All NewsFebruary 7, 2025

Stock Market Today: Stocks lower on renewed tariff, inflation concerns

Check back for updates throughout the trading day

U.S. stocks turned lower in early Friday trading, while Treasury yields and the dollar held steady, as investors picked through a complicated January jobs report that could define market direction over the coming weeks. 

Updated at 11:04 AM EST

Tariff redux

Stocks are extending their earlier declines amid reports that suggest President Donald Trump has told Republican lawmakers that his plans to issue reciprocal tariffs as early as today.

The nature of the tariff proposal remains unclear, although China has hit back at U.S. tech companies this week following Trump’s decision to add an extra 10% levy on goods coming from the world’s second-largest economy.

The S&P 500 was last marked 38 points, or 0.6% lower with the Dow falling 260 points and the Nasdaq down 174 points, or 0.88%.

Updated at 9:39 AM EST

Inflation concerns 

The University of Michigan’s benchmark survey of consumer sentiment came in sharply lower than forecast this month, with the heading reading falling 3.3 points to 67.8. Year-ahead inflation expectations, meanwhile, jumped a full percentage point from January levels to 4.3%.

Stocks turned lower in the wake of the data release, with the S&P 500 last marked 13 points, or 0.2% lower on the session and the Nasdaq down 101 points, or 0.56%.

Updated at 9:39 AM EST

Modest gains

The S&P 500 was marked 5 points higher, or 0.1%, in the opening minutes of trading, with the Nasdaq rising 40 points, or 0.21%.

The Dow fell 30 points with the mid-cap Russell 2000 gaining 1 point, or 0.04% following the January jobs report.

“Outside of the headline result, the latest jobs report is not cause for alarm — even as the job openings report also missed estimates earlier this week,’ said Bret Kenwell, U.S. investment analyst at eToro.

“While some investors may worry about implications for inflation or rate cuts, make no mistake about it: It’s better to have a strong economy and labor market than a deteriorating environment. Remember, stocks tend to do well amid mild inflation,” he added. 

Updated at 8:50 AM EST

‘Noisy’ jobs report

The U.S. economy added a smaller-than-expected tally of new jobs last month but a sharp jump in wage growth, as well as revisions tied to population changes and immigration make for a ‘noisy’ report that may not indicate broader labor market strength.

The U.S. economy added a smaller-than-expected tally of new jobs last month but a sharp jump in wage growth, as well as revisions tied to population changes and immigration make for a ‘noisy’ report that may not indicate broader labor market strength.

The BLS said 143,000 new jobs were created last month, missing Wall Street’s 169,000 forecast and falling notable from the upwardly revised reading of 307,000 from December.

Other revisions tied the BLS’s new methodology lifted readings for November by 49,000 to 261,000, adding around 100,000 new jobs to the final two-month tallies.

Stocks were little-changed following the data release, with futures tied to the S&P 500 indicating a 3 point opening bell decline and the Nasdaq called 5 points lower. The Dow was last called 10 points higher.

Benchmark 10-year Treasury note yields rose 4 basis points to 4.485% following the data release while rate-sensitive 2-year notes jumped 3 basis points to 4.254%.

Check back for updates throughout the trading day

Stocks ended higher on Thursday, thanks in part to a pullback in Treasury bond yields and a series of solid corporate earnings reports that underscored the strength of the fourth-quarter reporting season. 

The weekly jobless-claims report Thursday, meanwhile, was relatively benign, with data showing around 219,000 Americans filing for first-time unemployment benefits. The report raised the prospect of a solid payrolls report this morning, which could give stocks an early February spark. 

Economists are looking for a headline reading of 169,000 from today’s Employment Report, down from December’s 256,000 but in line with the six-month average of 166,000.

However, extreme weather in the Midwest and Southeast, wildfires in California and planned data revisions from the Bureau of Labor Statistics could deliver a January jobs total well outside the frame of Wall Street forecasts. 

Fed Chair Jerome Powell and his colleagues will use the January payrolls report as a key indicator of labor-market strength in the new year. 

Alex Wong/Getty Images

“A lot of focus will be on annual benchmark revisions,” said ING’s foreign exchange strategist, Francesco Pesole. 

“Last year’s provisional revisions indicated that, upon cross-referencing with tax data, the Bureau of Labor Statistics had overestimated job creation by approximately one-third,” he said. “This points to significant issues with their model, and we anticipate substantial adjustments to the monthly payroll numbers.”

The U.S. dollar index was little changed at 107.708 against a basket of its global peers heading into the January jobs reading, with benchmark 2-year Treasury note yields holding at 4.233%.

Related: Jobs report may be catalyst to wavering stocks

On Wall Street, Amazon  (AMZN)  shares are likely to be the focus of the early session following the tech and retail giant’s mixed set of fourth-quarter earnings last night. The report included slower-than-expected growth from its flagship Amazon Web Services cloud-services division.

Shares in the group were last marked 2.7% lower in premarket trading to indicate an opening bell price of $232.30.

Stocks more broadly are trading only modestly lower heading into the jobs report, with futures tied to the S&P 500 indicating a 3-point decline and those linked to the Dow Jones Industrial Average priced for a 17-point gain.

The tech-focused Nasdaq, meanwhile, is called 20 points lower with Amazon, Nvidia  (NVDA)  and Palantir  (PLTR)  active in premarket trading. 

More Wall Street Analysis:

In overseas markets, Europe’s Stoxx 600 eased from yesterday’s all time high and was last marked 0.08% lower in Frankfurt, while Britain’s FTSE 100 fell 0.21% in London following yesterday’s Bank of England rate cut.

Overnight in Asia, the yen hit a two-month high against the U.S. dollar on bets for a near-term rate hike from the Bank of Japan, sending the Nikkei 225 0.72% lower into the close of trading.

The broader MSCI ex-Japan index, meanwhile, was marked 0.59% higher with China’s benchmark CSI 300 rising to a one-month high in Friday trading. 

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