US pre-open: Futures lower as tariffs continue to weigh on markets

7th Apr 2025 11:35

(Sharecast News) - Wall Street futures were in the red yet again on Monday as Donald Trump's newly announced tariffs continued to weigh heavily on market sentiment.

As of 1235 BST, Dow Jones futures were down 1.65%, while S&P 500 and Nasdaq-100 futures had the indices opening 1.55% and 1.80% weaker, respectively.

The Dow closed 2,231.07 points lower on Friday ahead of Trump's unilateral 10% tariff going into effect over the weekend.

Investors had hoped to receive word that the White House had been able to hold negotiations with trading partners to lower the tariff rates or that it would consider delaying Trump's so-called reciprocal tariffs beyond 9 April. However, the Trump administration remained defiant after, stating "I don't want anything to go down, but sometimes you have to take medicine to fix something".

"We have a trillion-dollar trade deficit with China, hundreds of billions of dollars a year we lose with China. And unless we solve that problem, I'm not going to make a deal," he added. China has already placed a retaliatory 34% tariff on US imports, while Canada and the European Union were said to be following its lead.

Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick also said the tariffs were " definitely going to stay in place for days and weeks", despite Trump vowing to keep them in place for the entirety of his second term, while Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent noted that although more than 50 nations had approached the US to begin negotiations, he said the fact that they've been "bad actors for a long time" meant this was "not the kind of thing you can negotiate away in days or weeks".

In the corporate space, Tesla and trade bellwether Caterpillar traded lower ahead of the bell amid the ongoing tariff woes.

On the macro front, February consumer credit change figures will be published at 2000 BST.

Reporting by Iain Gilbert at Sharecast.com