Stock futures were sharply lower Friday morning as investors reacted to President Donald Trump’s latest moves on tariffs and digested a weaker-than-anticipated report on the labor market.
Futures tied to the Dow Jones Industrial Average and S&P 500 were recently down 0.8% and 0.9%, respectively, while those linked to the tech-heavy Nasdaq slid 1.1%. The S&P 500 is coming off of three straight sessions of modest declines, following a six-day stretch of record highs for the benchmark index. Despite the recent slump, the S&P 500 posted solid gains in July for the third consecutive month amid investor optimism about strong corporate earnings and economic data.
President Trump late Thursday issued an executive order calling for higher tariffs to be imposed on dozens of countries, reviving concerns about the impact that the import levies could have on the U.S. economy. Those concerns had subsided in recent weeks as the White House negotiated deals with several leading trade partners, but the latest news brings back some of the uncertainty that roiled markets when Trump first announced the so-called reciprocal tariffs in early April.
Meanwhile, data released this morning by the Labor Department showed that U.S. employers added 73,000 jobs in July, well below the 100,000 that economists had expected. Even more significantly, the previously announced June hiring number of 147,000 was revised to 14,000, while the May figure was slashed from 144,000 to 19,000. The latest numbers indicate that the labor market is weaker than previously known, which is likely to put pressure on the Federal Reserve to cut interest rates. The central bank earlier this week decided to leave its key rate unchanged, with Fed Chair Jerome Powell saying officials need to see more data on how tariffs are affecting inflation before adjusting rates.
Mega-cap technology stocks were mostly lower this morning at the end of a busy week of quarterly earnings reports for Big Tech. Amazon (AMZN) shares dropped 8% in premarket trading despite releasing better-than-expected results late Thursday, while Nvidia (NVDA), Alphabet (GOOG) and Broadcom (AVGO) each declined about 2%, and Meta Platforms (META) and Tesla (TSLA) each slipped about 1%. Apple (AAPL) shares were up 2% after the iPhone maker reported strong earnings after yesterday’s closing bell, while Microsoft (MSFT) ticked higher.
Among other post-earnings movers on Friday, shares of Coinbase Global (COIN) plunged 11% ahead of the opening bell after the cryptocurrency exchange reported earnings that fell short of Wall Street expectations. Reddit (RDDT) shares jumped 15% after the online discussion forum reported strong revenue and issued rosy guidance. Oil majors Exxon Mobil (XOM) and Chveron (CVX) were both slightly higher after releasing their results this morning.
The yield on the 10-year Treasury note, which affects borrowing costs on all sorts of loans, notably mortgages, was at 4.27% recently, down from a high of 4.41% this morning before the release of the jobs report.
The U.S. dollar index, which measures the performance of the dollar against a basket of foreign currencies, was down 1% at $99.02, after hitting its highest levels since mid-May earlier this morning.
Bitcoin was at $115,800 recently, down from near $119,000 Thursday afternoon and trading at a three-week low.
West Texas Intermediate futures, the U.S. crude oil benchmark, rose 0.2% to $69.40 per barrel, rebounding from two straight days of declines. Gold futures rose 1.3% to $3,395 an ounce.
