U.S. Stock Futures fell Sunday night, escalating fears about a chaotic market opening and fueling speculation about a possible “Black Monday-style” selloff. The sentiment in equities as well as crypto fell.
S&P 500 futures dropped 5.98% by 10 p.m. ET. Nasdaq futures fell 6.2%. Dow futures fell 5.5%. Investors have been dumping risk in all asset classes after weeks of increasing trade tensions.
Jim Cramer (CNBC Mad Money) referred to a historical parallel when he was referring to Mad Money. Post by Saturday, writing: “Surprised we can't get a short cover rally in case President Trump realizes that a Black Monday may not burnish a legacy.”
Asia’s markets showed a deepening of the risk-off attitude, Japan’s Nikkei225 dropping as much 8.9% at first trading. Taiwan’s Taiex Index plunged almost 10% following a two day holiday. This triggered circuit breakers on major stocks, including TSMCand Foxconn.
To stabilize the market, authorities also banned short sales for a limited time.
CoinGlass data shows that in the crypto market, liquidations are at a record high of $892,000,000, with more than 300 million dollars for Bitcoin long- and short-positions.
Marco Lim is the managing director of Solowin Holdings as well as founding partner at MaiCapital. He said: Decrypt. If USD/JPY continues to fall, carry trades will likely continue to unwind.
Other investors could start to withdraw capital from high-yielding investments, increasing risk-off flow across the global market.
The volatility index ($VIX), which is a futures contract, has risen above its August 2024 high.
Kobeissi Letter (a popular macro-newsletter) said on Sunday that markets had now “lost their orderly nature” as they entered a new phase driven by fear.
Gold futures fell briefly below US$3,000/oz. According to the firm, sentiment is nearing last-seen levels in March 2020.
Retail investors sold $1.5 billion in equities during a 2.5-hour window Friday—the largest intraday outflow on record.
In addition, institutional capital continued to exit U.S. equity markets at a rapid pace. March 2025 was the biggest departure since years.
In the latest AAII survey, 61.9% investors are bearish. This is the highest level ever recorded. Only 21.8% of investors expressed a bullish outlook.
Crypto also followed. Bitcoin dropped to below $80,000 while Ethereum dropped beneath $1,800 on Sunday evening. According to CoinGecko, the global crypto market capitalization fell by 10% to $2.57 billion.
Kobeissi told investors that the market was nearing “capitulation” and any recovery would likely be tactical rather than fundamental.
Even the most bearish markets can see relief rallies, it said.
Next week, the markets will wait for Monday’s U.S. opening and new data about inflation.
