Dow, S&P Point Higher. Tariff News, Inflation Data, Fed Speakers Due This Week; Premarket Stock Movers
U.S. stock futures were rising at the start of another week where tariff threats and economic data releases are likely to drive much of the market action.
Speaking with reporters on board Air Force One while traveling to the Super Bowl in New Orleans, President Donald Trump promised to impose 25% levies on all steel and aluminum imports into the U.S.
“Very simply it’s if they charge us, we charge them,” he said, adding that he would also announce so-called reciprocal tariffs on Tuesday or Wednesday.
Investors didn’t appear too fazed by Trump’s comments Sunday. Futures tracking the Dow Jones Industrial Average were up 69 points, or 0.2%. S&P 500 futures climbed 0.3%, and contracts tied to the tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 were up 0.5%. All three indexes had tumbled more than 1% Friday as Trump’s tariff threats spooked the market.
Deutsche Bank analyst Jim Reid noted that while “tariff news will clearly continue to dominate the agenda all week,” the latest round of restrictions are likely to mainly affect Canada, Mexico, and Latin America, where most U.S. imports of the goods come from.
Inflation will also be a top-of-mind issue for the market this week–the Bureau of Labor Statistics is set to publish the January consumer price index report on Wednesday, which should give investors a sense of how the Federal Reserve’s battle against soaring prices is going. Economists expect inflation to have climbed 2.9% from a year ago, according to FactSet.
Bond yields were slightly higher Monday, with the yield on the benchmark 10-year U.S. Treasury note at 4.498% compared with about 4.97% Friday. The WSJ Dollar Index, which tracks the greenback against 16 other currencies, climbed 0.2%.
