Wall Street's most watched gauge of investor anxiety jumped to a new eight-month high on Monday as U.S. stocks extended their selloff from last week on worries over the fallout from U.S. President Donald Trump's tariff policy.

Investor anxiety over tariffs was sending Wall Street’s so-called fear gauge even higher Wednesday morning, after the global trade war escalated with China’s announcement of even higher retaliatory tariffs on goods imported from the U.

The Dow fell more than 700 points on Friday, as rising inflation and tariff uncertainty weighed on investor sentiment.A report on Friday from the US Labour Department showed that the Federal Reserve's preferred inflation measure – the core personal consumption expenditures (PCE) price index – rose more than expected in February.