President Donald Trump’s new executive order issuing tariffs on goods entering the U.S. from Canada, China and Mexico sent markets falling early Monday.

By midday, the markets rebounded on news of a one-month pause on Mexico tariffs.

The events are a reminder that two forces drive the markets — underlying fundamentals and sentiment, according to Larry Adam, chief investment officer at Raymond James.

When it comes to fundamentals — the factors that determine a stock’s worth — there’s been no definitive change, Adam said.

But when it comes to sentiment, this may be a wake-up call for investors who came into the year thinking the threat of tariffs was not a realistic risk, he said.

“We’re not changing our forecast,” Adam said, which includes a year-end 6,375 target for the S&P 500. As of Monday afternoon, the index was hovering around 6,000.

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The total revenues companies in the S&P 500 receive from Canada and China and Mexico are fairly small, he said, with 1% coming from both Mexico and Canada, and 7% from China.

“It’s not as big to the S&P 500 as it is to the bigger economy,” Adam said of the tariffs’ effects.

For individual investors who are wondering what, if anything, to do next, “this is where the value of an advisor truly shines,” said Cathy Curtis, a certified financial planner and founder and CEO of Curtis Financial Planning, who is also a member of the CNBC FA Council.

“President Trump has consistently used tariffs as a negotiating tool, and we can expect this pattern to continue,” Curtis said she is telling clients.

Curtis said she’s urging clients to focus on the long-term gains they may see by staying the course, rather than overreact based on short-term headlines.

For individuals, the threat of tariffs has implications for both their investment portfolios and everyday household budgets.

Don’t invest more than you can handle financially or psychologically, CFP Carolyn McClanahan, founder of Life Planning Partners and a CNBC FA Council member, said she advises clients.

It is also important to be mindful of your portfolio’s international exposure, which could be affected by tariffs, said CFP Marguerita Cheng, CEO of Blue Ocean Global Wealth. Cheng is also a member of the CNBC FA Council.

Retirement savers ought to take a look at their target-date funds — investments that automatically adjust to an anticipated retirement date — to make sure they’re not exposed to more international investments than they want, Cheng said.

Current retirees should make sure they have enough money in cash and stable value fund to ensure they can fulfill their required minimum distributions and other immediate needs without having to sell their investments at an inopportune time, she said.

Consumer prices on everything from produce and liquor to medications and homes may increase with the implementation of tariffs. Consequently, consumer who have faced years of higher prices due to elevated inflation may now want to reassess their household budgets once again.

Meanwhile, Trump on Sunday said Americans could feel “pain” in the trade war.

“I think it’s highly likely that there will be some pain,” said Lee Baker, a CFP and president of Claris Financial Advisors.

To get ahead of those potential cost increases, it helps to evaluate how much you’re spending. Forgoing a vacation, extra items at the grocery store or additional trips in the car can help save money now in the event higher costs hit later, Baker said.  

“A little forethought in planning might help you avoid the sticker shock that could come from your grocery bill or particular items that are being threatened with tariffs,” said CFP Douglas Boneparth, president and founder of Bone Fide Wealth.

Baker and Boneparth are both members of the CNBC FA Council.

For example, Trump said on Monday he’d pause a 25% tariff on Mexico from taking effect for a month after Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum agreed to immediately send 10,000 soldiers to her country’s border to prevent drug trafficking.

It appears, for now, that tariffs on Canada and China will take effect Tuesday as planned.

“There’s a lot of uncertainty about how policies unfold,” Susan Collins, president the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston, told CNBC Monday.

Those estimates are for “core” prices (which strip out energy and food costs) as measured by the Personal Consumption Expenditures Price Index, the Fed’s preferred inflation gauge.

That’s important because the Fed uses interest rate policy to keep inflation and the labor market in check. Elevated inflation would, all else equal, be expected to keep interest rates higher for longer.

Tariffs on Canada, China and Mexico “would push up” PCE inflation by roughly 0.7 percentage points, relative to a no-tariff baseline, to around 2.8% in the fourth quarter of 2025, according to a note published Tuesday by Evercore ISI.

“That would knock out at least one and plausibly both remaining Fed cuts this year,” the Evercore note said.

In December, Fed officials forecast they’d cut interest rates twice in 2025.

“Obviously there is some uncertainty about whether these tariffs will go ahead or not, given the one-month pause of the Mexico one announced today,” Stephen Brown, deputy chief North America economist at Capital Economics, wrote in an e-mail. “If the tariffs go ahead, it’s unlikely that the Fed will cut again.”

While some have suggested that tariffs may push the central bank to raise interest rates again, Brown thinks that’s unlikely. Tariffs would likely be a drag on the U.S. economy, he said.

Likewise, J.P. Morgan projects that proposed tariffs would reduce U.S. gross domestic product — a measure of economic output — by 0.5 to 1 percentage point through 2026, Seydl said.

That economic drag could outweigh the inflationary impact of tariffs and eventually lead the Fed to cut rates, he said.

The cost to rent is coming down faster in some areas of the U.S. than others. 

Overall, rent affordability is improving thanks to a combination of factors, said Daryl Fairweather, chief economist at Redfin. One is, there’s more supply.

“There are more apartments for rent now because there was a bit of a construction boom during the pandemic,” she said. 

With a higher rental inventory, landlords and property managers must lower their rent prices in order to compete with one another, Fairweather said. 

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Renters are also earning more, giving them more buying power.

In 2024, the median income among renters was $54,752, up 5.3% from $52,019 in 2023 and 35.2% higher from $40,505 in 2019, according to a recent report by Redfin.

Even so, that median income is still 14% below — or about $8,928 under — the amount tenants need to comfortably afford rent, the report found.

“The majority of renters are rent burdened,” said Fairweather, meaning tenants are spending more of their income than they should be on rental housing.

The Joint Center for Housing Studies at Harvard University defines a renter as “cost burdened” if they spend more than 30% of their income on rent and utilities.

Some areas in the U.S. may have more favorable rental market conditions, like a higher supply of newly built apartment buildings. Other areas, however, see more competition for available units and higher costs due to lower rates of building activity. 

Whether you’re apartment hunting or renewing your lease, here are the 10 places where rents are falling the most and the 10 places where costs are climbing higher.