Dow Set to Open Down on 'Liberation Day'

S&P 500 futures were down 0.4% ahead of the open, while Dow Jones Industrial Average futures fell 0.2% and futures on the tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 dropped 0.3%. The S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite indexes closed higher Tuesday in a choppy day of trading as investors tried to position themselves ahead of Trump’s big trade reveal.

The world is still waiting to learn the impact of the latest levies and whether they will be reciprocal tariffs targeted at a handful of countries with trade imbalances with the U.S., or broader 20% taxes–as reported by The Wall Street Journal earlier this week.

“The prospect of broad-based tariffs would represent a huge shock to the global trading system, and would have some pretty seismic ramifications for the world economy,” Deutsche Bank strategist Jim Reid said in a note Tuesday. “The other big unknown from here is how other countries might retaliate,” he added.

While U.S. trade policy is likely to dominate the headlines, economic data later in the week will be closely watched for signs that uncertainty is impacting the labor market. The jobs report for March will be released Friday after jobless claims data Thursday.

Ahead of the tariffs announcement, the stock market seems to be going back and forth over whether the levies will be better or worse than feared–a trend that’s likely to continue throughout the day.

“Investors are on tenterhooks as the clock ticks down to what’s expected to be the biggest wave of tariffs on U.S. trading partners,” Hargreaves Lansdown analyst Susannah Streeter said early Wednesday. “A pattern of one step forward, two steps back has been emerging as hopes for more leniency keep being dashed,” she added.