Gold prices just lower; monthly gains on track
Investing.com - U.S. stock futures rise on Friday following a fresh sell-off on Wall Street stemming from fluctuations in President Donald Trump’s tariff plans. Trump temporarily halted levies on Canada and Mexico that went into effect earlier this week, sowing confusion among investors over the path ahead for his trade policy. Traders are also gearing up for the release of a key U.S. jobs report as well as remarks from Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell.
1. Futures higher
U.S. stock futures pointed higher, as investors tracked changes in President Trump’s trade policy and looked ahead to key labor market data.
By 03:41 ET (08:41 GMT), the Dow futures contract had inched up by 82 points or 0.2%, S&P 500 futures had risen by 20 points or 0.3%, and Nasdaq 100 futures had climbed by 100 points or 0.5%.
The averages tanked in the prior session, in the latest twist in a week of volatility for Wall Street that has been driven by uncertainty around Trump’s tariff plans. On Thursday, Trump temporarily suspended levies on Canada and Mexico until April 2, reversing a decision days earlier to allow the duties to come into effect because of a perceived lack of action by these countries to help stem the flow of illegal drugs and migrants into the U.S.
Trump’s approach to trade relations with Canada and Mexico -- the two biggest U.S. trading partners -- has fluctuated since his return to office, clouding the outlook for the highly-integrated North American economy. In February, Trump slapped 25% tariffs on non-energy Canadian goods and all Mexican products, but later delayed them for 30 days.
"The White House seems aware of the financial/economic discord being sowed by its policies and is taking modest steps aimed at mollifying investors, but if anything, these actions and rhetoric are only adding to the environment of chaos and amateurishness, compounding investor anxiety rather than alleviating it," analysts at Vital Knowledge said.
Also denting sentiment has been a raft of recent data points that have hinted at a slowdown in U.S. growth, while traders have been eyeing some underwhelming corporate earnings reports, the analysts added.
2. Trump on tariff delay
The major U.S. indices are now on track to post a losing week, with the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite index in particular now in correction territory.
Still, Trump argued that his decision to pause the tariffs on Mexico and Canada was not driven by the stock market ructions.
Responding to a question about the influence of equities on his tariff plans at an event signing executive orders in the Oval Office, Trump said the postponement of the tariffs had "nothing to do with the market.”
“I’m not even looking at the market, because long term the United States will be very strong with what is happening here,” he said, adding that "globalists" were to blame for the sell-off. He had earlier used the term to refer to some companies and countries.
Many investors have hoped that Trump, who campaigned on a pro-business platform featuring looser regulations and lower taxes, would use the stock market as a kind of approval rating metric and not let it slip too deeply -- an assumption that has come to be known as the "Trump put."
3. Payrolls ahead
The U.S. economy is tipped to have added a greater number of jobs in February than in the prior month, potentially signaling resilience in labor demand that could factor into how the Federal Reserve approaches monetary policy in the months ahead.
Overall nonfarm payrolls are estimated to have increased by 156,000 in February, compared to 143,000 in the prior month. Meanwhile, the unemployment rate is seen at 4.0%, matching the pace logged in January. Month-on-month average hourly earnings growth is also expected to have cooled slightly to 0.3% from 0.5%.
In a statement earlier this week, Nela Richardson, Chief Economist at payrolls processor ADP, said policy uncertainty and a slowdown in consumer expenditures might have led to layoffs or an easing in hiring by private employers in February.
Private payrolls rose by 77,000 last month, falling from an upwardly-revised level of 186,000 in January. Economists had predicted a reading of 141,000.
It was the smallest gain in the figure since July, with trade and transportation, health care and education, and information all showing job losses, ADP said. Small business employment also dipped. However, these numbers, which were published by ADP in conjunction with Stanford Digital Economy Lab, have no correlation with the nonfarm payrolls report on Friday from the Labor Department’s Bureau of Labor Statistics.
4. Powell to speak
Markets will likely be hoping that Fed Chair Jerome Powell, who is due to speak a few hours after the release of the jobs report, will provide almost real-time reaction to the figures.
The Fed pushed pause on a rate cutting cycle in January and indicated that it will take a wait-and-see approach to future possible borrowing cost reductions, citing a relatively resilient jobs picture and uncertainty around the inflationary impact of Trump’s policies.
But concerns over global growth have since risen, including among Fed officials, with a slew of recent data suggesting that the uptick in international trade tensions has weighed on consumer confidence, retail sales and overall business activity.
Any big miss on the employment numbers could subsequently bolster bets that the Fed will resume slashing interest rates later this year.
5. Trump signs order creating Bitcoin reserve
Elsewhere, Trump has signed an executive order to establish a strategic Bitcoin reserve, a day before a meeting with cryptocurrency industry leaders at the White House.
The formation of the reserve will not entail any government purchases of crypto, White House artificial intelligence and crypto czar David Sacks said, although he did state that the Secretaries of Treasury and Commerce were now authorized to develop "budget-neutral" strategies to buy Bitcoin, as long as the purchases did not cost taxpayer money.
The reserve will be capitalized with Bitcoin seized by the federal government as part of criminal or civil asset forfeitures, Sacks added.
Bitcoin was lower on Friday following the announcement, although the world’s biggest digital token pared back some of the losses as analysts argued that the reserve still represented a positive development for crypto markets.