Market Commentary

For the week ending 4/18/2025

 

Wall Street wrapped up the week quietly Friday, but only because it was closed in honor of Good Friday.

Heading into the long weekend, the markets experienced a level of volatility that has become the recent norm, and all three major indices ended the short week down.

Tariffs continued to dominate the financial news, along with Fed. Chair Jerome Powell’s remarks at the Economics Club, in which he expressed concern that the U.S. tariff plan might negatively impact the Fed’s twin goals of stable prices and strong employment. President Trump took issue with these remarks and has been very vocal about his displeasure with Chairman Powell.

Since its inception, the Federal Reserve has operated as an independent entity, protected by law. That independence may be threatened as President Trump posted a strongly worded message on his Truth Social site declaring “Powell’s termination cannot come fast enough!” He later told reporters “I’m not happy with him. I let him know it, and if I want him out, he’ll be out of there real fast, believe me.”

Meanwhile, the escalation of trade war threats between the U.S. and China continues to tamp down guidance in the tech industry. Both Nvidia and AMD disclosed anticipated changes due to U.S. export controls on some of their products to China.

The healthcare industry suffered losses as well, dragged by a historically bad day for United Health. The insurance giant suffered its worst trading day of the century after its quarterly earnings report noted top and bottom-line misses and a significant cut to its 2025 outlook.

The benchmark S&P 500 index has now notched seven negative weeks out of nine.

Looking ahead, several Big Tech companies, including Tesla, and more than 100 S&P 500 companies, are set to report earnings this week.

For the week, the S&P 500 retreated -1.5% to 5,283, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite slid -2.6% to 16,286 and the blue-chip Dow fell -2.7% to 39,142.

The yield on the 10-yr. Treasury fell -16 bps to 4.33%.

Oil prices rose to $63.96 and Gold rose $89 to hit another record high of $3,328/oz.

 

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