Stock Market Today: Futures Drop On 'Aug 1' Tariff Deadline Fears, Chevron, Exxon, Apple, Amazon In Focus

U.S. stock futures fell sharply on Friday after ending lower on Thursday. Futures of major benchmark indices were down.

Despite a week of positive earnings, the sentiment on Wall Street was subdued, as today marked the “hard deadline” for countries that haven’t yet signed a trade deal with the U.S. to start paying the tariffs.

Meanwhile, President Donald Trump has launched a sweeping new round of tariffs on 69 countries, intensifying a global trade standoff and escalating tensions over fentanyl, national security and China.

Goods from Brazil will face a 50% tariff, while India, Taiwan and Switzerland are among others hit with new rates of 20% to 39%. A baseline 10% tariff will apply to all nations not listed in the annex.

One of the most severe penalties was aimed at Canada, with tariffs on many goods rising from 25% to 35% over what Trump described as Ottawa’s “failure to cooperate” on combating fentanyl flows into the U.S.

The 10-year Treasury bond yielded 4.38% and the two-year bond was at 3.94%. The CME Group’s FedWatch tool‘s projections show markets pricing a 61% likelihood of the Federal Reserve keeping the current interest rates unchanged for the Sept. 17 decision.

Futures	Change (+/-)
Dow Jones	-0.91%
S&P 500	-0.98%
Nasdaq 100	-1.11%
Russell 2000	-1.48%

The SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust SPY and Invesco QQQ Trust ETF QQQ, which track the S&P 500 index and Nasdaq 100 index, respectively, dropped in premarket on Friday. The SPY was down 0.94% at $626.13, while the QQQ declined 1.09% to $558.85, according to Benzinga Pro data.

Cues From Last Session:

Sectors that gained and lost on Thursday marked a decline for U.S. stocks. Most S&P 500 sectors ended in the red, with materials, real estate, and health care stocks experiencing the largest declines. Conversely, communication services and utilities stocks defied the broader market trend, closing the session higher.

Meta Platforms Inc. META soared 11% following stellar second-quarter results and positive revenue guidance. Microsoft Corp. MSFT climbed approximately 4% after strong Azure revenue reports.

The combined market value of the Magnificent Seven surpassed $19.4 trillion, with both Microsoft and Nvidia Corp. NVDA exceeding $4 trillion in worth.

The Personal Consumption Expenditures (PCE) price index in June increased to 2.6% from 2.3% in May, exceeding the 2.5% forecast. Core PCE, the Fed’s preferred inflation gauge, remained at 2.8%, above the 2.7% consensus.

U.S. initial jobless claims in the fourth week of July rose by 1,000 from the prior week to 218,000, which was below market estimates of 224,000.

Index	Performance (+/-)	Value
Nasdaq Composite	-0.034%	21,122.45
S&P 500	-0.37%	6,339.39
Dow Jones	-0.74%	44,130.98
Russell 2000	-0.93%	2,211.65

Insights From Analysts:

Ed Yardeni of Yardeni Research highlighted that the April 2 Liberation Day reciprocal tariffs were postponed on April 9 to July 9 and again to Aug. 1.

He said that Thursday’s sell-off on mostly good news suggests that investors and traders might be starting to take profits before going on their August vacations. “They might also be betting that September could be a weak month for stocks, as it often has been in the past,” he said.

On the tariff front, Yardeni added that “Trump seems intent on using them as a revenue-raising and foreign policy tool. However, the courts might soon rule that he doesn’t have the legal authority to impose them in the first place.”

“Sure, reciprocal tariffs will be imposed on all America’s trading partners today. But that doesn’t mean that they won’t be changed again,” he noted.

Meanwhile, Louis Navellier of Navellier & Associates highlighted that “Just based on the commitments that the EU, Japan and South Korea have made, a cumulative $1.5 trillion of onshoring has been promised, so the Trump Administration has secured over $10 trillion in onshoring, so 5% annual GDP growth is becoming more likely in the next few years.”

Talking about the June PCE report, Kathy Jones, chief fixed income strategist at Schwab, said, “Looking at today’s numbers, the Fed can say there isn’t yet enough evidence to warrant a rate cut.”

She added, “Inflation is above target and turning higher. Tariffs will increase prices while the job market seems steady.”

Meanwhile, Chris Zaccarelli, CIO at Northlight Asset Management said, “Boom times are back – at least for now – as GDP is running at 3%, unemployment is low and inflation remains in check. As with so many things in the economy, the situation is very fluid and we have yet to see the full impact of tariffs flowing through to inflation. The Fed is on hold (but has a bias to cut rates) and tech firms blowing out their earnings reports, so the market is poised to keep climbing.”

Talking about its impact on stock markets, he added, “While we remain concerned about elevated valuations, we understand that they are a necessary, but not sufficient, cause for markets to pull back. We are priced for perfection as they say, and that is a risk, but one that will likely be ignored by the market as long as corporate profits are still growing.”

See Also: How to Trade Futures

Upcoming Economic Data

Here’s what investors will keep an eye on Friday:

• July’s U.S. employment report, unemployment rate, and hourly wages data will be announced by 8:30 a.m. ET.
• July’s S&P final U.S. manufacturing PMI will be released at 9:45 a.m., whereas July’s ISM manufacturing, construction spending, and consumer sentiment will be announced by 10:00 a.m. ET.
• July’s auto sales data will also be released on Friday.

Stocks In Focus:

• Chevron Corp. CVX was up 0.22% in premarket on Friday as analysts expect it to report earnings of $1.76 per share on revenue of $43.43 billion before the opening bell.
• Exxon Mobil Corp. XOM was down 0.37% as it is expected to report earnings before the opening bell. Analysts estimate earnings of $1.47 per share on revenue of $79.34 billion.
• Apple Inc. AAPL was up 1.88% posting stronger-than-expected third-quarter results as the iPhone maker reported fiscal third-quarter revenue of $94 billion, beating analyst estimates of $89.04 billion by 5.6%. Earnings per share came in at $1.57, surpassing the consensus estimate of $1.42 per share.
• Amazon.com Inc. AMZN dropped over 8.14% despite better-than-expected results as the street was not convinced by the cloud revenue and demand dwarfing the capacity amid power constraints.
• WW Grainger Inc. GWW was 0.44% lower as analysts expect it to report earnings of $10.04 per share on revenue of $4.52 billion before the opening bell.
• GoPro Inc. GPRO slid 5.43% as it declined from peak levels following the short squeeze last week. Thursday’s announcement also did not help the stock as it launched an opt-in AI training program, allowing subscribers to monetize cloud-based video content.
• Reddit Inc. RDDT jumped 13.77% after reporting second-quarter results that crushed Wall Street expectations and issued bullish third-quarter guidance.
• Coinbase Global Inc. COIN dropped 11.10% as it reported second-quarter revenue of $1.5 billion, down 26% quarter-over-quarter. The revenue missed a Street consensus estimate of $1.69 billion.

Commodities, Gold, And Global Equity Markets:

Crude oil futures were trading lower in the early New York session by 0.58% to hover around $68.86 per barrel.

Gold Spot US Dollar rose 0.14% to hover around $3,294.77 per ounce. Its last record high stood at $3,500.33 per ounce. The U.S. Dollar Index spot was higher by 0.17% at the 100.1360 level.

Asian markets declined on Friday, as Japan’s Nikkei 225, India’s S&P BSE Sensex, China’s CSI 300, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng, South Korea’s Kospi, and Australia’s ASX 200 indices fell. European markets were also lower in early trade.

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