The market continues to suffer from tariff-itis though the tamped down rhetoric from the White House has investors a little more at ease today.  The Dow still swung back and forth in a 250 point range, but the upside ended at a +93.  However, the bottom line remains, as today’s expert points out, “He [Trump] dialed it back a little bit, but they’re still tariffs, and we’re still going in the wrong direction …”  Reflecting all the uncertainty is the below average volume of 6.3 billion shares traded as the market sits on the fence waiting to see how this is really going to play out.  Nobody quite believes that things are as they appear.  

thu MARCH 8, 2018 / 4:47 pm

Wall Street rises as Trump softens tariff plan

Sinéad Carew

DJ:   24,895.21  +93.85        NAS:  7,427.95  +31.30       S&P:   2,738.97  +12.17     3/8

NEW YORK (Reuters) - The three major U.S. stock indexes closed higher on Thursday after President Donald Trump appeared to soften his stance on trade tariffs, easing trade war fears that had had the market on edge for a week.  Trump announced import tariffs on steel and aluminum but said Canada and Mexico would be exempt and that other countries could apply for exemptions, although details of when they would be granted were thin. 

“This is something that bites less than what the rhetoric was last week,” said Chuck Carlson, Chief Executive Officer at Horizon Investment Services in Hammond, Indiana.

“It’s a softer play on the idea than the original ‘sky was falling’ reaction last week when it sounded like it was going to be across the board, no ifs, ands or buts, and everybody was just going to get hammered,” he said.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI rose 93.85 points, or 0.38 percent, to close at 24,895.21, the S&P 500 .SPX gained 12.17 points, or 0.45 percent, to 2,738.97 and the Nasdaq Composite .IXIC added 31.30 points, or 0.42 percent, to 7,427.95. 

Ahead of the news that trickled out from the White House in the last hour and a half of the trading day, the S&P had zig-zagged in a tight range between positive and negative territory as investors were uncertain about what Trump would say.  Worries that the tariffs would ignite a global trade war have dominated markets since he announced the tariff plan last Thursday, and the exit of chief economic adviser Gary Cohn late Tuesday intensified the concerns.  But not everybody was pleased with the latest trade news.

Century Aluminum (CENX.O) shares fell 7.5 percent after the news as it had been seen benefiting from higher prices if the tariffs were put in place. Shares in U.S. Steel Corp (X.N) fell 2.9 percent while AK Steel (AKS.N) closed down 4 percent. 

Michael O’Rourke, Chief Market Strategist at JonesTrading in Greenwich, Connecticut was still concerned about how Trump’s policies could affect global trade.      “He dialed it back a little bit, but they’re still tariffs, and we’re still going in the wrong direction from a policy perspective if you’re a markets-focused globalist. I wouldn’t be surprised if he comes out with different tariffs on other things,” he said.

The energy index .SPNY was the only one of the S&P’s 11 sectors to end the day lower, with a 0.1 percent drop as oil prices declined. [O/R]  Advancing issues outnumbered declining ones on the NYSE by a 1.38-to-1 ratio; on Nasdaq, a 1.15-to-1 ratio favored advancers.

The S&P 500 posted 26 new 52-week highs and one new low; the Nasdaq Composite recorded 157 new highs and 22 new lows.

Volume on U.S. exchanges was 6.38 billion shares, compared to the 7.65 billion average for the last 20 trading days.