Stock Market Today: S&P 500, Dow, Nasdaq Set to Open Up, Trump Tariff Fallout; Intel, Palantir, Tesla, Nvidia, More Movers

Stock futures were bouncing back early Friday after retreating enough on Thursday to push the S&P 500 into a correction.

A correction is when the index falls 10% from its most recent peak and is seen as an important marker for traders. It only took 16 days for the S&P to get there–the fastest move since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020, and there have been four other corrections since then. History says stocks tend to keep declining in the first month after a correction but usually rebound over three- and five-month periods.

The longer term is what Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent says investors should be focused on–he said Thursday that he’s “not concerned with a little volatility.” The worry though is that the escalating trade war over President Donald Trump’s tariffs on goods will dent consumer spending and damage economic growth. There may also be lingering concerns about a government shutdown on Friday, though Democrats and Republicans appear to have reached a solution.

“The specifics of these latest tariffs frankly don’t matter especially much; instead, the measures serve to reinforce the idea that policy uncertainty remains at incredibly elevated levels,” said Michael Brown, a strategist at Pepperstone. It’s “next-to-impossible for market participants to properly price risk.”

While it’s still too early to know if the current slump is a temporary setback or part of a longer downturn, overnight traders seem to be counting on a market recovery Friday. Day-to-day moves are often choppy, especially in times of heightened uncertainty.

Futures for the Dow Jones Industrial Average added 212 points, or 0.5%. Contracts tied to the S&P 500 and Nasdaq rose 0.7% and 0.9%, respectively. All three fell on Thursday, with the S&P losing 1.4% and the Nasdaq finishing 2% lower.

Friday will see the publication of the University of Michigan gauge of consumer confidence, which could move markets. There could also be more news on a possible ceasefire in the war in Ukraine, which is being discussed this week but the sides have yet to come to any agreement.

Bond yields were little changed overnight after falling on Thursday. The yield on the 10-year Treasury was at 4.288%. The two-year government note was at 3.972%.