US stock futures edged higher on Wednesday, eyeing a rebound from a sharp sell-off, amid hopes that President Donald Trump could soon scale back his new tariffs on Canada and Mexico. But a soft print on labor-market hiring revived worries about a slowdown.
S&P 500 (ES=F) and Dow Jones Industrial Average futures (YM=F) were both up around 0.1%. Contracts on the tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 (NQ=F) advanced 0.3%, with all three gauges backing off earlier gains.
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Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick threw a wrench in tariff developments late Tuesday, saying an existing Trump trade deal could provide a pathway to relief on some imports for Canada and Mexico as soon as Wednesday.
Late Tuesday, the president sent a message to markets, saying in an address to Congress, “There’ll be a little disturbance, but we’re OK with that. It won’t be much.” Trump is widely believed to watch Wall Street’s performance closely as a measure of how well he’s doing.
A wave of selling hit stocks in recent days as investors fretted over potential harm to the economy from Trump’s escalating trade war. The S&P 500 hit its lowest level in four months on Tuesday, erasing all of its post-election gains, amid retaliation to Trump implementing 25% tariffs on Canada and Mexico and doubling duties on China.
A fresh look at the jobs market Wednesday provided another potentially worrisome update. Data from ADP showed that private-sector companies added just 77,000 jobs in February, a significant slump from January and also far below economist expectations.
The ADP print is part of a series of jobs data that tees up Friday’s all-important nonfarm-payrolls release.
LIVE 11 updates
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Private sector adds fewer jobs than expected in February
Fresh data from ADP showed the private sector added 75,000 jobs in February, far fewer than economists’ estimates of 140,000 — and significantly lower than the 186,000 jobs added in January. January’s number of job additions was revised up from a prior reading of 183,000.
Other data from ADP released Wednesday showed that the median year-over-year pay increase for job switchers fell to 6.7% in February, well off its pandemic recovery peak of 16.4%. Wage gains for job stayers grew at a 4.7% pace in February, in line with the growth seen last week.
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Abercrombie stock falls premarket on subdued sales growth forecast
Abercrombie & Fitch (ANF) stock fell nearly 6% in premarket trading after the retailer forecast slower sales growth for the rest of the year.
Abercrombie expects net sales to grow by 3% to 5% as consumer spending weakens, compared with the 6.77% growth the Street expected.
For the year, the company sees operating margins of 14% to 15%, an outlook that includes the estimated impact of tariffs on imports from China, Mexico, and Canada.
Read more here.
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Investors aren’t cheering for Fed rate cuts anymore
The market is now pricing in three rate cuts from the Federal Reserve this year as traders increase their bets on Fed easing amid concerns about US economic growth.
Yahoo Finance’s Josh Schafer reports:
Read more here.
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Copper surges as Trump signals 25% tariff on imports
Copper prices jumped over 5% in New York, outpacing global benchmarks, after President Donald Trump floated a 25% tariff on imports of the metal.
Bloomberg reports:
Read more here
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Good morning. Here’s what’s happening today.
Economic data: ADP Private Payrolls (February); S&P Global Services PMI (February); ISM Services PMI (February); Factory orders (January); Federal Reserve Beige Book
Earnings: Abercrombie & Fitch (ANF), Foot Locker (FL), Campbell Soup (CPB), Thor Industries (THO), Dine Brands (DIN), Marvell (MRVL), MongoDB (MDB), Rigetti Computing (RGTI), Victoria’s Secret (VSCO), Veeva Systems (VEEV)
Here are some of the biggest stories you may have missed overnight and early this morning:
Wall Street is delivering its judgement of Trump’s economic policy
Trump preps markets for ‘a little disturbance’ on tariffs
America’s farmers again take center stage in Trump trade war
Lutnick: Tariffs on Canada, Mexico could ease by Wednesday
Investors aren’t cheering for Fed rate cuts anymore
US copper prices surge as Trump signals 25% tariff on imports
BlackRock’s Panama Canal deal is just its latest Trump-era win
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Auto stocks rally after Lutnick hints tariffs on Canada, Mexico could be cut
In a sign of relief for Detroit automakers, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick suggested the Trump administration could scale down new tariffs on Canada and Mexico.
Lutnick said on Tuesday that the president’s team is looking at the 2020 US-Mexico-Canada Agreement — a Trump 1.0 deal — as a way to meet “somewhere in the…
Read More: Dow, S&P 500, Nasdaq futures inch higher amid signs of tariff relief