Wall Street Likely To Open Notably Lower

(RTTNews) - Sharply lower U.S. futures point to a gap down opening on Wall Street Monday morning. The mood is bearish following U.S. President Donald Trump's threat that Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell might be removed from his post.

Rising U.S.-China trade tensions, and continued uncertainty about Trump's trade policy are also weighing on sentiment.

The Dow futures are down 1.12 percent, while the S&P futures and the Nasdaq futures are down 1.33 percent, and 1.6 percent, respectively.

White House economic adviser Kevin Hassett said on Friday that the president and his team are examining the legal feasibility of removing Powell and claimed that he had acted politically to benefit Democrats.

On Thursday, Trump blasted Powell for not lowering interest rates, calling him "always TOO LATE AND WRONG."

On the trade front, China's Commerce Ministry said it would retaliate against nations cooperating with the U.S.'s tariff wars.

U.S. stocks showed a lack of direction over the course of the trading session on Thursday. The Nasdaq and the S&P 500 spent the day bouncing back and forth across the unchanged line before eventually closing narrowly mixed.

While the Nasdaq edged down 20.71 points or 0.1 percent to 16,286.45, the S&P 500 inched up 7.00 points or 0.1 percent to 5,282.70. The Dow showed a more significant move to the downside, tumbling 527.16 points or 1.3 percent to 39,142.23.

The S&P 500 slumped by 1.5 percent last week, while the Nasdaq and the Dow plunged by 2.6 percent and 2.7 percent, respectively. The market had only four trading sessions last week, as it remained closed on Friday for Good Friday.

The market was subdued amid lingering uncertainty about President Donald Trump's tariffs despite his upbeat comments about trade talks.

Trump said in a post on Truth Social on Wednesday that "big progress" had been made in a meeting with the Japanese trade delegation.

In U.S. economic news, the Labor Department's data showed initial jobless claims dipped to 215,000 in the week ended April 12th, a decrease of 9,000 from the previous week's revised level of 224,000. Economists had expected initial jobless claims to inch up to 225,000 from the 223,000 originally reported for the previous week.

In earnings news, Netflix Inc. (NFLX) reported first-quarter earnings of $2.89 billion, or $6.61 per share. This compares with $2.33 billion, or $5.28 per share, last year. The company's revenue for the period rose 12.5% to $10.543 billion from $9.370 billion last year.

In overseas trading, Asian stocks turned in a mixed performance on Monday, with markets in Hong Kong, Australia and New Zealand closed due to the Easter holiday.

The U.S. dollar tumbled after U.S. President Donald Trump threatened to fire Fed Chair Powell over rate cuts and released an eight-point list targeting what he calls "non-tariff cheating" by foreign nations -- a warning he said could affect diplomatic and trade ties with the United States.

The major European markets are closed today for Easter Monday.

In commodities, West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures are down $1.61 or 2.49% at $63.07 a barrel.

Gold futures are gaining $81.60 or 2.45% at $3,410.00 an ounce, while Silver futures are up $0.495 or 1.52% at $32.965 an ounce.