Monday, March 3, 2025
The more things change… today’s opening salvo to a new trading week looked a lot like last week’s sessions: a steady, if slight, overnight climb into the green all the way to the opening bell, then being wrested into the red. Today’s fall was steady and modest until this afternoon, when it was announced +25% tariffs are indeed being levied onto our direct neighbors Canada and Mexico.
The Dow shed -648 points today, or -1.48% — and it got off easy. The S&P 500 fell -104, -1.76%, while the Nasdaq dropped -497 points, -2.64%. The small-cap Russell 2000 performed worst of all: -60 points, or -2.81%. Month to date, the Dow is -2.7%, the S&P 500 -2.4%, the Nasdaq -5.3% and the Russell 2000 -6.9%.
Stocks Affected by Tariff News
Amazon AMZN shares fell -3.4% today on the tariff news, and the company affirmed tariffs were going to lead to an uptick in prices. Apple AAPL and Microsoft MSFT shares were also down in regular trading today on the tariff announcement, by -1.5% and -2.1%, respectively. NVIDIA NVDA is down an eye-opening -8.5%. Market participants had been holding out hope for either a last-minute reprieve for tariffs or the opening of new negotiations, but time is running out before the tariffs are due to take effect at midnight tonight.
Meanwhile, the Atlanta Fed — often an outlier among Fed districts in terms of economic projections — has cut its estimates for Q1 GDP again. Now at a Fed low -2.8% currently for Q1, this is a fairly precipitous drop from -1.5% originally projected. We haven’t seen a negative quarterly GDP report since Q1 2022; it’s been 11 straight in positive territory.
Reports Out Earlier Today: Manufacturing, Construction Spending
Manufacturing Data for February came in mixed earlier today, with final S&P Manufacturing PMI coming in head of estimates to 52.7 — and crucially above the 50-level that marks growth from contraction. ISM Manufacturing was slightly below expectations — +50.3% versus +50.6% anticipated and +50.9% reported a month ago. Again, still above the 50-level, though starting to cut it closer.
Construction Spending for January swung to a negative month over month, to -0.2% versus the prior month’s unrevised +0.5%. While many industrial materials have been added to stockpiles ahead of pending tariff hits, capital outlays on construction personnel has remained muted, once again with a murky outlook regarding future economic opportunities.
Zacks #1 Ranked OKTA Beats & Raises in Q4
Interface development technology company Okta OKTA, which carried a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy) into this afternoon’s Q4 report, are seeing shares pop +13% following sizable beats on top and bottom lines. Earnings of 78 cents per share improved over expectations by a solid nickel, on revenues of $682 million which outpaced $668.8 million in the Zacks consensus. The company also raised guidance on both sales and earnings.
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