logo
Wall St set for lower open with focus on Trump's tax bill

Wall St set for lower open with focus on Trump's tax bill

Zawya21-05-2025
Wall Street's main indexes were set for a lower open on Wednesday, as investors awaited the outcome of a pivotal debate around U.S. President Donald Trump's tax-cut bill that has fanned concerns about the country's growing debt.
The gate-keeping House Rules Committee has scheduled an unusual 1 a.m. ET hearing that is expected to run well into daylight hours, as Republicans try to overcome internal divisions about cuts to the Medicaid health program and tax breaks in high-cost coastal states.
Nonpartisan analysts say the proposed plan could add $3 trillion to $5 trillion to the federal government's $36.2 trillion in debt.
"(We're seeing) the American exceptionalism narrative unwind, so you have a natural process of something weakening after years of concentration," said David Russell, global head of market strategy at TradeStation.
"We're kind of pouring gasoline on the fire with tariffs and all of this budgetary uncertainty."
At 08:26 a.m. ET, Dow E-minis were down 301 points, or 0.7%, S&P 500 E-minis were down 30.25 points, or 0.52%, and Nasdaq 100 E-minis were down 117.5 points, or 0.55%.
U.S. bonds have been under pressure since the start of the week, when Moody's downgraded the country's sovereign credit rating. On Wednesday, yields on the 30-year note were back up to 5.02% and the benchmark 10-year yield climbed 5.8 basis points to 4.53%.
Federal Reserve officials said on Tuesday they expected tariffs to push up prices, but counseled patience before any interest-rate decisions were made.
Highly valued technology stocks took a hit in premarket trading as rising rates tend to discount the present value of future profits.
Amazon, down nearly 1%, led losses among top megacap and growth stocks.
UnitedHealth Group dropped 3.9% after a Guardian report said the healthcare conglomerate secretly paid nursing homes thousands in bonuses to help slash hospital transfers for ailing residents. HSBC also downgraded the stock to "reduce" from "hold".
On the earnings front, retailer Target fell 5.6% after slashing its annual forecast due to a pullback in discretionary spending. Lowe's gained 1.6% after it posted a smaller-than-expected drop in first-quarter comparable sales.
Wolfspeed tumbled 63.3% to $1.16 following a report that the semiconductor supplier was preparing to file for bankruptcy within weeks.
U.S. stocks closed lower on Tuesday, with the S&P 500 snapping a six-day winning streak while the Dow logged its first decline in four sessions.
Despite the losses, they have had a solid month so far. The S&P 500 has climbed more than 17% higher from its April lows, when Trump's reciprocal tariffs roiled global markets.
A pause in the tariffs, a temporary U.S.-China trade truce and tame inflation data have pushed equities higher, although the S&P 500 is still about 3% off its record highs.
Brokerage Morgan Stanley upgraded its stance on U.S. equities to "overweight", saying the global economy was still expanding, albeit slowly, amid policy uncertainty.
(Reporting by Shashwat Chauhan and Kanchana Chakravarty in Bengaluru; Editing by Pooja Desai and Devika Syamnath)
Orange background

Try Our AI Features

Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:

Comments

No comments yet...

Related Articles

Trade on agenda as Trump lands in Scotland for diplomacy and golf
Trade on agenda as Trump lands in Scotland for diplomacy and golf

Al Etihad

timean hour ago

  • Al Etihad

Trade on agenda as Trump lands in Scotland for diplomacy and golf

26 July 2025 01:02 TURNBERRY, United Kingdom (AFP) US President Donald Trump landed in Scotland on Friday for a five-day visit set to mix diplomacy, business and leisure, as a huge UK security operation swung into place amid planned protests near his family-owned golf resorts. The president, whose mother was born in Scotland, will split his time between two seaside golf courses bearing his name, in Turnberry on the southwestern coast and Aberdeen in the Force One, carrying the president and White House staff, touched down at Prestwick Airport near Glasgow shortly before 8:30 pm (1930 GMT). Police officers lined the surrounding streets, and several hundred curious Scots came out hoping for a glimpse of the US leader as he then made his way to Turnberry by has no public events scheduled for Saturday and is expected to play golf at his picturesque resort before meeting EU chief Ursula von der Leyen on Sunday for trade is also due to meet UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer during the said the meeting would be "more of a celebration than a workout," appearing to row back on previous comments that a bilateral trade deal struck in May needed "fine-tuning"."The deal is concluded," he told reporters on the tarmac at the unpredictable American leader appeared unwilling to cede to a UK request for reduced steel and aluminium tariffs. Trump has exempted British exports from blanket 50 per cent tariffs on both metals, but the fate of that carve-out remains unclear.

Academics fear Columbia University's deal with Trump has wider ramifications
Academics fear Columbia University's deal with Trump has wider ramifications

Middle East Eye

time2 hours ago

  • Middle East Eye

Academics fear Columbia University's deal with Trump has wider ramifications

The US government intends to fine several universities it accuses of failing to stop antisemitism on campus in exchange for federal funding freezes to be lifted, the Wall Street Journal reported on Friday. The strategy would see Harvard, Cornell, Duke, Northwestern and Brown universities targeted, according to a White House official, with Harvard being the main focus. All of the universities are currently in talks with President Donald Trump's administration over accusations by a federal task force committee that they have allowed antisemitism to fester on their campuses. The move comes after the administration successfully extracted $200m from Columbia to settle allegations that it violated Title VI by failing to address harassment of Jewish students, in exchange for restoring its federal grants. Now, the administration is looking to widen the net to other institutions and reportedly hopes to garner much more money from Harvard, which has an endowment of $53.2bn. New MEE newsletter: Jerusalem Dispatch Sign up to get the latest insights and analysis on Israel-Palestine, alongside Turkey Unpacked and other MEE newsletters Critics believe the agreement with Columbia sets a dangerous precedent, and that these tactics can be used to change the academic landscape. Former Columbia University law professor Katherine Franke said that Columbia bent over backwards to appease the government by implementing the agreement in advance for months. This included adopting the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance's definition of antisemitism, circumventing its senate to change the University Judicial Board rules/composition, and creating a new provostial position to monitor certain departments. Columbia University to pay $220m, undertake major reforms in bid to restore federal funding Read More » "It's an unusual tactic in normal times, to implement the terms of a settlement voluntarily before the full agreement is reached," she said. "But these are not normal times, and Columbia has shown itself more than willing to bend a knee to the Trump administration in the hopes that doing so will make things less bad." Harvard University has put up more of a fight and is currently suing the Trump administration in federal court, with one lawsuit claiming that the administration's freezing of more than $2bn in federal research money is illegal. Harvard is also being penalised by being cut off from future grants. Franke warned that the agreement was a slippery slope and that the government would weaponise the spectre of antisemitism to dismantle the institution. "This agreement is not the end of the story… it is merely the start of the next phase of the administration's campaign to use Columbia as an example for other universities. They won't let up, and the 'agreement' gives them all the power to keep weaponising the specter of antisemitism to dismantle a world-class university." Undermining the fightback Columbia's agreement with the Trump administration is also being seen as a move that undermines the fightback from Harvard and students and activists on campuses. A student, who wished to be anonymous and is a member of the pro-Palestine group Students for Justice in Palestine at Wesleyan College in Georgia, said: "What Harvard has done, at least legally, to combat the Trump administration is now being undercut by Colombia's capitulation. I think that it bodes very poorly for the climate of student activism in the coming year." 'The bottom line is ultimately more important than the purported mandate or principle of learning, freedom of thought and expression' - Kourouss Esmaili, scholar at Tufts Kouross Esmaeli, a visiting scholar at Tufts University in the Department of Studies in Race, Colonialism and Diaspora, said that plans to control universities expose the corporate nature of universities. "The bottom line is ultimately more important than the purported mandate or principle of learning, freedom of thought and expression," Esmaeli said. In an email he sent to Middle East Eye, he wrote: "The administration's use of federal funds to intimidate and transform higher education into an acquiescence factory is a serious compromise of our basic values and rights. "The people in charge of the corporate universities will continue to bend the knee to their sovereign in the name of saving their institution. But hopefully this is exposing the universities' complicity not only in the genocide in Palestine, but the larger American capitalist interests." Esmaeli says that the events demonstrate why universities have been so resistant to divest from Israel, a key demand from pro-Palestine protesters, and the US military-industrial complex.

Strong dollar sounds good but a weak one is better for US economy, Trump says
Strong dollar sounds good but a weak one is better for US economy, Trump says

The National

time3 hours ago

  • The National

Strong dollar sounds good but a weak one is better for US economy, Trump says

President Donald Trump on Friday said a strong US dollar "sounds good", but touted reasons why a weaker greenback is better for the American economy. The dollar index, which measures the greenback's strength against six major currencies, steadied on Friday after hitting two-week lows earlier in the week. It is still down roughly 10 per cent over the six months Mr Trump has been in office. 'So when we have a strong dollar, one thing happens: It sounds good. But you don't do any tourism. You can't sell tractors, you can't sell trucks, you can't sell anything,' Mr Trump said at the White House before leaving on a trip to Scotland. 'You make a hell of a lot more money' with a weaker dollar. Mr Trump has often complained that dollar strength blunts US export competitiveness and hurts US manufacturing and jobs. Mr Trump said manufacturers would be the first to benefit from a falling dollar, citing construction and mining equipment maker Caterpillar, whose shares have risen 16 per cent over the last month. Japan and China fought for weaker currencies for decades and were able to dominate markets over the years, Mr Trump said.

DOWNLOAD THE APP

Get Started Now: Download the App

Ready to dive into a world of global content with local flavor? Download Daily8 app today from your preferred app store and start exploring.
app-storeplay-store