

The financial markets are reacting poorly to President Donald Trump's weekend imposition of stiff trade tariffs against Canada, Mexico and China — and a CNN expert was left dumbfounded as he watched it unfold live.

The Dow Jones, NASDAQ, and S&P 500 all opened down on Monday, and continued to plummet following Trump's sweeping tariffs that most experts agree have started a trade war with at least two firm U.S. allies.

"This makes perfect sense!" CNN's Richard Quest said of the dismal markets. "If you think of the sheer vast swathes, hundreds of billions of dollars worth of goods being on both sides that are going to be hit, this makes perfect sense because, what is a stock price? The stock price is a barometer of a company's current and future earnings. They will go down."

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CNN News Central anchor Kate Bolduan interjected, "Wall Street Journal calls this 'the dumbest trade war in history.' But, here's the thing: I don't get how there is no measure or metric that has been stated yet of what is progress enough to claw this back, end this, and say, 'All is well now... we are going to remove these tariffs.' How does this end if that is not stated?"

"I think it's going to be a pyrrhic victory," Quest said. "It is when Canada and or Mexico prostrate themselves and say, 'Yes, we will do whatever it takes.' very similar to the Colombia incident. When you see enough that will satisfy the president's view of success. We don't know what that barometer is, but i'm guessing it involves an element of groveling. I suspect it involves an element of, 'You were right, we were wrong.' And there's going to have to be some form of concessions. Then they'll change. But in the meantime ..."

He was then distracted by a sudden drop on a chart in the backdrop that showed live market activity.

"Woah, look at that! Down 513 points!"

Quest added, "This could go on for days."

Watch the clip below via CNN.