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Stock market today: Dow drops 600 points, S&P 500, Nasdaq sink after weak jobs report, Trump’s tariff redux
- The Dow Jones Industrial Average (^DJI) dropped more than 600 points, or 1.4% Friday afternoon, while the S&P 500 (^GSPC) fell around 1.7% to touch a session low.
- The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite (^IXIC) tumbled more than 2.3%. Most growth sectors were in the red, leading the declines.
- The sell-off followed a weaker-than-expected jobs report, and after President Trump reshaped the US trade landscape by imposing tariffs on imports from dozens of trading partners around the world.
- Friday’s July jobs report showed weaker-than-expected hiring and larger-than-normal downward revisions to prior months’ data, suggesting the labor market has been weakening for months.
- Yahoo Finance’s Allie Canal reports:
- Read more here.
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- Big Tech firms Amazon (AMZN), Alphabet (GOOGL, GOOG), Microsoft (MSFT), and Meta (META) reported that they were set to spend as much as a cumulative $364 billion in their respective 2025 fiscal years, up from their prior estimates of around $325 billion.
- Investors appeared to shrug off the increase for the most part.
- Shares of three of the four tech giants spiked following their latest quarterly earnings reports over the past two weeks, which showed the companies broadly outperforming Wall Street’s expectations and lifting their capital expenditure forecasts. Meta and Microsoft shares surged roughly 11% and 4%, respectively, in Thursday’s trading session, following their quarterly results the prior afternoon. Microsoft’s surge briefly pushed the firm’s value north of $4 trillion for the first time. Alphabet stock also jumped following its report last week.
- Amazon was an exception to Wall Street’s bullish reception of the capital expenditures changes. Shares fell 8% Friday after the company raised its capital expenditure forecast, but its guidance for operating income at its AWS cloud computing unit was lower than expected, raising questions about its AI plans. Amazon said its $31.4 billion in second quarter capital expenditures was “reasonably representative of our quarterly capital investment rate for the back half of this year,” implying it would spend around $118.5 billion in the full fiscal year.
- Read the full story here.
- After a year that has seen its share price collapse by more than 50%, UnitedHealth Group (UNH) has swapped out its chief financial officer, Yahoo Finance’s Jake Conley and Anjalee Khemlani report.
- Conley and Khemlani write:
- Shares of UnitedHealth dropped around 3.4% early Friday.
- Read the full story here.
- Economic activity in the US manufacturing sector hit a nine month low in July.
- The Institute for Supply Management’s (ISM) manufacturing PMI registered a reading of 48% in July, down from June’s reading of 49%. Readings above 50 for this index indicate an expansion in activity, while readings below 50 indicate contraction. The manufacturing sector has been in contraction for most of the past two years.
- “In July, U.S. manufacturing activity contracted at a faster rate, with declines in the Supplier Deliveries and Employment Indexes contributing as the biggest factors in the 1-percentage point loss of the Manufacturing PMI,” Chair of the Institute for Supply Management Susan Spence wrote in the release.
- Reddit (RDDT) stock soared more than 16% early Friday after the social media platform reported second quarter earnings and revenue that surpassed Wall Street’s expectations, with a sunnier than anticipated outlook for its third quarter.
- The social media’s revenue grew 78% to $500 million, its fastest revenue growth in three years, according to the company. That figure was ahead of the $425 million projected by Wall Street analysts tracked by Bloomberg.
- In its results released late Thursday, Reddit also reported adjusted earnings per share of $0.92, ahead of the estimated $0.72.
- The company said global daily active users hit 110.4 million in the three months ended June 30, just above the 110 million expected by analysts, according to Bloomberg consensus data. Meanwhile, US daily active users hit 50.3 million, slightly below the 50.5 million expected.
- Read more about Reddit’s latest report here.
- Shares of Novo Nordisk (NVO) and Eli Lilly (LLY) spiked at the open after the Washington Post reported that the Trump administration is planning to experiment with allowing Medicare and Medicaid to cover weight-loss drugs.
- A plan obtained from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services stated that state Medicaid programs and Medicare Part D insurance plans can voluntarily choose to cover Novo Nordisk’s Ozempic and Wegovy and Eli Lilly’s Mounjaro and Zepbound for weight management, the Post reported.
- It’s a signal that the administration is more open to GLP-1 drug coverage, despite reservations from Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
- Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly stocks both popped 3% in the first 10 minutes of trading. On Thursday, the stocks sold off after President Trump sent a letter to 17 pharma companies demanding that they slash their drug prices in the US.
- US stocks sank at the market open on Friday after President Trump officially hit virtually every US trading partner with sweeping tariff hikes, and the June jobs report showed signs of a labor market slowdown.
- The Dow Jones Industrial Average (^DJI) dropped 0.9%, while the S&P 500 (^GSPC) fell around 1%. The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite (^IXIC) sank about 1.4%, on the heels of a losing day for the major US gauges.
- The big market action after a shocking July jobs report was being seen in the bond market Friday morning.
- Treasuries were in rally mode as traders moved to price in at least two interest-rate cuts from the Federal Reserve this year. That reversed the moves seen Wednesday after the FOMC meeting, which saw Fed Chair Jay Powell talk down the need for rate cuts.
- The yield on 2-year Treasury notes fell by more than 17 basis points to as low as 3.78% Friday morning. The yield on 10-year notes fell by nearly 10 basis points to as low as 4.27%.
- Data from the CME Group showed the odds for a September rate cut from the Fed were as high as 75% following Friday’s report.
- The July jobs report showed the US economy added just 73,000 jobs last month while revisions to the May and June reports showed more than quarter million fewer jobs were added to the economy than previously reported.
- On Wednesday, odds for a September rate cut from the Fed were just 37%.
- Just before the release of Friday’s jobs report, two Fed governors — Chris Waller and Michelle Bowman — issued statements explaining their decision to vote against the Fed’s call to keep interest rates unchanged on Wednesday.
- Both suggested the US labor market is not as strong as recent data had shown, and that when the labor market turns, it may turn quickly. Waller and Bowman’s dissents on Wednesday marked the first time since 1993 that two members of the Fed’s Board of Governors voted against a policy action at the same meeting.
- President Trump, for his part, said Friday morning before the jobs numbers were released the Fed board should “ASSUME CONTROL” as Powell continues to face criticism from the president over his view that interest rates should remain at current levels.
- Figma (FIG) stock looked set to surge again on Friday, rising as much as 19% in premarket trading after shares rocketed higher with a gain of 250% in Thursday’s public market debut, Yahoo Finance’s Jake Conley reports.
- Conley writes:
- Read the full story here.
- Here’s a look at US employment by sector in July.
- Where hiring picked up:
- Where hiring declined:
- Stock futures fell premarket after the July jobs report showed US nonfarm payrolls missed estimates.
- Dow Jones Industrial Average futures (YM=F) dropped 0.9%, while futures for the S&P 500 (ES=F) fell around 1%. Contracts on the tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 (NQ=F) sank 1.1%.
- Yahoo Finance’s Josh Schafer reports:
- Read more here.
- European stocks fell on Friday after President Trump confirmed new tariff rates, including a 15% tariff rate on goods from the European Union and a 10% rate for the UK.
- In London, the benchmark FTSE 100 index (^FTSE) fell 0.5%. The pan-European Stoxx 600 (^STOXX) index shed 0.75%, while Germany’s DAX (^GDAXI) dropped 1.89% and the CAC (^FCHI) in Paris declined 2%.
- In a twist, Trump said the new tariffs will take effect a week from now, instead of today, as was originally telegraphed.
- Still, global markets were rattled by the latest change to US trade policy. Swiss manufacturers warned Friday that tens of thousands of jobs are at risk after President Trump imposed steep tariffs.
- European pharmaceutical companies, such as Novo Nordisk (NVO) and AstraZeneca (AZN), were also in the red Thursday and will be stocks to watch Friday after Trump sent a letter to 17 companies, urging them to lower prices.
- Chevron (CVX) beat analyst estimates on Friday for second-quarter profit as record oil and gas production and lower capital expenditure helped the US oil producer boost earnings despite weaker crude prices.
- Chevron shares were flat in premarket trading.
- Reuters reports:
- Read more here.
- Shares in Exxon Mobil (XOM) rose more than 1% before the bell on Friday after the company beat Wall Street estimate for second-quarter profit as higher oil and gas production helped the top US oil producer overcome lower crude prices.
- Reuters reports:
- Read more here.
- After a sizzling 250% surge on Thursday IPO day, Figma (FIG) is up another 8% premarket.
- You are watching the forming of a stock bubble in real time here! I encourage you to read up on the company’s not-so-impressive financials this weekend.
- The retreat in US stock futures accelerated on Friday morning as Wall Street weighed the likely fallout from President Trump’s trade war.
- The broad benchmark S&P 500 (ES=F) was down 1% with four hours to go before the market open, having held not far below the flat line in earlier overnight trade.
- Futures on The Dow Jones Industrial Average (YM=F) sank 0.9%, while contracts on the tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 (NQ=F) dived 1.1%.
- Markets are assessing the reshaped US trade landscape after President Trump on Thursday hit dozens of countries — including crucial partners Taiwan and India — with steep new tariffs.
- The countdown is on for the release of the US nonfarm-payrolls reading for July, the final piece in a string of top-tier data this week. Yahoo Finance’s Josh Schafer lays out what’s in store:
- Read more here.
