US stock futures slid on Tuesday after President Trump said he has fired Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook, unsettling investors focused on concerns about the future independence of the central bank.

Futures on the Dow Jones Industrial Average (YM=F) and the S&P 500 (ES=F) both moved 0.2% lower. Contracts on the tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 (NQ=F) also dropped roughly 0.2%, after stocks pulled back on Monday from a record-setting rally.

Trump, in a post on Truth Social late Monday night, has claimed to fire Cook. The announcement follows a week of threats against Cook surrounding allegations of mortgage fraud.

On the tariffs front, Trump met with South Korea President Lee Jae Myung on Monday, but no changes were made to a trade deal between the countries that sets a 15% tariff on imports. Details of new investments in the US began to circulate after the meeting, however, with Korean Air announcing the purchase of 103 Boeing (BA) airplanes.

Read more: The latest on Trump's tariffs

Now, Wall Street is bracing for Nvidia earnings, which land Wednesday after the bell. Expectations for its results are sky-high, with the company's stock up almost 34% so far this year, even as restrictions on chip sales to China have possibly cost the company billions. Nvidia's results will also serve as a litmus test for Big Tech since the industry's eye-popping investments in AI have started to convince investors to look elsewhere.

Finally, the latest release of the Fed's preferred inflation gauge, the Personal Consumption Expenditures (PCE) index, arrives Friday.

Gold (GC=F) rose overnight Monday as news of President Trump's announced intent to remove Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook from her position. With uncertainty around the legality of the move, or the broad impact upon markets, investors pushed up the haven asset as a safeguard against instability.

Bloomberg reports:

Bullion climbed as much as 0.6% in early Asian trading, erasing an earlier decline, after Trump posted a letter with the announcement on his Truth Social account late on Monday. The dollar weakened against every major peer and short-dated Treasury yields slipped, adding support for gold, which is priced in the currency.

The move is Trump’s latest attempt to pressure the Fed leadership, whom he has called on repeatedly but unsuccessfully to lower interest rates. The central bank has held monetary policy steady so far in 2025 amid concerns that Trump’s tariffs will fuel inflation, though on Friday Chair Jerome Powell signaled a potential adjustment in September. Lower rates tend to benefit non-yielding gold.

Forcing out Cook, who is facing allegations of mortgage fraud, would allow Trump to secure a four-person majority on the seven-member board. Earlier this month, he chose Council of Economic Advisers Chairman Stephen Miran to serve in the place of Adriana Kugler, who vacated her position early.

Read more here.