Wall Street was sluggish in the early going Tuesday as geopolitical concerns and President Donald Trump's trade policies weighed on markets.
Futures for the S&P 500 and the Dow Jones Industrial Average are virtually unchanged before the opening bell. Futures for the technology-centered Nasdaq is off 0.3% after media reports that the Trump administration is further tightening trade restrictions on China's semiconductor industry.
Dramatically altering transatlantic relations under Trump, the United States split with its European allies by refusing to blame Russia for its invasion of Ukraine in votes on three U.N. resolutions Monday seeking an end to the three-year war.
Additionally, Trump has openly antagonized multiple U.S. trading partners recently, threatening to raise tariffs and inviting them to retaliate with import taxes of their own, maneuvers that could ignite an expansive trade war.
Trump said Monday that tariff hikes on imports from America’s neighbors Canada and Mexico will move ahead after a one-month delay. He also has put an extra 10% tariff on Chinese imports, citing that country’s role in the production of the opioid fentanyl.
“President Trump isn’t blinking on tariffs,” Stephen Innes of SPI Asset Management said in a commentary. “Uncertainty reigns, and economic momentum is sputtering.”
Major companies have warned about uncertainty over U.S. trade policies, while the University of Michigan’s latest consumer sentiment index plunged by roughly 10% over the past month in part due to fears about tariffs and worsening inflation.
Another widely read report on consumer confidence arrives from a survey by the Conference Board later Tuesday, with most expecting another decline.
In equities trading, Home Depot fell about 2% before the bell after its forecast disappointed investors. The decline comes even after the hardware chain beat Wall Street sales and profit forecasts and posted its first increase in same-store sales in two years.
Bitcoin tumbled another 3%, to $88,871, a three-month low.
In Europe at midday, Germany's DAX edged 0.1% higher, while the CAC 40 in Paris as unchanged. Britain's FTSE 100 gained 0.4%.
In Asian trading, Tokyo's Nikkei 225 lost 1.4% to 38,237.79 after markets in Japan reopened from a holiday on Monday.
In Hong Kong, the Hang Seng gave up 1.3% to 23,034.02, while the Shanghai Composite index dropped 0.8% to 3,346.04.
Australia's S&P/ASX 200 shed 0.7% to 8,251.90.
South Korea's Kospi lost 0.7% to 2,630.29 after the Bank of Korea cut its benchmark interest rate to 2.75% from 3%, its third cut in four meetings as it moves to support the slowing economy.
Taiwan's Taiex fell 1.2% and the Sensex in India gained 0.3%.
——-
AP Business Writer Matt Ott contributed from Washington.
http://accesswdun.com/article/2025/2/1288149