WASHINGTON: US stocks whipped through another dizzying day Wednesday in the final hours before President Donald Trump’s unveiling of the tariffs promised as part of his “ Liberation Day,” which could drastically remake the global economy.
The S&P 500 rose 0.7%, but only after careening between an earlier loss of 1.1% and a later gain of 1.1%. It’s had a pattern this week of opening with sharp drops only to finish the day higher.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 31 points, or 0.1%, with an hour remaining in trading, and the Nasdaq composite was 0.3% higher. Both also veered from sharply lower in the morning to sharply higher in the afternoon and then doubled back.
Elon Musk's Tesla helped knock the market around after initially falling more than 6% following a report that it delivered fewer electric vehicles in the first three months of the year than it did in last year’s first quarter.
Tesla, one of Wall Street’s most influential stocks because of its immense size, has faced backlash due to anger about CEO Elon Musk’s leading the U.S. government’s efforts to cut spending. But its stocks swung to a gain of 4.9% later in the day following a report from Politico that Trump has told others that Musk will step back from his government role in coming weeks.
Financial markets around the world have broadly been shaky lately because of uncertainty about what Trump will announce Wednesday. He has said he wants tariffs to make the global system more fair and to bring manufacturing jobs back to the United States from other countries. But tariffs also threaten to grind down growth for the U.S. and other economies, while worsening inflation when it may be stuck above the Federal Reserve’s 2% target.
One of the hopes that’s helped push upward on the U.S. stock market recently is the possibility that at least the worst of the uncertainty around tariffs may have already passed.
“We do not know how long the previously enacted tariffs and any future tariffs will remain in force, but we believe peak tariff uncertainty may soon be behind us,” according to Kurt Reiman, head of fixed income Americas, and other strategists at UBS Global Wealth Management. “Much of the work the administration set out to achieve will have been put in place, and there are numerous potential offramps available.”
Tesla, one of Wall Street’s most influential stocks because of its immense size, has faced backlash due to anger about CEO Elon Musk’s leading the U.S. government’s efforts to cut spending. But its stocks swung to a gain of 4.9% later in the day following a report from Politico that Trump has told others that Musk will step back from his government role in coming weeks.
Financial markets around the world have broadly been shaky lately because of uncertainty about what Trump will announce Wednesday. He has said he wants tariffs to make the global system more fair and to bring manufacturing jobs back to the United States from other countries. But tariffs also threaten to grind down growth for the U.S. and other economies, while worsening inflation when it may be stuck above the Federal Reserve’s 2% target.
One of the hopes that’s helped push upward on the U.S. stock market recently is the possibility that at least the worst of the uncertainty around tariffs may have already passed.
“We do not know how long the previously enacted tariffs and any future tariffs will remain in force, but we believe peak tariff uncertainty may soon be behind us,” according to Kurt Reiman, head of fixed income Americas, and other strategists at UBS Global Wealth Management. “Much of the work the administration set out to achieve will have been put in place, and there are numerous potential offramps available.”