Stock Market Today: Stocks tumble amid political chaos in Washington todayheadline

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U.S. equity futures slumped lower in early Friday trading, putting the three major benchmarks on pace for their worst week of the year, as investor retreated from risk markets amid the ongoing political chaos in Washington. 

Updated at 6:32 AM EST

Novo Nordisk’s loss …

… Is Eli Lilly’s  (LLY)  gain. Shares in the drugmaker surged in early trading after its Danish rival published data on its new experimental anti-obesity drug that missed its own targets.

Novo Nordisk said patients using CagriSema lost around 22.7% of their body weight using the new treatment compared to the group’s forecast of around 25%. The results could challenge its effort to launch a replacement for its market-leady Wegovy drug.

Eli Lilly shares were last marked 9.6% higher in premarket trading to indicate an opening bell price of $830.00 each. 

$NVO -20%, $LLY +7% after $NVO CagriSema test results. Not sure where the support line is for $NVO, but it lost the 200-sma at ~125. pic.twitter.com/vMU7DrNbsB

— Larry Tentarelli, Blue Chip Daily (@bluechipdaily) December 20, 2024

Stock Market Today

Stocks ended lower on Thursday, while Treasury yields jumped and the dollar tested two-year highs against its global peers, as markets failed to claw back losses triggered by hawkish Federal Reserve messaging that followed its final rate cut of the year on Wednesday.

The Fed’s forecast, in fact, suggested caution from policymakers tied to the uncertainty surrounding President-elect Donald Trump’s political and economic agenda, both of which were in evidence yesterday.

The President-elect, who first challenged an agreed bipartisan spending bill designed to avoid a government shutdown based on the advice of billionaire Elon Musk, backed a watered-down version that ultimately failed to find support from Republican lawmakers. 

The spending bill failure, as well as Trump’s attempt to insert an extended suspension of the debt ceiling into the negotiations, could raise investor concern over the passage of Trump-era tax cuts under the new Congress.

Shutdown showdown 

That’s left House Speaker Mike Johnson scrambling to make a deal prior to today’s midnight shutdown deadline.  

Trump also waded into the tariff debate by threatening new levies on the European Union unless its member states  “make up their tremendous deficit with the United States by the large scale purchase of our oil and gas.”

Related: Fed Chair Powell is ‘adult in the room’ as Trump hammers Congress

The collective actions have stocks moving sharply lower heading into the start of Friday trading, with futures contracts tied to the S&P 500 suggesting a 52 point opening bell decline.

Futures linked to the Dow Jones Industrial Average, which snapped a nine-day losing streak last night, are priced for a 2841 point pullback while the tech-focused Nasdaq is called 300 points lower.

The CBOE Group’s VIX index, meanwhile, has surged to the highest levels since August and was last marked at $25.82, suggesting traders expect daily swings of around 1.6%, or 95 points, for the S&P 500 over the next month.

European stocks slide

Stocks on the move beyond the normal market pullback include FedEx  (FDX) , which rose 8.6% in premarket after the package delivery group said it would sell its freight trucking division in a move that offset a disappointing quarterly earnings report.

Nike  (NKE)  shares, meanwhile, fell 3.6% after it topped Wall Street forecasts for its second quarter earnings, but issued a muted near-term sales outlook amid the ongoing turnaround under new CEO Elliott Hill.

More Wall Street Analysts:

• Veteran analyst who forecast Rocket Lab’s stock rally updates price target
• Analysts revamp Ciena stock price target after AI outlook
• Top analyst revisits Micron stock price target ahead of Q1 earnings

In overseas markets, Trump’s latest tariff threat pulled the Stoxx 600 benchmark 1.51% lower in Frankfurt trading, with Britain’s FTSE 100 falling 0.96% in London.

Overnight in Asia, the Nikkei 225 ended the week with a 0.29% pullback while the MSCI ex-Japan index fell 1.2% into the close of trading.

Related: Veteran fund manager delivers alarming S&P 500 forecast