U.S. stock futures acted cautiously in trading earlier Friday, while the dollar extended its annual highest weekly decline as investors prepared for a key reading of the labor market amidst ongoing chaos associated with President Donald Trump’s tariff strategy.
Stocks eventually fell sharply last night, with the S&P 500 falling more than 100 points, or 1.78%, to expand its worst five-day performance since September as investors dumped U.S. stocks even as President Trump tried to return goods he caused from Canada and Mexico a few days ago, even as President Trump tried to refund some taxes.
The market has been speculating on the president’s next steps, now violating USCMA’s goods until next month, but could face new responsibilities when the government calls “countdown” tariffs on all U.S. trading partners on April 2.
“I’m not even looking at the market because what’s going on here will be very powerful,” Trump told reporters in Washington late Thursday.
Win McNamee & Sol; Getty Images
Meanwhile, confusion over tariffs and weaker economic data and company warnings about rising consumer spending and prices, the latest from retail giant Costco Wholesale ((cost) last night.
“Consumers are still showing their willingness to spend, but they are very selective where they spend money,” said Costco’s financial director Gary Millerchip. “And we think that’s likely to continue and maybe even become more selective, as the impact of certain inflation returns and the potential impact of tariffs may also pass.”
Related: US job cuts for 16 years as the trade war involves hammer sentiment.
A harsh test of this economic weakness will arrive at 8:30 am today at Eastern Time, with the Labor Department’s February employment report.
Economists expect headlines to be 163,000, but the data for salary volume processing group ADP and company layoff tracker challenger Gray is softer, suggesting that it is possible that weaker readings may highlight current growth discomfort.
Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell will also speak on the broader economic outlook during an event in New York this afternoon.
However, stock futures are getting higher and higher at the start of trading, with the S&P 500 priced at 15 o’clock gain, and the Dow Jones industrial average is 37 points higher.
At the same time, Nasdaq, which focuses on technology, is a Nasdaq (Nasdaq) ((avgo) This helps to boost some chip stocks.
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In overseas markets, “amazing uncertainty” was described yesterday, but after the ECB’s sixth reduction rate since June, pushing the regional STOXX 600 benchmark 0.62% to the red in midday trading in Frankfurt, while London’s FTSE 100 fell 0.48%.
All night in Asia, soft trade dates from China dragged the district’s MSCI day-to-day index into 0.63% trade in the first two months of the year, while Nikkei 225 fell 2.17% in six months and 2.17% at its lowest level.
Related: Senior Fund Manager Unveils Dramatic S&P 500 Forecast
