Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange on March 19, 2025.
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The S&P 500 fell slightly on Friday as it tried to avoid its fifth straight week of losses caused by trade policy turmoil, recession fears and a rollover in megacap technology shares.
The S&P 500 shed 0.3%, putting its week-to-date gain at less than 0.1%. At its lows of the session, it was in the red red for the week. The Nasdaq Composite hovered around the flatline, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 82 points, or 0.2%.
Traders had prepped for a likely volatile session on Friday with a so-called “quadruple witching” – when stock options, index futures, index options and single-stock futures expire. Goldman estimates that more than $4.7 trillion of notional options exposure will expire.
The session was indeed volatile with major averages coming off their lows after President Donald Trump said there would be some “flexibility” with tariffs. Trump, however, maintained that the tariffs implemented at the April 2 deadline will be reciprocal, saying that whatever countries charge the U.S. will be charged.
S&P 500, 1 day
Trump’s tariff deadline is looming over the market, according to Michael Green, chief strategist at Simplify Asset Management.
“Companies are increasingly citing confusion and uncertainty around their planning and capital spending and hiring decisions — and when they pause, it means that they’re slowing down,” he said. “There’s an element of that playing out in the markets.”
Two economic bellwethers were leading the way lower on Friday. FedEx was down 8% after it cut its earnings outlook, citing “weakness and uncertainty in the U.S. industrial economy.” Nike shares were off by about 5% after the shoe and apparel giant said sales this quarter would miss analysts’ expectations because of tariffs and falling consumer confidence.
The S&P 500 briefly fell into correction territory at one point during its sell-off since late February, and it now sits about 8% from its record high, short of the 10% correction level. The benchmark has made some attempts to rally this month without much follow-through, including on Wednesday when it snapped back by 1% after the Federal Reserve said it would still likely cut rates two times this year.
If the benchmark were to fall for a fifth week, it would be the worst losing streak since 2022.
Source: S&P 500 falls slightly Friday as benchmark tries to avoid fifth-straight losing week:
