Wall St rises as megacaps gain despite tariff concerns

[Pelican Press 0]

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

Wall St rises as megacaps gain despite tariff concerns

The S&P 500 and the Nasdaq have gained as megacap stocks stabilised despite ongoing market volatility following China’s counter tariffs in response to new US trade restrictions.

Minutes after US President Donald Trump’s 10 per cent tariff on ******** goods kicked in at 12.01am ET, China’s finance ministry announced levies on some US imports, effective February 10.

China’s limited reply to Trump’s imposition underscored its attempts to engage the US president in talks and avert an outright trade war between the world’s two largest economies.

“The tariff gun is clearly loaded… we don’t know if it eventually is going to fire (but) we now have some time in between the announcement and the implementation,” said Art Hogan, chief market strategist at B Riley Wealth.

“Markets are going to take the pause and try to price in the uncertainty.”

Alphabet rose 1.8 per cent ahead of its quarterly results, which are due after markets close, while Nvidia advanced 2.8 per cent.

In early trading on Tuesday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 46.08 points, or 0.10 per cent, to 44,467.99, the S&P 500 gained 34.50 points, or 0.58 per cent, to 6,029.07 and the Nasdaq Composite gained 214.68 points, or 1.11 per cent, to 19,606.63.

Six of the 11 S&P 500 sectors traded higher, with energy stocks leading the gains with a 1.7 per cent rise.

Biotechnology firm Illumina dropped 4.3 per cent while PVH Corp, the holding company for brands including Calvin Klein, shed 0.8 per cent after China placed the companies in its “unreliable entity list”.

Trump had also imposed a 25 per cent tariff on goods from Mexico and Canada over the weekend but agreed to a 30-day pause in the levies on Monday, in return for border and crime concessions from both countries.

The last-minute change helped the three major US stock indexes pare some of the heavy losses suffered earlier on Monday and closed trading well off session lows.

Three Federal Reserve officials warned on Monday that trade tariffs carried inflation risks, with one arguing that uncertainty over the

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

for prices called for slower interest-rate cuts than otherwise.

Comments from Fed leaders including Atlanta’s Raphael Bostic are expected through the day.

A Labor Department report showed US job openings stood at 7.6 million in December, compared to an estimated 8 million, according to economists polled by Reuters.

In earnings-driven moves, PepsiCo fell 1.8 per cent after it forecast annual profit below expectations and missed quarterly revenue estimates.

Merck dropped 9.9 per cent after the drug maker said it would pause shipments of Gardasil to China through at least the mid-year, as continued weak demand for the HPV vaccine there is expected to hurt the company’s 2025 revenues.

Palantir jumped 25.8 per cent after the data analytics company forecast first-quarter and annual revenue above Wall Street estimates.

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

fell 9.5 per cent after the digital payments giant’s operating margin shrank in the fourth quarter.

Marathon Petroleum rose 4.4 per cent after beating fourth-quarter profit estimates.

Advancing issues outnumbered decliners by a 2.46-to-1 ratio on the NYSE, and by a 2.19-to-1 ratio on the Nasdaq.

The S&P 500 posted 13 new 52-week highs and 14 new lows while the Nasdaq Composite recorded 34 new highs and 68 new lows.

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

#Wall #rises #megacaps #gain #tariff #concerns

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up