U.S. stocks slumped on Friday (August 1, 2025), and the S&P suffered its biggest daily percentage decline in more than two months as new U.S. tariffs on dozens of trading partners and a surprisingly weak jobs report spurred selling pressure.

Also weighing on equities was an 8.3% tumble in Amazon.com shares after the company posted quarterly results but failed to meet lofty expectations for its Amazon Web Services cloud computing unit.

Just hours before the tariff deadline on Friday, President Donald Trump signed an executive order imposing duties on U.S. imports from countries, including Canada, Brazil, India and Taiwan, in his latest round of levies as countries attempted to seek ways to reach better deals.

Further denting confidence in the economic picture, data showed U.S. job growth slowed more than expected in July while the prior month’s report was revised sharply lower, indicating the labor market may be starting to crack.

The report significantly pushed up expectations the Federal Reserve will cut interest rates at its September meeting.

“There’s no way to pretty-up this report. Previous months were revised significantly lower where the labor market has been on stall-speed,” said Brian Jacobsen, Chief Economist at Annex Wealth Management in Menomonee Falls, Wisconsin.

“Last year the Fed messed up by not cutting in July so they did a catch-up cut at their next meeting. They’ll likely have to do the same thing this year.” Market expectations the Fed will cut rates by at least 25 basis points at its September meeting stood at 86.5%, according to CME’s FedWatch Tool, up from 37.7% in the prior session.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 542.40 points, or 1.23%, to 43,588.58, the S&P 500 lost 101.38 points, or 1.60%, to 6,238.01 and the Nasdaq Composite lost 472.32 points, or 2.24%, to 20,650.13.

The S&P 500 recorded its biggest single-day percentage decline since May 21 while the Nasdaq suffered its biggest daily percentage drop since April 21.

For the week, the S&P 500 fell 2.36%, the Nasdaq declined 2.17%, and the Dow fell 2.92%.

The CBOE Volatility Index, also known as Wall Street’s fear gauge, closed up 3.66 points at 20.38, its highest close since June 20.

Amazon was the biggest drag on the Dow, S&P 500 and Nasdaq and pushed the consumer discretionary index, down nearly 3.6% as the worst performing of the 11 major S&P 500 sectors.

Also reporting earnings was Apple, which lost 2.5% after it posted a current-quarter revenue forecast well above Wall Street estimates, but CEO Tim Cook warned U.S. tariffs would add $1.1 billion in costs over the period.

Stocks briefly extended declines after Trump said he ordered the commissioner of the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Erika L. McEntarfer, to be fired in the wake of the jobs data.

“(Trump) didn’t seem to be disappointed with the last five jobs reports,” said Art Hogan, Chief Market Strategist, B. Riley Wealth, Boston, saying that the firing stood out as irregular.

“I think this is clearly something that happens in dictatorships, not in democracies.”

The Federal Reserve said Governor Adriana Kugler is resigning early from her term and will exit the central bank on Aug. 8, enabling President Donald Trump to select a new governor as he has ramped up pressure against Chair Jerome Powell recently to cut interest rates.

Declining issues outnumbered advancers by a 2.17-to-1 ratio on the NYSE, and by a 2.69-to-1 ratio on the Nasdaq.

The S&P 500 posted eight new 52-week highs and 29 new lows, while the Nasdaq Composite recorded 29 new highs and 202 new lows.

Volume on U.S. exchanges was 19.51 billion shares, compared with the 18.44 billion average for the full session over the last 20 trading days.

Published – August 02, 2025 08:30 am IST

Representational image only.
| Photo Credit: Reuters

Benchmark equity indices tumbled in early trade on October 9 as escalating tensions in Middle East triggered a risk-off in the market.

Market analysts said investors preferred to remain on the sidelines and refrained from taking big risks as the Israel-Hamas conflict has introduced a huge uncertainty for the markets The 30-share BSE Sensex plunged 407.19 points or 0.62% to 65,588.44 points in early trade. The Nifty declined 142.70 points or 0.72% to 19,510.80 points.

State Bank of India, Tata Steel, Titan, IndusInd Bank and Asian Paints were among the major laggards. On the other hand IT majors HCL Technologies, Tech Mahindra, TCS, Wipro and Infosys, Hindustan Unilever and Sun Pharma defied the broader market trend and were trading in the positive territory.

The BSE benchmark had climbed 364.06 points or 0.55% to settle at 65,995.63 points on Friday. The Nifty had advanced 107.75 points or 0.55% to end at 19,653.50.

“The Israel-Hamas conflict has introduced a huge uncertainty for the markets. Nobody knows how this war is going to evolve,” V. K. Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist at Geojit Financial Services, said.

He said that even though it is unlikely to cause major disruption in oil supplies at present, the situation will change if Iran, a major Hamas supporter, is drawn into the war. “That can disrupt oil supplies causing a spike in crude, which can trigger a risk-off in the market. This is a time to be cautious,” he added.

Traders are also expected to remain cautious ahead of macroeconomic data to be announced later this week. The industrial production and manufacturing data for August are scheduled to be announced on October 12. Simultaneously, inflation rate for September will be announced followed by Wholesale Price Index (WPI) data on October 13.

On Friday, the Reserve Bank of India expectedly left its key interest rate unchanged and signalled it would keep liquidity tight using bond sales to bring prices closer to target.

The six-member monetary policy committee of RBI held the benchmark repurchase rate (repo) at 6.50% in a unanimous decision for the fourth consecutive meeting in a row. It also retained a ‘withdrawal of accommodation’ stance. Asian markets are trading lower on Monday as Chinese and Hong Kong shares fell.

European markets finished broadly higher on Friday with Germany’s DAX gaining 1.06%. France’s CAC 40 was up 0.88% and London’s FTSE 100 closed 0.58% higher.

The U.S. markets ended higher on Friday with S&P 500 closing with a gain of 1.18% and Dow Jones Industrial Average Index up 0.87%.

Meanwhile, global oil benchmark Brent crude witnessed a sharp rise of 3.68% to $87.69 a barrel on Monday. Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) offloaded equities worth ₹90.29 crore on Friday, according to exchange data.