Traders work on the floor at the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York City, U.S., April 17, 2025.
Brendan McDermid | Reuters
Stock futures fell on Sunday evening following yet another negative trading week for Wall Street.
S&P 500 futures pulled back 0.5%, while Nasdaq-100 futures dropped 0.6%. Futures tied to the Dow Jones Industrial Average also tumbled 186 points, or 0.5%.
The moves come after each of the three major averages logged a third weekly decline in the last four trading weeks. While the S&P 500 closed out Thursday’s session higher, the broad market index still finished the holiday-shortened week 1.5% lower. Additionally, the Dow Jones Industrial Average and Nasdaq Composite posted their third consecutive losing session, each finishing the week with a more than 2% pullback for the four-day period. The U.S. stock market was closed on Friday in observance of Good Friday.
A major sell-off in shares of UnitedHealth weighed on the Dow on Thursday. The stock sank more than 22% after the insurer cut its full-year forecast and posted disappointing quarterly results.
The market also came under pressure Thursday from a nearly 3% loss in Nvidia shares, which came on top of the chipmaker’s almost 7% fall in the prior session. The artificial intelligence darling disclosed Tuesday that it will record a quarterly charge of about $5.5 billion due to controls around exporting its H20 graphics processing units to China and other destinations.
Meanwhile, heightened concern surrounding President Donald Trump’s tariffs continued to weigh on the market. Over the weekend, Chicago Federal Reserve President Austan Goolsbee said in a CBS interview that the tariffs could lead U.S. economic activity to “fall off” by the summer. That follows Fed Chair Jerome Powell expressing concern Wednesday that the president’s levies could present difficulty for the central bank in controlling inflation and spurring economic growth.
While uncertainty persists, some on Wall Street believe the worst could be over. In fact, Mike Dickson of Horizon Investments said “perpetual” swings in the market may be less frequent now even if volatility remains.
“Continued uncertainty will likely cap stock market valuations and weigh on investors until greater clarity emerges,” the firm’s head of research and quantitative strategies said. “Although the tariff situation remains fluid, we believe the roughly 10% daily and weekly market swings seen in recent weeks are behind us for now.”
Investors are looking ahead to a key earnings week, as more than 100 S&P 500 companies are due to report over the coming days. That includes “Magnificent Seven” names Alphabet and Tesla, and others like aerospace giant Boeing.
