Stock futures pointed lower early Monday as the market looked set to end a bad quarter with more losses amid uncertainty over President Donald Trump’s tariffs policy.
Futures on the S&P 500 fell 0.9%, Dow Jones Industrial Average futures were down 0.6%, and futures on the tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 tumbled 1.3%.
Heading into the last trading day of the quarter, the S&P 500 has tumbled 5.1% since the start of the year and is on track to snap a five-quarter winning streak. It would be the index’s worst quarterly slump since the third quarter of 2022, according to Dow Jones Market Data. The Nasdaq Composite is down 10.3% over the same period, while the Dow has fallen 2.3%.
Investors are anxiously looking ahead to April 2, or Liberation Day as Trump has named it, when reciprocal tariffs will be unveiled on countries that have trade imbalances with the U.S. Global 25% levies on autos and car parts will also take effect on April 3 and several major trading partners, including Mexico and Canada are still considering possible retaliation.
Trump played down the reciprocal tariffs plan last week and said it would be “very lenient,” however the Wall Street Journal reported Sunday that officials are considering a broad 20% levies hike.
“The last day of March is spring-loaded with uncertainty on financial markets. Unease about the effect of Trump’s tariffs has been amplified, causing sharp moves at the start of the week,” Hargreaves Lansdown analyst Susannah Streeter said.
Trump reminded investors just how serious he is about implementing his trade policy, telling NBC News over the weekend he “couldn’t care less” if foreign auto makers put cars up as a result of tariffs. “I hope they raise their prices, because if they do, people are going to buy American-made cars,” he said.
Global stock markets are tumbling to start the week–Japan’s Nikkei 225 fell 4.1% Monday, while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng declined 1.1% and the pan-European Stoxx 600 was 1.2% lower in early trading.
The economic impact of Trump’s policy will take center stage later in the week, particularly when it comes to Friday’s jobs report for March and a speech by Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell at the Society for Advancing Business Editing and Writing conference in Arlington, Va.
But for now, it’s all about anticipation of Liberation Day.
