MW U.S. stock futures fall after another losing week on Wall Street

By Mike Murphy

U.S. stock futures fell Sunday after another rough - though holiday-shortened - week on Wall Street.

Dow Jones Industrial Average futures (YM00) slipped more than 170 points, or 0.4% on Sunday evening. S&P 500 futures (ES00) and Nasdaq-100 futures (NQ00) were also down around 0.5%. The price of West Texas Intermediate crude (CL.1) fell more than 1% to $63.86 a barrel, while gold (GC00)rose about 1% to $3.360.40. Bitcoin (BTCUSD) was recently trading at $84.734, down about 0.6% over the past 24 hours.

Stocks were mixed on Thursday, but all three major U.S. indexes logged weekly losses for the third time in the past four weeks. The Dow DJIA ended last week off 2.7%, while the S&P 500 SPX dipped 1.5% and the Nasdaq Composite COMP slid 2.6%. The stock market was closed for the Good Friday holiday.

On Thursday, the Dow entered a "death cross" for the first time since November 2023, as its 50-day moving average crossed below its 200-day moving average. While potentially signifying a more serious downward trend, historical data shows that the Dow's performance after a "death cross" has been consistently positive.

Investors are still worried about the potential effects of stiff tariffs against America's trading partners that the Trump administration imposed - then largely paused - earlier this month. Trade negotiations are said to be underway with China - which is facing 145% tariffs - Japan, the European Union and Mexico. There are also increasing fears that President Donald Trump may try to fire Fed Chair Jerome Powell, after Trump increased his criticism of Powell last week and called for interest rates to be cut.

Trump's comments came after Powell said Wednesday that Trump's tariffs will likely cause higher inflation and slower economic growth.

Chicago Federal Reserve President Austan Goolsbee said Sunday that U.S. economic activity could take a dive this summer, following "artificially high" spring readings as businesses and consumers stock up on "preemptive purchasing" before the tariffs take effect.

Investors are also looking forward to quarterly earnings this week from Google parent Alphabet Inc. $(GOOG)$ $(GOOGL)$, Tesla Inc. $(TSLA)$ and Boeing Co. $(BA)$

-Mike Murphy

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April 20, 2025 18:45 ET (22:45 GMT)

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