Traders work at the New York Stock Exchange on July 2, 2025.
NYSE
U.S. stock futures fell on Sunday after President Donald Trump confirmed that tariffs are set to go into effect Aug. 1, not July 9.
Dow Jones Industrial Average futures slid by 148 points, or 0.33%. S&P 500 and Nasdaq 100 futures dipped 0.37% and 0.35%, respectively.
In an interview with reporters Sunday, Trump and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick were asked to clarify when tariffs are set to go into effect. In response, Lutnick said, “Tariffs go into effect Aug. 1. But the president is setting the rates, and the deals, right now,” a statement to which Trump assented.
Earlier in the day, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said in an interview on CNN’s “State of the Union” that tariffs will go back to April 2 levels on Aug. 1 if there is no progress on signing a deal with the U.S.
Investors had been expecting tariff rates to go into effect this week. Trump’s initial 90-day reprieve on the April “reciprocal” tariffs for most U.S. trading partners was set to end Tuesday. Meanwhile, the deadline for the U.S. to reach an agreement with the European Union before EU goods are hit with duties of up to 50% was on Wednesday.
Wall Street is coming off a winning week, with the S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite closing at all-time highs Friday in part because of confidence the Trump administration will not implement the most severe tariffs it announced back in April. In recent days, the White House had called the July trade deadlines “not critical.”
“Ultimately, trade negotiations usually take a long time to negotiate; free trade arrangements the US negotiated have taken an average of 3 years,” Rajeev Sibal, senior global economist at Morgan Stanley, wrote last week. “While the negotiations that are currently taking place are likely to be narrower than a full fledged free trade agreement, the historical precedent remains informative.”
Investors worry that an equity market at all-time highs could get more choppy as trade updates come out of the White House, especially if the negotiations result in higher tariffs than is consensus. But others remain confident the stock market rally can continue, betting that companies in the upcoming earnings season will be able to clear low expectations if they demonstrate an ability to navigate tariffs.
“I agree with anybody who says that, ‘Look, we’ve reshaped some of the economic flows around tariffs,’ but that’s an upside story because if it plays out better, that’s an earnings surprise,” Tom Lee, head of research at Fundstrat Global Advisors, told CNBC’s “Closing Bell” on Thursday. He added: “This is the most hated V-shaped rally.”
Thus far, the U.S. has reached a deal with just a few countries. In May, the U.S. came to an agreement with the United Kingdom to keep a 10% rate. Last week, it struck a deal with Vietnam, reducing levies on many goods to 20% from 46%.
— CNBC’s Erin Doherty contributed to this report.
