Wall Street’s main indexes were set for a subdued open on Tuesday following sharp losses on Wall Street in the previous session, while disappointing forecasts from Kohl’s (NYSE:KSS) and Delta stoked worries about a slowing economy.
Global markets have been gripped by a sense of risk aversion ever since President Donald Trump triggered a tit-for-tat tariff war between the U.S. and its trade partners, which analysts have said could stoke inflationary pressures and trigger an economic slowdown.
The S&P 500 recorded its steepest one-day decline since December 18 on Monday, with the selloff erasing $4 trillion from the index’s peak just last month.
The tech-heavy Nasdaq already confirmed a 10% correction late last week.
Reflecting slowing consumer demand, Kohl’s forecast a bigger-than-expected drop in annual comparable sales, sending the retailer’s shares down 13.5% in premarket trading.
Dick’s Sporting Goods (NYSE:DKS) declined 4.5% after the retailer forecast annual results largely below estimates.
Delta Air Lines (NYSE:DAL) slid 4% after the carrier slashed its first-quarter profit estimates by half as CEO Ed Bastian blamed heightened U.S. economic uncertainty.
American Airlines (NASDAQ:AAL) dropped 1.3% after the carrier said it sees a bigger-than-expected first-quarter loss.
"The American narrative is fading. Trump’s disruptive trade policies are hitting home, sparking fears of inflation and dampening sentiment on Wall Street," said Nikos Tzabouras, market analyst at Tradu.
"These two to three months will remain challenging for U.S. markets and we could see even deeper losses from here."
At 08:36 a.m. ET, Dow E-minis were up 22 points, or 0.05%, S&P 500 E-minis were up 5.25 points, or 0.09%, and Nasdaq 100 E-minis were up 29.75 points, or 0.15%.
Futures tracking the domestically focused Russell 2000 index rose 0.7%.
The CBOE market volatility index dipped slightly after closing at its highest level since August.
Focus will be on the Labor Department’s Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey, which is due later in the day. A closely watched inflation report is expected later in the week.
Interest rate futures point to the U.S. Federal Reserve leaving borrowing costs unchanged at its meeting next week, but they also have penciled in that the central bank could lower borrowing costs by at least 75 basis points by December on expectations of slowing growth.
Trump will meet the chief executives of America’s biggest companies later in the day. Focus will also be on voting related to a funding bill at Capitol Hill to avert a partial federal government shutdown.
Heavyweight megacaps were mixed. Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) inched up 0.6% after the stock fell 15.4% in the previous session, while Meta (NASDAQ:META) and Amazon.com (NASDAQ:AMZN) were flat.
Oracle (NYSE:ORCL) dropped 1.9% after the cloud company missed quarterly revenue estimates.
Citi became the latest brokerage to revise its stance on U.S. stocks, downgrading its recommendation from "overweight" to "neutral."
Despite the volatility, stock market valuations remain substantially higher than historical averages, according to LSEG Datastream.