Timothy St. John•Tuesday, February 18, 2025•2 min read
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This week has been marked by a shortened stock trading schedule due to presidents’ Day and rounds of massive government employee layoffs after the Department of Government Efficiency goes to work.
US Government employees are protesting about their loss of jobs after Elon Musk uses the newly formed Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) to lay off around 4,000 employees. Those layoffs have been happening since Donald Trump took office as President. The shortened stock market trading week has led to speculation about how likely the indices are to hit record highs this week.
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These two stories have dominated stock market news, since protesting government employees could lead to strikes in government offices and shut down avenues of trade amid a four-day trading week.
Despite these hurdles, the stock market indices could achieve record highs this week. Last week saw a mostly positive market test those highs. The S&P 500 is about 0.2% away from its record high, and the Dow and Nasdaq indices are both about 1% off from their highs.
Continuing Inflation Fears
US markets are cautious about inflation and tariffs, but those fears have not been enough to warn off investors who pushed all of the indices higher last week. Inflation has been stubbornly high, which has kept the Federal Reserve from issuing as many interest rate cuts as was previously hoped.
While these economic concerns are certainly holding the stock market back, the market has been buoyed by a very promising quarterly report season. The corporate earnings season has been better than expected, with Tesla, Microsoft, Google, Apple, and others reporting excellent revenue and a promising forecast for the remainder of the year.
In premarket trading for Tuesday, Nvidia (NVDA) and Apple (AAPL) were both up, while Microsoft (MSFT) and Tesla (TSLA) were trending slightly down. The Nasdaq Composite is up by 0.41%, lifted by several strong tech stocks. The Dow Jones and S&P 500 are both down slightly in premarket trading.
Timothy St. John
Financial Writer – European & US Desks
24 hours ago
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