Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange on March 6, 2025.
NYSE
Stock futures were flat Tuesday as investors struggled to gain ground after a steep sell-off driven by recession fears.
S&P 500 futures and futures tied to the Dow Jones Industrial Average were last trading fractionally lower. Nasdaq-100 futures added less than 0.1%.
Stock futures were higher overnight, before giving up their gains on Tuesday morning. Shares of Nvidia were last trading in negative territory again, extending their 5% loss from Monday.
Stocks sank during Monday’s session, extending losses after the S&P 500 posted three consecutive negative weeks. The Nasdaq Composite saw its worst day since September 2022. Meanwhile, the 30-stock Dow, which lost nearly 900 points, closed below its 200-day moving average for the first time since Nov. 1, 2023.
On the back of Monday’s sell-off, Citigroup lowered its rating on U.S. stocks to neutral from overweight, pointing to a “pause in U.S. exceptionalism” as the reason. Adding to worries around the economy was the latest guidance from Delta Air Lines. The company slashed its earnings outlook due to weaker U.S. demand, pushing the stock down more than 8% in the premarket.
“Our takeaway is that the sell-off has been exacerbated by the unwinding of extended positioning in certain market segments, such as momentum and tech stocks, and is not necessarily a signal that US economic risks have escalated significantly,” wrote Ulrike Hoffman-Burchardi, head of CIO global equities at UBS Financial Services.
The moves lower come as anxiety over an impending recession rose on Wall Street. When asked about the possibility of a recession, President Donald Trump said during a Fox News interview that aired on Sunday that the economy was going through “a period of transition.” The remarks arrived after Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told CNBC on Friday that there could be a “detox period” for the economy as the Trump administration slashes federal spending.
But when it comes to the chances of a recession hitting, Anastasia Amoroso, chief investment strategist at iCapital, thinks fears are overblown.
“Why do we have a recession all of a sudden? What indicators actually point to a recession?” she continued. “We have a relatively strong payrolls report. We have consumer spending that is still pacing 3% or 4%, so I don’t actually see the reasons to fear a recession at this very moment.”
Investors are eagerly awaiting economic reports due later in the week. Job openings data will be out on Tuesday. That is followed by February’s reading of the consumer price index on Wednesday morning and that month’s data for the producer price index on Thursday.
