Tuesday, June 10, 2025
Pre-market futures are climbing back to early-morning highs at this hour, as the most consequential of new economic reports don’t hit the tape until tomorrow and Thursday. Talks resume today in London between the U.S. and China, and a breakthrough on that front in the trade war would be a compelling reason to drive markets higher.
On the other hand, any reported impasses on this front might be seen as a wet blanket for market growth. We can see by the generally positive daily returns this month that market participants are ready to hear some good news: the Dow is up +2.5% off late-May lows, the S&P is +3.4% over that time, the Nasdaq is +4.2% and the small-cap Russell 2000 +5.3%.
Small Business Survey Improves in May
Earlier this morning, the latest
NFIB Small-Business Index
came out for the month of May, looking better than it has in the previous couple months. A headline of 98.8 was 3 points higher than anticipated (95.9 was the consensus estimate), just above the index’s long-term average, which reaches back 51 years. The 12 month high was back in December, when this index reached 105.1.
Among those small-business owners surveyed, uncertainty was still high — likely reflecting the still-murky tariff policy looking forward. We’re now within the final month of the 90-day tariff pause, with so far very little progress made. That said, a plurality of owners said taxes, not tariffs or inflation, are the biggest problem facing their businesses currently — 18%. The last time the survey named taxes as the top issue was back in 2020.
What to Expect from the Stock Market This Week
Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report
Invesco QQQ (QQQ): ETF Research Reports
SPDR S&P 500 ETF (SPY): ETF Research Reports
SPDR Dow Jones Industrial Average ETF (DIA): ETF Research Reports
This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).
Zacks Investment Research