US stock futures extend heavy losses to kick off new week

NEW YORK - US stock futures continued to plummet on Sunday night, as wary investors fear the repeat of "Black Monday" in the stock market.

The E-Mini Dow Continuous Contract, E-Mini S&P 500 Future Continuous Contract and E-Mini Nasdaq 100 Index Continuous Contract sank as much as 4.72 percent, 5.48 percent and 6.15 percent at one point.

Still, losses narrowed materially afterward with the futures of E-Mini Dow, S&P 500 and Nasdaq down 2.63 percent, 3.14 percent and 3.85 percent, respectively, as of 9:45 pm eastern time (0145 GMT).

The US stock market plunged on both Thursday and Friday with S&P 500 Index down 10.53 percent in the last two sessions and Nasdaq Composite Index diving into the bear market.

Statistics show that the capitalization of US stocks shed as much as 5.4 trillion US dollars in the last two sessions.

Investors' confidence tumbled after US President Donald Trump signed an executive order Wednesday on the so-called "reciprocal tariffs", imposing a 10 percent "minimum baseline tariff" and higher rates on certain trading partners.

The only way to cure US trade deficits is with tariffs, said Trump on Sunday on social media platform Truth Social.

US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said Sunday in an interview with NBC News that it is a "false narrative" that people nearing retirement might be reluctant after their retirement savings may have dropped last week because of the stock market downturn.

Democratic Senator Adam Schiff criticized Bessent's remarks: "The treasury secretary saying that people aren't looking at where the retirement savings are -- maybe he doesn't have to. He's got the wealth ... Maybe the president, with his wealth, doesn't have to."

"But what I'm hearing from Californians is those who have just retired, those who are on the eve of retiring, they're terrified of this," Schiff added.