--- title: "US Layoffs Surged 245% in February, Major Index Futures Drop Nearly 1% Before Market Open | Market Highlights" slug: us-layoffs-surged-245-in-february-major-index-futures-drop-nearly-1-before-market-open-market-highlights date: 2025-03-06 modified: 2026-04-07 author: Prajwal Khairnar excerpt: "" meta_description: "Before Thursday’s market opening, the sharp decline in Marvell Technology stock and the latest advancements in China’s AI industry seemed to remind the US stock market of its initial encounter" focus_keyword: "" canonical_url: "https://blog.pickmytrade.trade/us-layoffs-surged-245-in-february-major-index-futures-drop-nearly-1-before-market-open-market-highlights/" og_title: "US Layoffs Surged 245% in February, Major Index Futures Drop Nearly 1% Before Market Open | Market Highlights" og_description: "Before Thursday’s market opening, the sharp decline in Marvell Technology stock and the latest advancements in China’s AI industry seemed to remind the US stock market of its initial encounter" og_image: "https://blog.pickmytrade.trade/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/Untitled-design.png" schema_type: Article categories: - Trading tags: [] reading_time: 3 word_count: 768 robots: "index, follow" lang: en-US --- # US Layoffs Surged 245% in February, Major Index Futures Drop Nearly 1% Before Market Open | Market Highlights Before Thursday’s market opening, the sharp decline in **Marvell Technology** stock and the latest advancements in China’s AI industry seemed to remind the US stock market of its initial encounter with DeepSeek. As of press time: - **Dow Jones futures** (2503 contracts) fell **1.09%** - **S&P 500 futures** dropped **1.38%** - **Nasdaq 100 index futures** declined **1.74%** ## **China’s AI Innovation Shakes the Market** In this latest wave of AI innovation from China, **Alibaba** is the first to attract attention. According to the company, its new AI model has only **32 billion parameters** yet delivers overall performance comparable to the **R1 model with 671 billion parameters**. Also on Thursday, **Tencent Hunyuan** launched and open-sourced its graph-generated video model. Meanwhile, another Chinese team released an AI agent, **Manus**, claiming it has outperformed OpenAI’s DeepSeek in the GAIA benchmark test. However, whether Manus will have a similar impact on the US stock market as DeepSeek did earlier this year remains to be seen in the coming days. Alexandre Hezez, **Chief Investment Officer at Banque Richelieu**, commented: _“It is evident that Alibaba is influencing the sentiment of the US stock market. The technology sector has been weak recently, and when combined with Marvell’s financial report, it creates a rather bitter cocktail for the market.”_ ## **Chip Stocks and Broadcom’s Upcoming Financial Report** It’s worth noting that **Broadcom**, a leader in US ASIC chip manufacturing, is set to release its financial report after the market closes on Thursday. Due to market sentiment: - **Broadcom** fell **over 4%** before market open - **Nvidia** dropped **more than 3%** ## **Europe’s Interest Rate Decision & German Bond Market Impact** Just before the publication of this article, the **European Central Bank** released its latest interest rate decision, cutting rates by **25 basis points**, as expected. However, the key question remains: _What comes next?_ Germany’s **historic fiscal reform plan** has already caused significant turmoil. On Wednesday, German government bonds experienced their biggest one-day plunge **since 1990**, affecting broader markets in **Europe and Japan**. As of Thursday, the yield on Germany’s **10-year government bonds** continued rising, indicating ongoing selling pressure. ## **Mass Layoffs Surge Ahead of February Jobs Report** Ahead of Friday’s **non-farm payroll report**, **Challenger layoffs data** released on Thursday revealed that job cuts surged to **172,000**, marking a **245% increase from January**—the highest level since **July 2020**. Key layoff trends: - **62,000 government layoffs** linked to Elon Musk’s **“Government Efficiency Department,”** impacting **17 agencies** - Growing concerns about the **“Trump trade war”** leading to increased corporate layoffs This data reinforces investor uncertainty regarding the upcoming **February jobs report** and the broader economic outlook in the months ahead. ## **Other Market News** ### **Marvell Technology Plummets After Financial Report** **Marvell Technology** shares plunged **over 17%** before market open on Thursday. The company’s latest earnings report, released Wednesday after market close, showed: - Revenue met expectations - Net profit turned positive - However, **a slowdown in AI chip sales** led to a negative market reaction Despite **AI and optical module chip** revenue growing **78.5% YoY**, market sentiment remains pessimistic. ### **Tesla’s Sales Plummet in Australia** Following poor performance in **Europe**, Tesla’s **Australian sales** also collapsed. - **February sales**: **1,592 vehicles** (**-72% YoY**) - **Model 3 sales**: **668 units** (**-81% YoY**) As a result, Tesla’s stock fell **over 2%** before market open. **Financial services firm Baird** warned that Tesla’s Q1 delivery forecast of **437,500 vehicles** is at risk, revising their estimate down to **369,400**. ### **Apple’s First Foldable iPhone Expected by 2026** According to well-known Apple analyst **Ming-Chi Kuo**, Apple’s first **foldable iPhone** is expected to launch in **late 2026 or early 2027**. - Design: **Book-style folding** - Expected price: **$2,000+** ### **Trump to Meet with Tech Executives Next Week** Former President **Donald Trump** is set to meet with major **US tech executives** next week, including representatives from: - **HP Inc.** - **Intel** - **IBM** - **Qualcomm** HP has confirmed its attendance, stating: _“Our leadership team is focused on trade policy and US manufacturing.”_ ### **Alibaba’s AI Model Tops Hugging Face Rankings** Hugging Face, the world’s largest AI open-source community, updated its rankings, with **Alibaba’s Tongyi Qianwen QwQ-32B** model topping the list. - Achieved **major advancements in mathematics, coding, and general reasoning** - **Comparable performance to DeepSeek-R1** - **Optimized for deployment on consumer-grade GPUs**, drastically cutting costs Following this news and a **strong performance in the Hong Kong stock market**, **Alibaba’s US stock rose nearly 2%** pre-market on Thursday, building on an **8.61% surge on Wednesday**. ### **JD.com Reports Double-Digit Revenue Growth in Q4 2024** Chinese e-commerce giant **JD.com** reported strong financial results before the market opened on Thursday: - **2024 annual revenue**: **¥1,158.8 billion** - **Q4 revenue**: **¥347 billion** (+13.4% YoY) - **Goods revenue growth**: **14.0% YoY** - **Services revenue growth**: **10.8% YoY** As a result, **JD.com’s stock surged nearly 5%** in pre-market trading. 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