It has not been a superb month for the Nasdaq Composite . The tech-heavy index entered Friday’s session down 5.5% for February. If that decline holds by way of the top of the day, it should mark the benchmark’s largest one-month pullback since September 2023, when it tumbled 5.81%. The S & P 500 and Dow Jones Industrial Common had been additionally on tempo for month-to-month declines. The previous is down almost 3% for the month, whereas the Dow has slipped greater than 2%. Driving a piece of these losses is the uncertainty round world commerce and its impact on financial development and income. President Donald Trump this week threatened to impose further tariffs on Chinese language imports, with China saying it could retaliate in opposition to these duties. Trump additionally mentioned levies on Canadian and Mexican imports would take maintain after a 30-day moratorium ends subsequent week. “The Trump put is fading,” wrote Andrew Brenner of NatAlliance Securities in a be aware to shoppers. He identified that “80% of the rally for the reason that election has now reversed with over half the S+P down for the reason that election.” “The Tariff Rhetoric has change into every day and excessive. Sentiment is terrible and buying and selling is on edge,” he added. These jitters are mirrored in Thursday’s market reversal. The key averages began the day on a excessive be aware, however then turned sharply decrease towards the shut. “Buyers have needed to take care of fast-moving headlines over the previous few weeks and months — the Federal Reserve’s sign of a slower tempo of financial easing, sticky inflation readings, the emergence of low-cost AI fashions like DeepSeek, weaker shopper confidence and still-elevated geopolitical uncertainty within the Center East and over the struggle in Ukraine,” Ulrike Hoffmann-Burchardi of UBS wrote in a be aware. “Certainly, information factors are displaying that investor sentiment is poor,” she added. “However whereas we’ve cautioned that volatility is prone to be larger this yr as a consequence of coverage uncertainty and commerce frictions, we reiterate our view that the bull market is unbroken, and we count on U.S. equities to finish the yr larger.” Correction: A earlier model misstated the Dow’s month-to-date decline.
