Traders work on the New York Stock Exchange floor on March 3, 2025.

Spencer Platt | Getty Images

U.S. stock futures inched higher early Tuesday after the three major averages sold off sharply. Investors also awaited President Donald Trump‘s tariffs on Canada and Mexico, which he said would take effect on Tuesday.

Futures tied to the Dow Jones Industrial Average added 20 points, or 0.04%. S&P 500 futures and Nasdaq 100 futures added 0.1% and 0.18%, respectively.

In the regular trading session, the broad market S&P 500 posted its biggest daily loss since December, dropping 1.76%. The blue-chip Dow fell 649.67 points, or 1.48%, while the Nasdaq Composite shed 2.64%.

After trading higher earlier in the day, the three major indexes all dropped into negative territory after President Trump confirmed Monday afternoon that the U.S.’ 25% duties on Canada and Mexico would go into effect the following day. He added that there was “no room left” for the two nations to negotiate these new import tariffs. Trump also slapped an additional 10% tariff on Chinese goods.

The information technology sector felt Monday’s losses particularly, with Nvidia dropping nearly 9% and Broadcom falling 6%. Investors flocked to defensive corners of the market, with the consumer staples sector advancing 0.6%, while health care climbed about 0.4%.

Monday’s sell-off dragged the S&P 500 into the red for 2025. Scott Ladner, chief investment officer at Horizon Investments, unfortunately does not see these losses reversing back anytime soon.

“We don’t see the market going a whole lot of anywhere really fast,” he told CNBC. “We are at a place where sentiment is really in the toilet and that makes getting reversals out of this probably a little bit of a slog.”

On the other hand, Ladner highlighted that the U.S. economy is still going strong, with companies seeing earnings growth of between 10% and 15%.

“We’re not heading into a recession. We’re not even having an earnings recession,” he added. “There’s really nothing out there right now that we can see that should really fully dent corporate earnings power. Our medium-term view is still really positive.”

On the economic front, New York Federal Reserve President John Williams is slated to speak Tuesday afternoon in New York.

Earnings season continues to wind down with results from Best Buy, AutoZone, Target and CrowdStrike on deck Tuesday.