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U.S. stock futures were hit once again on Monday as the White House remained defiant after President Donald Trump’s rollout of shockingly high tariff rates on most key U.S. trading partners has sparked a three-day market meltdown.
Futures for the Dow Jones Industrials crumbled 822 points, or 2.1%, to 37,708.
Futures for the S&P 500 index slid 125.25 points, or 2.5%, to 4,982.
Futures for the tech-heavy NASDAQ collapsed 503 points, or 2.9%, to 17,036.
The Dow posted back-to-back losses of more than 1,500 points for the first time ever, including a 2,231-point shellacking on Friday.
The S&P 500 dropped 6% on Friday for its worst performance since the outbreak of the pandemic in March 2020. The benchmark lost 10% in two days.
The NASDAQ entered a bear market Friday — down 22% from its record — after losses on Thursday and Friday of nearly 6% apiece.
Tesla led the losses in premarket trading, down 6%. Caterpillar, a big seller of construction equipment around the world, fell 5% early Monday.
Trump’s initial unilateral 10% tariff went into effect Saturday. Investors were hoping for news over the weekend that the Trump administration was having successful negotiations with countries to lower the tariff rates, or at the very least, was considering delaying the set of so-called reciprocal tariffs due to take effect Wednesday.
Instead, the president and his key advisors played down the selloff.
Investors were surprised first by the magnitude of certain rates applied to trading partners that appeared to be based on a formula without a valid rationale based on established economic theory.
They were rattled further when China on Friday decided to retaliate with a 34% tariff on all U.S. imports, instead of negotiating first.
In Japan, the Nikkei 225 index dipped 7.8% Monday, while in Hong Kong, the Hang Seng returned from a long weekend to shed 13.2%.
Oil prices skidded $1.47 to $60.52 U.S. a barrel.
Gold prices took on $22.30 to $3,057.70 U.S. an ounce.