Stock futures pointed lower as trade tensions with China escalated again on Tuesday, a day after indices recovered from sharp losses on Friday and big banks began reporting third-quarter results.
Futures associated with the tech-heavy Nasdaq, the benchmark S&P 500 index and the blue-chip Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 1.1%, 0.9% and 0.7% respectively.
Yesterday, the Nasdaq, S&P 500 and Dow Jones Industrial Average finished down 2.2%, 1.6% and 1.3% respectively after President Donald Trump wrote on his social media platform Truth Social: “Don’t worry about China, everything will be fine!” Last Friday, the indices plummeted after Trump threatened “massive” tariffs on China.
However, China subsequently imposed sanctions on U.S. subsidiaries of South Korean shipbuilding company Hanwha Ocean, and Beijing and Washington began charging additional port fees on each other’s ships.
Gold futures rose 0.5% to $4,150 an ounce after setting a record high of $4,190 on Tuesday. West Texas Intermediate crude oil futures fell 2.3% to $58.15 a barrel. Bitcoin was around $111,000 after trading near $116,000 on Monday afternoon.
The 10-year Treasury yield fell to 4.02% after the bond market closed Monday for the Columbus Day holiday. The US dollar index, which tracks the value of the dollar against a basket of foreign currencies, rose 0.1% to 99.36.
In corporate news, banking giants JPMorgan Chase (JPM), Citigroup (C), Goldman Sachs (GS) and Wells Fargo (WFC) kicked off third-quarter earnings season before the bell, and all beat analyst estimates. JPMorgan shares were little changed after CEO Jamie Dimon warned “of uncertainty arising from complex geopolitical conditions, tariffs and trade uncertainty, elevated asset prices and the risk of persistent inflation.” Shares of Wells Fargo and Citi rose 3% and 1%, respectively, while Goldman Sachs fell nearly 3%.
Shares of Critical Metals (CRML), USA Rare Earth (USAR) and MP Materials (MP) continued their strong gains since China announced it was restricting rare earth exports, rising respectively 35%, 8% and 12% in pre-market trading.
Shares of Broadcom (AVGO), which closed 9.9% higher on Monday after the chipmaker and OpenAI announced a partnership for 10 gigawatts of custom AI accelerators, fell about 2% before the bell. Shares of other chipmakers Micron Technology (MU), Intel (INTC), ON Semiconductor (ON) and Nvidia (NVDA) fell between 2% and 4% each.
Shares of General Motors (GM) fell about 2% after the automaker said it would take a $1.6 billion charge in its third-quarter results next week related to electric vehicles, including $1.2 billion “as a result of adjustments to our electric vehicle capacity.” Shares of rival Ford Motor (F) fell 1% on news that it is temporarily cutting production of several models after a fire at a key aluminum supplier.
