Stock Market Today: Stocks higher with tariffs, Powell, inflation in focus

Markets will navigate a busy slate of earnings and inflation data this week, with Fed Chairman Jerome Powell also facing lawmakers on Capitol Hill.

Feb 10, 2025 - 12:12

Stock Market Today: Stocks higher with tariffs, Powell, inflation in focus

Check back for updates throughout the trading day

U.S. equity futures moved higher in early Monday trading as investors shrugged-off a new tariff threat from President Donald Trump, as well as comments that could upset Treasury bond markets, ahead of a key week for inflation data and monetary policy updates on Wall Street.

Stocks ended lower on Friday, nudging the S&P 500 into a weekly decline, following comments regarding "reciprocal" tariffs from President Trump, a line he repeated to reporters on Air Force 1 as he headed to watch the Philadelphia Eagles defeat the Kansas City Chiefs in Super Bowl LIX in New Orleans.

Trump also said he would impose a 25% levy on all steel and aluminum products imported into the U.S., to apply as early as this week, while making vague comments about Elon Musk's government efficiency team having found "irregularities" in U.S. Treasuries.

White the prospect of renewed tariffs would likely to be damaging to global trade, and stoke domestic inflation pressures, market have become more sanguine in reacting to Trump's various threats, as has been known to either walk them back or use them as a negotiating tactic to achieve different goals.

With Trump back in the White House, uncertainty and unpredictability are running high," said ING's commodities strategist Ewa Manthey. "Prolonged trade conflict would slow global growth and hurt demand for industrial metals."

"In 2018, the US president imposed a 10% duty on imported aluminium and a 25% tariff on imported steel to promote domestic metal production," she added. "The duties on Canada and Mexico were lifted a year later after a new free trade agreement between the two countries and the US."

Fed Chair Jerome Powell faces two days of testimony in Congress this week, starting with a Tuesday appearance before the Senate Banking Committee.
Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images

U.S. Steel (X) shares were last marked 8% higher in premarket trading, with Cleveland Cliffs (CLF) rising 8.6% and aluminum producer Alcoa AA up 4.5% on the back of Trump's new tariff plans.

In the bond market, Treasury yields were little-changed from Friday's closing levels, despite Trump's remarks that the U.S. "may have less debt than we thought of" following Musk's foray into the Treasury Department that suggested the potential for targeted defaults on some outstanding securities.

Benchmark 10-year Treasury note yields were last marked at 4.493%, with 2-year notes trading at 4.287%, heading into the start of the New York session, with markets eyeing Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell's testimony on Capitol Hill this week as well as the Commerce Department's reading of January inflation on Wednesday.

On the earnings front, around 78 S&P 500 companies, including McDonalds (MCD) , CVS Health, (CVS) , Coca-Cola (KO) and Cisco Systems (CSCO) will report December quarter earnings this week amid a solid reporting season that has topped Street forecasts.

With around three quarters of the S&P 500 reporting for far, collective profits are on pace to rise 14.8% from the prior-year period to $544.2 billion, a $20 billion improvement from the early December forecasts.

Heading into the start of the trading day on Wall Street, futures contracts tied to the S&P 500, which is down 0.24% for the month, are priced for a 25 point opening bell gain.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average, meanwhile, is called 161 points higher while the tech-focused Nasdaq is priced for a 135 point advance.

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In overseas markets, Britain's FTSE 100 hit a fresh all-time peak, and was last marked 0.56% higher on the session, as oil major BP Plc BP surged 6.4% following news of an activist stake from Elliott Investment Management. Europe's Stoxx 600, meanwhile, rose 0.39% in Frankfurt.

Overnight in Asia, Japan's Nikkei 2225 finished 0.04% higher in Tokyo, while the regional MSCI ex-Japan benchmark slipped 0.1% lower into the close of trading.