US stock markets today: The US stock futures steadied on Tuesday, hinting at a positive start for Wall Street after Monday’s drubbing on the back of heightened tariff uncertainty and escalating AI-related concerns.
All three major Wall Street indices had lost over 1% in the last trading session, with the software and technology stocks emerging as the biggest casualties of the selloff.
However, the futures pointed towards a firm opening today. The S&P 500 E-mini futures gained 0.15%, the Dow Jones futures added 0.27%, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq futures gained 0.24% as 5.15 pm (IST).
AI-led concerns in focus
February has been a tough month for US stocks as AI fears have rattled not just tech stocks but also other industries, which traders feared faced the risk of being displaced by the latest tech developments.
The selloff on Monday came on the back of bearish predictions by Citrini Research outlining potential threats to the global economy from the rise of artificial intelligence, and a blog post by Anthropic that reignited concerns about automation-led disruption.
Anthropic’s latest updates around its Claude platform — particularly around COBOL environments — have triggered debate over whether large portions of traditional application maintenance and migration work could be compressed or automated faster than anticipated.
Anthropic said its Claude Code tool can help modernise COBOL, a dated programming language that’s run on IBM computers, sending its stock lower by 13% — the biggest single-day plunge in 25 years.
IBM shares traded 0.30% higher in pre-market trade at $224.01 as they steadied after Monday’s fall. Software stocks like Datadog, CrowdStrike, Okta and Cloudflare also eked out gains in the pre-market trade after falling 7-11% in the last trade.
Furthermore, most megacaps inched higher, with Microsoft and Meta Platforms rebounding slightly following sharp losses on Monday.
Tariff jitters
Investors also grappled with the fallout from Friday’s US Supreme Court ruling on Trump’s tariffs.
While the court labelled the tariffs as illegal, Trump, in retaliation, announced a temporary global tariff of 10%, which came into effect on Tuesday. He later said the levy would be 15%, but it was unclear when and if it would apply, creating uncertainty and prompting investors to dump high-risk equities.
(With inputs from agencies)
Disclaimer: This story is for information purposes. We advise investors to check with certified experts before making any investment decisions.
