U.S. stocks plunged on Friday, putting the S&P 500 on track to extend its slide since late February that has been fueled by trade policy turmoil, recession fears and a rollover in megacap technology stocks.
The S&P 500 fell 0.4%, putting the index on track for its first five-week decline in more than two years. The Nasdaq Composite fell 0.6%. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 302 points, or 0.7%.
Traders had been bracing for a potentially volatile session on Friday with so-called "quadruple witching" — when stock options, index futures and single-stock futures expire. Goldman estimates that more than $4.7 trillion in notional options exposure is set to expire.
The day's losses pushed the S&P 500 into negative territory for the week. Prices briefly fell into correction territory at one point during the month-long rout, and are now more than 8% from their record highs, short of the 10% correction level, as they try to recover from the turmoil.
The benchmark appeared to be recovering on Wednesday, when Federal Reserve policymakers maintained their forecast for two more interest rate cuts by 2025. However, that recovery proved short-lived as markets plunged on Thursday and Friday.
"The market is more risk-averse now," said Rob Williams, chief investment strategist at Sage Advisory. "You always get some technical bounces, but you're probably going to have more pain."
"We haven't even felt the full impact of the tariffs yet, because they're still playing around with the negotiations," he added, adding that "we're probably closer than we thought" to a recession.
President Donald Trump's April 2 tariff deadline looms over the market. Tariff concerns are also weighing on companies, according to Michael Green, chief strategist at Simplify Asset Management.
"Companies are increasingly citing confusion and uncertainty around their planning and capital spending and hiring decisions — and when they pause, that means they're slowing down," he said. "There's an element of that going on in the market."
Two economic indicators led the decline on Friday. FedEx fell 9% after cutting its earnings outlook, citing "weakness and uncertainty in the U.S. industrial economy." Nike shares fell about 7% after the footwear and apparel giant said this quarter's sales would miss analysts' expectations due to tariffs and declining consumer confidence. (Newsmaker23)
Source: CNBC
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