Stock Market Update

[BRIEFING.COM] The stock market tumbled right out of the gate to start the new week. Major equity indices remained in a steady decline through most of the session. The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 970 points, the Nasdaq Composite closed 2.6% lower than Thursday, and the S&P 500 logged a 2.4% decline.

The continuation of last week's selling was driven by deepening concerns about trade policy and fresh political pressure on the Federal Reserve. A warning from China urging nations to steer clear of U.S. trade deals that could disadvantage Beijing, along with talk that President Trump’s team is exploring whether he can lawfully remove Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell was at the heart of the market narrative today.

The warning from China piles onto existing worries about the trade war situation and the news about the Trump administration calls into question the stability of the central bank's longstanding independence. 

The broad market retreat had a risk-off bias. Big tech and other mega caps led the declines, resulting from influential moves in NVIDIA (NVDA 96.91, -4.58, -4.5%), Microsoft (MSFT 359.12, -8.66, -2.4%), Apple (AAPL 193.16, -3.82, -1.9%), and Tesla (TSLA 227.50, -13.87, -5.8%).

Adding to the downbeat tone, the U.S. dollar weakened, and longer tenors logged gains in the bond market. The 10-year Treasury yield was up seven basis points to 4.41%, while the U.S. Dollar Index was 1.1% lower at 98.29.

• Dow Jones Industrial Average: -10.3% YTD
• S&P 500: -12.3% YTD
• S&P Midcap 400: -14.1% YTD
• Nasdaq Composite: -17.8% YTD
• Russell 2000: -17.5% YTD

Reviewing today's economic data:

• March Leading Indicators -0.7% (Briefing.com consensus -0.4%); Prior was revised to -0.2% from -0.3%

There's no U.S. economic data of note tomorrow.

Tuesday's calendar features results of the $69 billion 2-yr Treasury note auction at 1:00 p.m. ET.