Stock Futures Slip After Saturday Tariffs

The market meltdown is showing no signs of slowing. Futures on the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJI) are down 803 points this morning, while S&P 500 Index (SPX) and Nasdaq-100 Index (NDX) futures sit sharply lower as well, following last week's historic losses.

President Donald Trump's 10% tariff on all other countries went into effect on Saturday, dashing investors' hopes of negotiations, with more set to begin on Wednesday. Over the weekend, Trump defended the move, saying, "I don’t want anything to go down, but sometimes you have to take medicine to fix something."

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

• What happened to the market last week? A quick summary. 
• A closer look at tech ETF QQQ. 
• Plus, DLTR's upgrade; and 2 notable stock dips. 

5 Things You Need to Know Today

1. The Cboe Options Exchange (CBOE) saw more than 3.1 million call contracts and over 2 million put contracts exchanged on Friday -- much higher volume than usual. The single-session equity put/call ratio came in at 0.64, while the 21-day moving average stayed at 0.60.
2. Discount retail stock Dollar Tree Inc (NASDAQ:DLTR) is up 0.7% premarket, after managing a win on Friday despite the surrounding market pressures. Citigroup upgraded the stock to "buy" from "neutral," with a price-target hike to $103 from $76, pointing to the company's favorable positioning for a high-tariff environment. 
3. General Motors Co (NYSE:GM) is down 4.6% before the bell amid tariff headwinds, as well as a downgrade from Bernstein to "underperform" from "market perform." Should these losses hold, GM will slip into negative territory year-over-year. 
4. Bitcoin (BTC) is off 6.8% in electronic trading, pushing other crypto-related stocks lower as well. The slide has the cryptocurrency dropping below $77,000 for the first time since November. 
5. Inflation data and big bank earnings this week. 

Overseas Markets Plummet on Trade War Fears

Asian stocks tumbled Monday amid deepening fears of a global trade war, with Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index leading regional losses with a staggering 13.2% drop. Japan’s Nikkei slid 7.8% to an 18-month low after hitting circuit breakers during the session. In China, the Shanghai Composite fell 7.3% following Beijing’s retaliation to U.S. tariffs, while South Korea’s Kospi dropped 5.6%.

European markets are also lower, with London’s FTSE 100 and Germany’s DAX both down 4.4%, while France’s CAC 40 is 4.6% lower. The selloff follows President Trump’s sweeping new tariffs and China’s swift retaliation, prompting the European Union (EU) to prepare countermeasures of its own. Investor sentiment soured across the continent, with all major sectors under pressure as hopes for a diplomatic resolution dim.