S Poddar
U.S. stock futures edged higher Tuesday morning after a sharp sell-off in major indices on Monday. Investors continued to be in a state of anxiety as they waited for President Donald Trump’s tariffs on imports from Canada and Mexico to come into effect later in the day.
Futures tied to the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 20 points, or 0.04%, while the S&P 500 and Nasdaq 100 futures rose 0.1% and 0.18%, respectively. The action followed Monday’s steep losses, where the S&P 500 saw its largest one-day decline since December, falling 1.76%. The Dow lost 649.67 points, a 1.48% fall, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite fell 2.64%.
Markets were initially strong on Monday, but hopes were dashed when Trump announced that the U.S. would go ahead with a 25% tariff on Canadian and Mexican imports. He stressed that negotiations were no longer possible and also levied an extra 10% tariff on Chinese imports, further escalating trade tensions.
The technology industry was hit the hardest, with Nvidia dropping close to 9% and Broadcom declining 6%. Defensive stocks, on the other hand, were where investors fled, causing consumer staples to rise 0.6% and the health care sector to increase 0.4%.
The decline also wiped out the S&P 500’s gains for 2025, which is concerning for the near-term market outlook, according to Scott Ladner, chief investment officer at Horizon Investments.
“We don’t see the market going a whole lot of anywhere really fast,” he said to CNBC. “Sentiment is extremely low right now, and that makes a quick recovery unlikely.
However, Ladner pointed out that despite the turbulence, the U.S. economy remains resilient. Companies continue to report strong earnings growth of 10% to 15%, which he sees as a positive sign for the medium-term outlook.
“We’re not heading into a recession, not even an earnings recession,” he added. “There’s nothing fundamentally damaging corporate earnings power at the moment.”
On the economic side, New York Federal Reserve President John Williams will speak in New York on Tuesday, a speech that might provide additional insights into the central bank’s view of economic conditions.
In the meantime, the earnings season is winding down, with reports due from Best Buy, AutoZone, Target, and CrowdStrike on Tuesday. Investors will be looking closely at these results to get a sense of corporate performance during continued market volatility.
In other financial developments, CoreWeave, a provider of cloud-based Nvidia graphics processing units, officially filed for an initial public offering on Monday. The company, which supplies AI and graphics processing capabilities to firms like Meta and Microsoft, has chosen the ticker symbol “CRWV” for its listing on the Nasdaq. CoreWeave gained significant attention following the launch of OpenAI’s ChatGPT and has since ramped up its focus on AI and graphics rendering.
CoreWeave made $1.92 billion in revenue last year, 62% of which was from Microsoft. The timing of its IPO is in sync with the general market decline. On Monday, Nvidia’s share declined by almost 9%, wiping out $265 billion of market capitalization after Trump announced the tariffs.
A number of stocks experienced significant price fluctuations in after-hours trading on Monday. GitLab jumped 4% after it reported fourth-quarter earnings of 33 cents per share, beating analyst estimates of 23 cents. The company’s revenue also beat expectations at $211 million compared to a forecasted $206 million.
Okta jumped 15% after reporting better-than-expected quarterly results. The cloud software company reported earnings of 78 cents a share, more than analysts had predicted at 74 cents. Revenue was $682 million, higher than projected at $670 million.
AST SpaceMobile stock rose 2% after it reported a narrower-than-expected fourth-quarter loss. The maker of satellites lost 18 cents a share, less than the loss of 19 cents predicted by analysts. Its revenue of $1.9 million, however, was short of the estimated $2.4 million.
As markets absorb these events, investors are still looking to see how Trump’s tariff strategies, Federal Reserve commentary, and future earnings reports will influence the direction of the market in the coming days.
