In an unexpected financial turn, stock futures lost significant ground early Friday morning. This swift reversal was sparked by an announcement from the United States government about an increase in tariffs on several countries. Notably, futures linked to both the Dow Jones Industrial Average and the S&P 500 had slumped nearly 0.9% in recent trades, with futures associated with the Nasdaq taking a steeper 1% dive.
The S&P 500’s downtrend comes on the heels of three consecutive sessions of modest falls, acting as a contrast to a six-day run of record-breaking highs that the index had previously enjoyed. It also comes despite the index experiencing a successful July with three straight months of solid growth. This growth was driven by buoyant investor sentiment, propelled by robust corporate earnings and promising economic data.
The sudden increase in tariffs, ordered by President Donald Trump, has again stirred qualms about the impact of such import taxes on the American economy. These tariffs have brought back some of the unpredictability that disrupted markets when initially declared in April. This disruption had abated recently due to successful negotiations by the White House with many of its key trading allies. However, this latest pronouncement brings the issue back into focus.
Attention is also directed towards the July employment data, scheduled to be released at 8.30 a.m. ET. According to estimates from economists, only 100,000 jobs were added by US employers in the previous month. If true, this would represent the weakest growth in employment since last October. Moreover, the unemployment rate is predicted to have increased marginally to 4.2%.
These employment figures have been eagerly anticipated by the Federal Reserve before deciding their next steps concerning interest rates. In their previous meeting, the Fed had chosen to maintain its key rate as it waits for more data demonstrating the economic impacts of the increased tariffs.
While awaiting job report results, many large technology stocks demonstrated a downwards trend early Friday. Despite positive quarterly results Thursday, Amazonn (AMZN) shares had recent premarket trading plummet by 8%. Similarly, Nvidia (NVDA), Alphabet (GOOG), Broadcom (AVGO), Meta Platforms (META), and Tesla (TSLA) saw share prices decrease around or below 2%.
In contrast, Apple’s (AAPL) shares grew 2% in wake of the company reporting strong gains following Thursday’s trading closure. Microsoft (MSFT) also noticed a positive change, with their shares increasing by around 1%.
Joining premarket movements is Coinbase Global (COIN). Its shares slumped by a severe 11% before the opening bell. The fall comes in light of the cryptocurrency exchange generating earnings that missed Wall Street’s expected mark.
However, despite these downfalls, a glimmer of improvement was noted for Reddit (RDDT). The societal discussion forum saw its shares surge an impressive 14% after reporting impressive profits and upbeat future predictions.
Companies including oil giants Exxon Mobil (XOM) and Chevron (CVX) saw marginal recovery after disclosing quarterly results on Friday morning, while Bitcoin was slightly lower at approximately $115,200 from near $119,000 tracked on Thursday afternoon, a low not seen in the past three weeks.
Observing changes in other areas, the U.S. dollar index – a measure of the greenback’s performance versus a range of other global currencies had climbed by 0.2% to reach $100.12. This continued the dollar’s climb, propelling it to its highest level experienced in the last two months.
In parallel, the return on the 10-year Treasury note, which heavily influences borrowing rates for a myriad of loans including mortgages, grew from yesterday’s closing mark of 4.36% to 4.40% in the morning.
Contrastingly, West Texas Intermediate futures, a standard in US oil, suffered a 0.7% decline, falling to $68.75 per barrel. This marks the second day of consecutive losses after the commodity reached a high not seen in the last five weeks.
Meanwhile, gold futures largely maintained their existing levels and remained in the neighborhood of $3,350 per ounce, demonstrating minimal alterations in value.
The post Stock Futures Plummet as New Tariffs Announced appeared first on Real News Now.
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