US Stocks Likely To Open Lower After A Week Of Records: Tesla In Focus As Elon Musk Announces America Party

U.S. stock futures declined on Monday after scaling fresh records in the previous truncated week. Futures of major benchmark indices were trading lower.

President Donald Trump said that he would be sending out letters to America's trading partners, announcing that tariffs would be back to April 2 levels if there was no progress being made on signing a trade deal with the U.S. by then.

Trump also signed a sweeping tax and spending bill into law last Friday at a White House July 4 picnic, calling it a historic victory.

This move comes despite projections from the Congressional Budget Office that it will significantly expand the federal deficit and cause millions to lose their insurance coverage. Meanwhile, he also threatened an additional 10% tariff on any country that aligns with BRICS' anti-American policies

The 10-year Treasury bond yielded 4.34% and the two-year bond was at 3.85%.

The SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust (NYSE:SPY) and Invesco QQQ Trust ETF (NASDAQ:QQQ), which track the S&P 500 index and Nasdaq 100 index, respectively, were lower in premarket on Monday. The SPY was down 0.39% at $622.87, while the QQQ declined 0.58% to $553.01, according to Benzinga Pro data.

Cues From Last Session:

On Thursday, the financial, information technology, and industrials sectors led the gains on the S&P 500, with all sectors closing positively as U.S. stocks settled higher. The S&P 500 even hit record highs following the release of jobs data.

Investor sentiment got a big boost from June's nonfarm payrolls report. It showed the U.S. economy added a robust 147,000 jobs, significantly more than the 110,000 forecast.

This encouraging data helped calm worries that arose from a weak private payroll report just the day before.

Plus, the unemployment rate dipped to 4.1% from 4.2%, also beating forecasts for a rise to 4.3%, marking its lowest point since January 2025.

Tech stocks were at the forefront of this rally, with the “Magnificent Seven” companies collectively reaching a market cap of $18.1 trillion.

Nvidia Corp. (NASDAQ:NVDA) solidified its position as the world's most valuable company, soaring past a $3.9 trillion valuation, ahead of Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ:MSFT) at $3.7 trillion.

In other news, Tripadvisor Inc. (NASDAQ:TRIP) shares surged around 17% after activist investor Starboard Value acquired a 9% stake in the company.

Insights From Analysts:

Ryan Detrick from Carson Research pointed out that the S&P 500 has made 738 new all-time highs since 1990 till Thursday, suggesting that “Future returns are actually stronger than the at-any-time returns.”

He said, “Many are scared of heights, but history says you shouldn’t be.”

He also pointed out historical data where if the S&P 500 index was up by 5% to 10% in the first half of the year since 1950, the index returned 6.4% on average in the next six months, and it ended with a positive return at least 86.7% of the time.

Global stocks, as tracked by the iShares MSCI World ETF (NYSE:URTH), formed a “Golden Cross” for the first time since January 2023, according to a chart shared by Barchart.

This bullish signal, where the 50-day moving average crosses above the 200-day moving average, also appeared on charts for the SPY and the QQQ.

Historically, the last time URTH formed a Golden Cross, returns surged by 43% over the subsequent two years.

Looking back to 1975, a “golden cross” on the S&P 500 chart has historically been a strong positive sign, leading to higher returns 88% of the time over the next year. According to Subu Trade, the S&P 500’s average return after such an event over the past 50 years has been an impressive 12.29%.

See Also: How to Trade Futures

Upcoming Economic Data

Here’s what investors will keep an eye on this week:

• No data is scheduled to be released on Monday.
• June’s NFIB optimism index data will be out by 6:00 a.m. ET.
• May’s consumer credit data will be released by 3:00 p.m. ET.
• On Wednesday, the wholesale inventories data will be out by 10:00 a.m. ET.
• Minutes of the Fed’s May FOMC meeting will be released by 2:00 p.m. ET.
• On Thursday, initial jobless claims data for the week ended July 5 will all be out by 8:30 a.m. ET.
• St Louis Fed President Alberto Musalem will speak at 10:00 a.m., and San Francisco Fed President Mary Daly will speak at 2:30 p.m. ET.
• On Friday, monthly U.S. federal budget data will be released at 2:00 p.m. ET.

Stocks In Focus:

• Tesla Inc. (NASDAQ:TSLA) dropped 6.55% as Elon Musk announced the launch of a new political party following the Senate’s approval of the Big Beautiful Bill. The new tax bill has axed the $7500 EV credit as well as made ZEV or Zero Emission vehicle credits.
• Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. Ltd. (NYSE:TSM) was 1.68% lower as it announced delaying its second Japanese chips plant while increasing investment in U.S. expansion, influenced by potential Trump tariffs.
• WNS (Holdings) Ltd. (NYSE:WNS) jumped 12.42% after being acquired by Capgemini for agentic AI-powered operations.
• Sharps Technology Inc. (NASDAQ:STSS) fell by 0.86% in premarket on Monday, as it named Paul Danner as Executive Chairman last week.
• Quantum-Si Inc. (NASDAQ:QSI) declined 11.21% after announcing the pricing of $50 million registered direct offering of common stock.
• Boeing Co. (NYSE:BA) was 0.42% lower after securing a $2.8 billion contract from the U.S. Space Force to develop and produce strategic satellite communications systems.
• Sonnet BioTherapeutics Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:SONN) surged 61.22% premarket after announcing a $2.0 million private placement of zero-interest convertible notes and accompanying warrants.
• Northern Dynasty Minerals Ltd. (NYSE:NAK) climbed 18.57% after announcing that ongoing negotiations with the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) regarding a potential settlement in the Pebble Mine case.

Commodities, Gold, And Global Equity Markets:

Crude oil futures were trading higher in the early New York session by 0.53% to hover around $66.85 per barrel.

Gold Spot US Dollar fell 0.83% to hover around $3,309.32 per ounce. Its last record high stood at $3,500.33 per ounce. The U.S. Dollar Index spot was higher by 0.23% at the 97.4000 level.

Asian markets ended lower on Monday except the South Korea's Kospi index, as India's S&P BSE Sensex, Hong Kong's Hang Seng, and Australia's ASX 200, Japan's Nikkei 225, and China’s CSI 300 indices fell. European markets were mixed in early trade.

Read Next:

• Stocks Just Hit Rare Golden Cross For 1st Time Since 2023 — Here’s What It Means For Investors

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