After notching its worst trading session of the year Friday, the S&P 500 fought back to remain flat after all major indexes fell Monday on weak economic data.
The S&P 500 index, which tracks the 500 largest U.S. companies, fell as much as 1.5% early Monday before rebounding and trading up 0.25% as of midday.
The S&P 500 was joined in its early morning free fall by the other two major indexes, the Nasdaq and the Dow Jones Industrial Average, both of which also fell as much as 1.5%. As of midday, the Dow was up 0.52% while the Nasdaq was down 0.14%.
The market’s whipsaw over the last several days shows investors are unclear about the future of the U.S. economy. Major factors, such as tariffs' effect on economic growth and millions of potential layoffs resulting from Elon Musk’s cost-cutting mission, point to greater volatility to come.
Derek Horstmeyer, a finance professor at George Mason University’s Costello College of Business, said it's hard to tell what the future will bring politically and economically.
“Volatility in markets will continue until the tariffs situation is clarified and we have a better picture of the economic landscape to come,” he told Fortune in a note.
Adding pressure to the overall stock market are a weaker-than-expected jobs report and fears that inflation could be stickier than previously expected as Trump continues to tout potentially costly tariffs. Inflation increased year over year to 3% in January, compared to 2.9% on an annual basis in December 2024. The U.S. also added a fewer-than-expected 143,000 jobs in January, and the unemployment rate was 4%.
"Nobody can figure out if these tariffs are real, or if it's just negotiating tool, and until we figure that out, we're going to have no idea whether, whether inflation is going to be 2% or 4% or 5%," added Horstmeyer.
Weaker-than-expected economic numbers for February helped extend Friday’s losses into Monday. Friday’s purchasing manager’s index (PMI), which provides insight into the health of the manufacturing and services sectors, revealed concerns about the political uncertainty associated with spending cuts and the threat of tariffs from President Trump.
The February report marked the first contraction in the services sector in 25 months, which offset a modest increase in manufacturing growth.
“The upturn in manufacturing output was also in part linked to the front-running of tariffs, hinting at merely a temporary boost,” read a note by S&P Global.
Partly fueling a decline in the tech-heavy Nasdaq was a fourth straight day of selloffs for data analytics company and military contractor Palantir. The company’s stock crashed by 8% Monday as of midday, after having shot up 65% from the start of the year until its slump began Feb. 18. The stock is down about 25% since its downward slide last week.
Fueling Palantir’s stock slide are reports about CEO Alex Karp bringing home nearly $2 billion since the start of 2024 from stock sales, along with fears that its government-contract business may be set to decline.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth last week directed the Defense Department to find $50 billion worth of cuts , roughly 8% of the overall defense budget.
