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Yesterday’s markets sell-off was one for the record books, with tariff uncertainty on the rise.Credit…Brendan McDermid/Reuters
Investors are bracing for another nerve-racking ride after Thursday’s sell-off vaporized $2.5 trillion from the S&P 500 on fears of trade wars, a resurgence in inflation and a chill in global growth.
S&P 500 futures are sinking Friday, after the benchmark index limped through its worst one-day decline since 2020, at the height of the coronavirus pandemic. Stocks in Asia and Europe are down, too.
Just in: Beijing said it would impose an additional 34 percent tariff on U.S. imports next week, a move that further rattled investors. The yield on the 10-year Treasury bond plummeted below 4 percent on concerns that tit-for-tat moves would plunge the economy into a recession.
A new test is coming on Friday, with the jobs report set for release at 8:30 a.m. Eastern.
Tariff jitters are front and center again after President Trump signaled a new round of levies on semiconductors and pharmaceutical imports. Shares in Novo Nordisk, the Danish maker of the weight-loss drugs Ozempic and Wegovy, fell sharply in Copenhagen on Friday.
What to watch: The labor market has been an economic bright spot. But layoffs have spiked recently, with employers increasingly citing the “DOGE impact,” a reference to Elon Musk’s government-cutting work. Economists predict that Friday’s jobs report will show an additional 125,000 positions created last month, down from the 151,000 added in February, according to FactSet.
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