U.S. Stocks Likely To See Initial Slump After Trump Tariff Threats

After ending the previous session roughly flat, stocks are likely to come under pressure in early trading on Friday. The major index futures are currently pointing to a sharply lower open for the markets, with the S&P 500 futures down by 1.4 percent.

The futures plunged after President Donald Trump threatened to impose 50 percent tariffs on imports from the European Union beginning June 1st.

Trump claimed in a post on Truth Social that the EU has “been very difficult to deal with” and said trade talks with the bloc are “going nowhere!”

In a separate Truth Social, Trump also threatened to impose a 25 percent tariff on Apple (AAPL) iPhones that are not manufactured in the U.S.

Trump’s threats have led to renewed to trade concerns, which had waned considerably in recent weeks after the U.S. reached trade deals with the U.K. and China.

Meanwhile, traders are also looking ahead to earnings news from Nvidia (NVDA), with the AI daring scheduled to release its fiscal first quarter results after the close of trading next Wednesday.

Shortly after the start of trading, the Commerce Department is scheduled to release its report on new home sales in the month of April.

Economists expect new home sales to tumble by 4.4 percent to an annual rate of 692,000 in April after spiking by 7.4 percent to a rate of 724,000 in March.

Stocks moved mostly higher over the course of the trading day on the Thursday but gave back ground in the latter part of the session to close roughly flat. The major averages pulled back well off their highs in the final hour of trading before closing narrowly mixed.

While the Nasdaq rose 53.09 points or 0.3 percent to 18,925.73, the Dow edged down 1.35 points or less than a tenth of a percent to 41,859.09 and the S&P 500 slipped 2.60 points or less than a tenth of a percent to 5,842.01.

In overseas trading, stock markets across the Asia-Pacific region turned in a mixed performance during trading on Friday. Japan’s Nikkei 225 Index rose 0.5 percent, while China’s Shanghai Composite Index slid by 0.9 percent.

Meanwhile, European stocks have moved sharply lower in reaction to Trump’s tariff threat. While the French CAC 40 Index is down by 2.9 percent, the German DAX Index is down by 2.7 percent and the U.K.’s FTSE 100 Index is down by 1.4 percent.

In commodities trading, crude oil futures are slumping $0.66 to $60.54 a barrel after falling $0.37 to $61.20 barrel on Thursday. Meanwhile, after sliding $18.50 to $3,295 an ounce in the previous session, gold futures are jumping $51.50 to $3,346.50 an ounce.

On the currency front, the U.S. dollar is trading at 142.53 yen versus the 144.01 yen it fetched at the close of New York trading on Thursday. Against the euro, the dollar is valued at $1.1339 compared to yesterday’s $1.1281.