This is The Takeaway from today's Morning Brief, which you can sign up to receive in your inbox every morning along with:
The end of the first quarter is nearing, and President Trump just passed the 50-day mark in his second tour at the White House.
It's safe to say this will be a face-ripping year for investors.
More volatility in markets. More earnings misses and warnings. More negative economic surprises. More stock rating downgrades. And trades that have worked amazingly well in the past few years (looking at you, Nvidia ( NVDA )) not working so amazingly anymore.
Watch: Why Lego's CEO is worried about tariffs
And when it seems like these things are over and the coast is clear, all the negativity is rinsed and repeated — causing more face-ripping moments at your trading screen or in chats with a financial adviser.
"We've had a couple of pretty sanguine years and years where we didn't see the usual two or three pullbacks of 5% to 15%," Edward Jones CEO Penny Pennington told me on Yahoo Finance's Opening Bid podcast (see video above or listen below). "That's a very typical thing to happen. And so, in a moment where we've got uncertainty from policy and tariffs and things like that, the markets are reacting. It was to be expected. And so investors are reacting."
Boy are they reacting!
As it stands, the S&P 500 ( ^GSPC ) has pulled back 10% from its Feb. 19 high.
Nvidia is down 14% year to date, and Tesla ( TSLA ) is down 40%. So much for money-minting momentum names!
The S&P 500 fell 1.4% on Thursday, the 10th daily decline this year with a loss above 1%, according to data from Creative Planning chief markets strategist Charlie Bilello. At this point last year, the S&P 500 had only three big down days, which Bilello said was "abnormally" low.
"The market is growing increasingly concerned about an economic slowdown," Truist co-chief investment officer Keith Lerner told me.
Listen: Rubbermaid CEO says tariffs are bad for business
Yet despite a lot of the bad news being known by investors, what is there to be excited about in the markets at this precise time?
Sure, if you want to buy and hold a dividend-paying company (or even an Nvidia) for the next 25 years you will probably be wealthier than you are today. But from a near-term perspective, the tape stinks and there looks to be a wave of bad economic and corporate news coming (see the first quarter earnings season start, if the latest warnings from Delta ( DAL ), Southwest ( LUV ), and American Airlines ( AAL ) are any sign as to what's ahead).
So here are 13 basic things I just do not like about the market right now. Don't agree with me on any of these? That's cool. I don't have all the answers. I do want to know your thoughts though. Drop me a line on X @BrianSozzi .
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The defensive trade — see healthcare and staples — continues to outperform.
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The crypto sell-off continues, and the asset class is no longer viewed as a relatively safe haven.
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Markets continue to sell off on tariff headlines — suggesting the issue is not priced in yet.
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The dips are not being bought with any degree of confidence.
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Financial warnings have surfaced because of growth concerns (see airlines).
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Investors are hammering companies that warn, suggesting they have been too sanguine.
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Dysfunctional government is a risk, which Sen. Ted Cruz reminded me of in a chat .
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CEOs are beginning to articulate worse scenarios to investors due to government policy changes after not doing so late in 2024.
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Investors still aren't fearful enough (the conversations I had with the CEOs of Edward Jones and Charles Schwab ( SCHW ) reminded me of that this week).
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Recession calls are startling markets.
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There are increasing signs of economic weakness in less mainstream economic reports.
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There are no table-pounding sell-side calls on the "Magnificent Seven" stocks in the face of major sell-offs.
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Price target cuts have been trickling in on widely held names (see Morgan Stanley this week on Apple ( AAPL )).
Brian Sozzi is Yahoo Finance's Executive Editor. Follow Sozzi on X @BrianSozzi , Instagram , and LinkedIn
