
Morning Watchlist: Yesterday's Rally Sours
U.S. stock futures are falling in the premarket following the massive 9.5% surge in the S&P 500 on Wednesday, marking the largest single-day gain for the index since 2008. Wall Street's brief wave of optimism soured into unease as declines in U.S. stock futures, oil prices, and the dollar signaled growing fears that an ongoing trade war could inflict long-term harm on the U.S. economy.
Initially, investors welcomed President Donald Trump’s promise to temporarily halt certain tariffs for 90 days, sparking a historic rally in U.S. stocks. However, attention has now turned to the risks of an economic slowdown and sustained market turbulence. Later today, the release of consumer inflation data (CPI) and a Treasury auction of 30-year bonds will be key events, with investors closely monitoring the latter for any hints of apprehension about holding U.S. debt.
Snapshot (as of 7 AM ET)
- Oil (/CL) – Oil prices are down 3% near the $60 level. Crude hit its lowest level in 4 years on Wednesday near $55 a barrel before a massive rally on the pause in tariffs.
- Gold (/GC) – Gold prices are higher by more than 1.5% near $3135 as investors flocked to safe-haven bullion after the U.S. hiked tariffs on China, the top metals consumer, escalating the already heated trade war, despite a 90-day pause on tariffs for other countries.
- Bitcoin (/BTC) – The crypto futures are down almost 1% and just above $82K.
- VIX – The CBOE Volatility Index has cooled off to the 36.5 level after the tariff pause announcement.
- U.S. Dollar (/DX) – The dollar is down around 1% to 101.5.
Biggest Premarket Movers (Mark % Change as of 7 AM ET)
- Newmont (NEM): +0.59%
- Gilead Sciences (GILD): +0.52%
- Kimberly Clark (KMB): +0.41%
- CarMax (KMX): -7.26%
- Intel (INTC): -4.04%
- Smurfit Westrock (SW): -3.33%
Economic Data
- 8:30AM ET: CPI, Jobless Claims, Fed’s Barkin Speaks
- 9:30AM ET: Fed’s Logan Speaks
- 10:00AM ET: Fed’s Schmid & Bowman Speak
- 10:30AM ET: Natural Gas Inventories
- 12:00PM ET: Fed’s Goolsbee & Harker Speak
- 1:00PM ET: 30-Year Bond Auction
- 2:00PM ET: Treasury Statement
Notable Earnings
- Premarket: KMX, LOVE
- Postmarket: None
- Premarket Tomorrow: BK, BLK, FAST, JPM, MS, WFC
- Postmarket Tomorrow: None
Upgrades/Downgrades
- HSBC upgrades Palo Alto Networks (PANW) to Hold from Reduce
- Morgan Stanley upgrades AppLovin (APP) to Overweight from Equal Weight
- Benchmark upgrades Western Digital (WDC) to Buy from Hold
- Goldman Sachs downgrades Ford (F) to Neutral from Buy
- UBS downgrades General Motors (GM) to Neutral from Buy
- Gordon Haskett downgrades Dollar General (DG) to Reduce from Hold