Dow Jones Futures tumbles 1500 points, Russell 2000 down 7% amid Black Monday fears

Dow Jones Futures fell 1,531 points, or 4% Sunday evening amid fears about a ‘Black Monday’. S&P 500 futures were down 4%, Nasdaq-100 futures lost 4% and Russell 2000 tanked 7%. This follows a market wipeout last week - a fallout from President Donald Trump's reciprocal tariffs announcement.

The Dow has posted back-to-back losses of more than 1,500 points for the first time ever. It fell by 2,231 points on Friday. The S&P 500 tanked 6% on Friday in its worst performance since the COVID-19 pandemic (March 2020). The Nasdaq Composite lost nearly 6% on both Thursday and Friday.

Black Monday fears

This comes after Harvard University graduate and founder of TheStreet Jim Cramer warned investors about a ‘Black Monday’ on April 7. Speaking during his CNBC show Mad Money, Cramer said that markets could experience carnage like the one that took place in 1987 when the Dow Jones crashed 22.6% in a single trading session.

“If the president doesn’t try to reach out and reward these countries and companies that play by the rules, then the 1987 scenario… the one where we went down three days and then down 22% on Monday, has the most cogency,” he said. “We will not have to wait too long to know. We will know it by Monday.”

Meanwhile, chief investment officer at Siebert Financial, Mark Malek, told Reuters: “The bull market is dead. We might see some gains in the next few days, but for now, they’re not going to be sustainable.”

The timing of the tariffs news, which coincided with the beginning of the first-quarter earnings season, is contributing to the gloomy outlook, Malek added.

On Sunday morning talk shows, Trump's top economic advisers sought to portray the tariffs as a savvy repositioning. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said on NBC News' "Meet the Press" that there was "no reason" to anticipate a recession.

Some traders believe the stock market will at least attempt to stage a comeback of sorts.

“Sometime this week it’s probably inevitable that we will have an up day,” said Steve Sosnick, chief investment strategist at Interactive Brokers, ahead of futures opening.

The question remains about the sustainability of any rally.

“We may see a day this week where screens are green, but any lasting rally may not arrive for three or four weeks,” said Alex Morris, chief investment officer at F/m Investments. “At that point, people will start saying we’ve taken enough air out of the balloon.”

(With inputs from Reuters)