Stock Futures Slip After Long Weekend

The U.S. dollar hit three-year lows

Laura McCandless

Deputy Editor

Apr 21, 2025 at 9:10 AM

Futures on the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJI) and Nasdaq-100 Index (NDX) are both down triple digits this morning, while S&P 500 Index (SPX) futures sit firmly in the red as well -- all looking to extend last week's losses. Tension between President Donald Trump and Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell is weighing on sentiment, pushing the U.S. dollar to its lowest level since February 2022 this morning.

Continue reading for more on today's market, including:

A 5-minute summary of the market last week.
3 indicators to watch in options trading.
Plus, NFLX reports upbeat earnings; AMZN downgraded; and HTZ pulls back from surge.

futures April21

5 Things You Need to Know Today

The Cboe Options Exchange (CBOE) saw more than 2.4 million call contracts and over 1.3 million put contracts exchanged on Thursday, April expiration. The single-session equity put/call ratio came in at 0.54, while the 21-day moving average stayed at 0.60.
Netflix Inc (NASDAQ:NFLX) stock is up 1.7% premarket, after better-than-expected first-quarter results sparked a wave of analyst price-target hikes. Heading into today, the equity is up 9.2% year-to-date.
Amazon.com Inc (NASDAQ:AMZN) stock is down 1.8% before the bell, after a downgrade from Raymond James to "outperform" from "strong buy," with a price-target cut to $195 from $275. Since the start of the year, AMZN is down 21.3%.
Shares of Hertz Global Holdings Inc (NASDAQ:HTZ) are down 8.5% in electronic trading, looking to give back a small portion of last week's gains that followed news that Bill Ackman’s Pershing Square had taken a sizable stake in the rental car company. Year-to-date, HTZ is up 125.1%.
Plenty more earnings due out this week, including reports from Alphabet (GOOGL) and Tesla (TSLA).

OV Buzz April 21

China Keeps Loan Prime Rates Steady

Asian markets were mostly higher Monday after the People’s Bank of China kept its loan prime rates unchanged to help stabilize the yuan amid rising U.S. trade tensions. The decision helped China’s Shanghai Composite add 0.5%. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng rose 1.6%, while South Korea’s Kospi inched 0.2% higher. Japan’s Nikkei was the outlier, falling 1.3% amid weakness in semiconductor stocks.

European markets are closed today to observe Easter, with trading set to resume tomorrow.

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