U.S. stock index futures fell on Monday as tariff uncertainty spooked investors anew after President Donald Trump announced new 15% tariffs despite a Supreme Court ruling canceling widespread taxes.
In a 6-3 decision Friday, the Supreme Court struck down most of the tariffs President Trump imposed last year, ruling that the emergency law he relied on did not authorize the imposition of the tariffs.
Using separate legislation, President Trump announced a global tax, first at 10% and then at 15%, that could last for five months while his administration looks for a more permanent workaround.
“When you’re in a company and you don’t even know what your suppliers are going to be or what your supply chain is going to be or what the tariffs are going to be, it’s very difficult from a business standpoint to know how to plan,” said Arthur Laffer Jr., president of Laffer Tengler Investments.
“This is a major concern for American businesses, and that’s why it’s so important that we resolve this issue as soon as possible so that businesses know what the playing field actually is and can plan accordingly.”
All three major stock indexes posted weekly gains on Friday, as the market accepted the Supreme Court’s decision, and the Nasdaq ended its five-week losing streak.
At 5:22 a.m. ET, the Dow E-mini was down 125 points, or 0.25%, the S&P 500 E-mini was down 15.5 points, or 0.22%, and the Nasdaq 100 E-mini was down 91 points, or 0.36%.
Most mega-cap and growth stocks fell in premarket trading, but Alphabet bucked the trend with a 0.5% gain after gaining about 4% on Friday.
Nvidia started the week up 0.2% ahead of quarterly results to be released on Wednesday. Comments from the world’s largest company by market capitalization could provide important insight into the AI sector, which has been hit by growing investor skepticism.
Rising stock prices and fears of AI disruption have put pressure on technology and other sectors recently, as investors question whether big AI investments are paying off.
Earnings from major software companies like Salesforce and Intuit will be in the spotlight later this week, given that the S&P 500 Software and Services index is down more than 20% this year amid growing concerns about AI disruption.
Among the leading stocks on Monday, Eli Lilly rose 4% after rival Novo Nordisk’s obesity drug fell short of Lilly’s drug in a clinical trial in Copenhagen.
Cryptocurrency and blockchain stocks fell as Bitcoin fell by about 2%, with exchange operator Coinbase Global and crypto asset holder Strategies each down more than 1%.
Gold and silver miners generally rose as prices for both precious metals rose. Top gold miner Newmont rose 1.1% and silver miner Hecla Mining rose 2.5%.
(Reporting by Shashwat Chauhan in Bengaluru; Editing by Devika Shamnath)
