Late rally propels Dow, S&P 500 to slight gains

Late rally propels Dow, S&P 500 to slight gains

By Chuck Mikolajczak

Wed April 30, 2025 7:06 PM

With Q1 GDP coming in so poorly this morning, all the indexes went deeply into the red, the Dow down some 800 points by 10 a.m. GDP had gone from some 2.5% in Q4 to a -0.5% in Q1, the first contraction in three years. GDP even seriously underperformed the very pessimistic forecast which +0.3% coming in nearly a full percentage point below that. After three years of growth, the markets panicked but at least began an almost immediate recovery despite the fact that only half the number of estimated jobs had been added in April. The good news was that consumer and business spending was up, but this was mostly due to a boost in buying ahead of the tariffs. 

US stocks close higher; oil drops amid recession fears, trade talks

US stocks close higher; oil drops amid recession fears, trade talks

By Stephen Culp

April 29, 2025 4:34 PM

 

It was right at 1 pm that all three indexes started moving straight up after straddling flat all morning. In a market that’s desperate for any hint of good news, that little hint from Bessent of potential progress in trade talks must have come at 1 pm. But the fact that the bulk of the gains went to the Dow with a handsome 3-digit advance also indicates that it’s still risk-off. There was also good news on Trump’s announcement that the automobile tariffs were being scaled back a bit.  

S&P 500 ekes out slight gain with data, megacap earnings eyed

S&P 500 ekes out slight gain with data, megacap earnings eyed

By Chuck Mikolajczak

Mon April 28, 2025 4:21 PM

All three indexes spent most of the day in the red, but were up the morning, the Dow up some 300 points, before declining into deep losses in the afternoon, the Dow reaching a low of a -250 by 1:30, the Nasdaq doing considerably worse at a -250 as well by 1:30. The main trigger was poor performance by Nvidia and Amazon, Nvidia being hit particularly hard by China’s Huawei announcing their testing of a new super-AI chip that they hope will leave their U.S. competitor in the dust. The good news is that after 1:30, they all came all the way back with the Dow closing with another 3-digit gain and the tech sectors reaching break-even. And though the S&P’s gain was only slight, it still marked its fourth straight advance. 

Wall Street ends with weekly gains as trade negotiations, earnings in focus

Wall Street ends with weekly gains as trade negotiations, earnings in focus

By Stephen Culp

Fri April 25, 2025 4:23 PM

The day started in the red on all the indexes but almost immediately began to rise on a fourth day of optimism over cooling trade-war relations with China. The Dow fared less favorably, way in the red almost all day but recovering to near break-even by close. But the Dow coming down while tech goes up is actually good news as it indicates an increasing appetite for risk and moving out of safe assets.  

Wall Street ends higher on tech boost, easing tariff tensions

Wall Street ends higher on tech boost, easing tariff tensions

By Stephen Culp

Thu April 24, 2025 4:20 PM

For the third day, optimism over the hoped-for easing of trade relations with China boosted the market into once-again substantial 3-digit gains with the tech sector helping considerably since tech and particularly AI depends so much on China.  As today’s expert put it, “Part of the reason you’re seeing the chips lead is because they’ve been kind of in the bulls-eye in the trade dispute with China.” But, not to be too optimistic, “There’s still a ton of questions around tariffs right now that we really don’t have answers to. So a lot of us are just kind of throwing darts in the dark.”  

Wall Street ends higher on hopes of trade war de-escalation

Wall Street ends higher on hopes of trade war de-escalation

By Stephen Culp

Wed April 23, 2025 4:17 PM  

The indexes, still feeling profound relief from yesterday’s dual hints that Trump would not try to fire Powell and Bessent stating, today in even stronger terms, that there would likely be easing in the China tariff war, had all the markets way up in the morning, the Dow reaching a whopping +1400 by 10:30 a.m. but then steadily declining throughout the rest of the session.  Still, there were healthy 3-digit gains all-around by close, no doubt also helped by a continuing healthy Q1 with 110 companies now reporting with 75% beating estimates.  

Wall Street ends higher on earnings, hopes of easing tariff tensions

Wall Street ends higher on earnings, hopes of easing tariff tensions

By Stephen Culp

Tue April 22, 2025 4:56 PM

Today went precisely the opposite of yesterday and all it took was the slightest hint from the White House that Trump did not intend to try to fire Powell and another slight hint from Bessent that there may be a de-escalation in tensions with China. That combo sent the markets soaring and even wiping out all of yesterday’s huge losses, though just barely so, but not even touching the big losses from last week, Tuesday thru Thursday. Also boosting the market is Q1 picking up with 82 companies reporting and 73% beating forecasts.  

US stocks, dollar slide; Trump's attacks on Fed chair fuel anxiety

US stocks, dollar slide; Trump's attacks on Fed chair fuel anxiety

By Caroline Valetkevitch

Mon April 21, 2025 5:27 PM

At least today’s fiasco did not lead to another round of 4-digit losses, though it came close. And though Trump began his attacks against Fed Chair Powell last week, today Trump doubled down quite a bit more than usual by suggesting that he could replace Powell (which he cannot) and that lower interest rates were critical for saving the economy. This double whammy sent the markets tumbling and increased fear and uncertainty substantially with these real threats to the future independence of the Fed, which has always been the stabilizing rod for the economy, may be in question.  

Wall Street choppy as Eli Lilly jumps, UnitedHealth plummets

Wall Street choppy as Eli Lilly jumps, UnitedHealth plummets

By Noel Randewich and Lisa Pauline Mattackal

Thu April 17, 2025 4:33 PM

Considering how news and sentiment changes hour by hour and given the holiday weekend, there was a general “playing it safe” sell off today due to hesitancy to stay in the market over the long holiday weekend. The S&P and Nasdaq swayed back and forth between red and black, the S&P even having a healthy gain of about 50 points by 3 p.m., even though the Dow remained solidly in the red all day. In a way that’s good though since the Dow does better when things are risky so this might mean investors are becoming less risk-averse overall.  

Wall Street ends sharply lower; Nvidia drops, Powell says growth appears to be slowing

Wall Street ends sharply lower; Nvidia drops, Powell says growth appears to be slowing

By Caroline Valetkevitch

Wed April 16, 2025 4:30 PM

The market opened down all around but only modestly so due to the announcement yesterday that there would be new curbs on chip exports to China. But the real one-two punch came about 1:30 p.m. which is when Powell must have announced that more inflation and slower growth were likely due to the tariffs and the double whammy of Nvidia saying it would be taking steep charges to the tune of $5.5 billion on its AI chips.  

Wall Street ends down slightly; tariff uncertainty keeps investors on edge

Wall Street ends down slightly; tariff uncertainty keeps investors on edge

By Caroline Valetkevitch

Tue April 15, 2025 6:36 PM

It was another seesaw day with all the indexes up in the morning, the Dow up over 270 points, before starting a slow descent less than an hour in and reaching breakeven at 1 pm before closing down, the Dow off 155, the Nasdaq and S&P ending almost at a wash. This activity might best be explained by today’s expert, “Earnings have been pretty good, but this is a market that’s just beset by tariff and trade uncertainty and those are really the only catalysts that matter at this point.”  

Wall Street ends higher with Apple shares as investors assess tariff exemptions

Wall Street ends higher with Apple shares as investors assess tariff exemptions

By Caroline Valetkevitch

Mon April 14, 2025 6:31 PM

It was another seesaw day with the indexes way up in the morning, the Dow up some 550 points by 11 a.m. when suddenly all three indexes came crashing down until noon, the Dow losing all its gains plus 50 in the red, then all three rising again dramatically until 3 pm, the Dow again gaining more than 600 before falling again in the final ¼ hour to close up 312. That’s one rollercoaster! It was all a combo of the elation from Friday of electronics being momentarily exempted from the tariffs to the continued uncertainties about the rest of the tariffs. For today anyway, what’s good for Apple is good for the market and the exemption was very good for Apple as well as Dell and HP, all of which rose between 2 and 4%.  

Wall St ends whipsaw week sharply higher as Fed comments soothe market

Wall St ends whipsaw week sharply higher as Fed comments soothe market

By Stephen Culp

Fri April 11, 2025 6:05 PM

The good news is that after all three indexes whipsawed around break-even during the morning, the Dow down some 350 by 11:30, then all three soared for the rest of the day, albeit not as radically as Wednesday but still quite substantially. The trigger was likely a combo of positive Q1 reporting from JP Morgan, Morgan Stanley, and Wells Fargo as well as Fed comments that they were prepared to protect financial markets and hold stagflation in check and that the economy was not entering high inflation and low growth. Then there was the bad news.  

US stocks, dollar drop on lingering tariff worries, a day after relief rally

US stocks, dollar drop on lingering tariff worries, a day after relief rally

By Caroline Valetkevitch

Thu April 10, 2025 5:41 PM

The Great Elation lasted but all of one day, despite the fact that there was a sudden upturn in the market ten minutes before close yesterday which should have meant a continued rally today. But the overnight brought more level heads into the reality that there is still a major trade war going with China and Trump once again intensified that reality by raising the tariff on China from 104% earlier this week to 125% yesterday to 145% today. Even without the increase, the reality check would have brought the markets down but the double reality check brought it way down, though thankfully the indexes only lost about 1/3 of the gains made yesterday.  

Stocks spring higher, dollar gains as Trump announces tariff pause excluding China

Stocks spring higher, dollar gains as Trump announces tariff pause excluding China

By Caroline Valetkevitch

Wed April 9, 2025 5:54 PM

Once again, Trump pulled an earth-shattering surprise but this time it was good news when he announced a 90-day pause on all the reciprocal tariffs that were to go into effect today, China being excepted where there was not only a pause but an increase to 125%.  Until then it was a very quiet day compared to most with all the indexes straddling flat until 1:15 p.m. That had to be when the announcement was made and the market reacted with one of the biggest rallies in history, a single day gain on the Dow of over 2900, on the Nasdaq of over 1800. 

S&P 500 hits lowest close in almost a year as hopes wane for tariff concessions

S&P 500 hits lowest close in almost a year as hopes wane for tariff concessions

By Sinéad Carew and Shashwat Chauhan

Tue April 8, 2025 6:32 PM

Expecting … hoping! … that China would blink before the midnight deadline, all the indexes were way up in the morning, the Dow up over 1500. Then around 10:30 came the fateful announcement not only that China wasn’t about to blink but that Trump was going to issue a further penalty of 104%. This sent the market plummeting again as hopes for concessions evaporated and by 3 pm lost all their gains and dove another 900 points in the red before zooming up in the last fifteen minutes to recover all but 320. Does that last minute rally portend a good day for tomorrow?  

Dow, S&P 500 end wild session lower, Trump digs in on tariffs

Dow, S&P 500 end wild session lower, Trump digs in on tariffs

By Sinéad Carew and Pranav Kashyap

Mon April 7, 2025 5:02 PM

Ain’t social media grand? As was expected from the weekend’s dire futures, all three indexes opened down, way down, the Dow plunging another 1700 points, the Nasdaq another equally whopping 800 points. But it didn’t last long, until 10 a.m. to be exact. It was at that hour that somebody somewhere posted a comment that Fox had reported that the White House would be pausing the tariffs by 3 months. This triggered a huge rally with the Dow shooting up some 2700 points. That too did not last long as by 10:20 a.m. both Fox and the White House confirmed that this news did not come from them and was not at all true.  

Trump tariff tailspin worsens, Nasdaq confirms in bear market

Trump tariff tailspin worsens, Nasdaq confirms in bear market

By David French

Fri April 4, 2025 5:11 PM

The disaster continues as for the second day following the draconian tariff announcements all three indexes went into freefall again, today even worse than yesterday with the Dow falling over 500 points further than it fell yesterday, throwing the index once again into an unprecedented 4-figure loss two days in a row. All three indexes suffered losses in the 9-11% range for the last two days, losses for the week topping records from the past five years. The VIX jumped a whopping 50% today after jumping a whopping 40% yesterday, jumping from 30 to 45 in just one day and putting the “fear index” now well into panic territory.  

Wall Street ends with heavy losses on fears Trump tariffs will trigger recession

Wall Street ends with heavy losses on fears Trump tariffs will trigger recession

By David French

Thu April 3, 2025 4:00 PM

As was widely expected, today was a historic disaster as all three indexes suffered their biggest one-day percentage losses in five years due to massive fears triggered by yesterday’s sweeping and severe tariffs announcement. All the indexes closed down in the 4-6% range. All expectations for earnings and revenues for most companies are going to be lowered. Big tech got hit particularly hard with Apple, Amazon, and Nvidia all down about 9%. There is a mystery in that, though the freefall began right at open, at about 11 a.m. a significant recovery began that abruptly halted, again on all three indexes, right at 1 p.m. when the freefall then continued unstopped for the rest of the session. I’ve found no explanation for what happened at either 11 a.m. or 1 p.m. 

Wall Street ends higher, rebounds in choppy trade ahead of Trump tariff plan

Wall Street ends higher, rebounds in choppy trade ahead of Trump tariff plan

By David French

Wed April 2, 2025 4:20 PM

On dour anticipation of today’s tariff announcement, all three indexes started in the red but then quickly started gaining ground, albeit very choppy, with the Dow and Nasdaq once again in 3-digit gains by close. Trump did not deliver the tariff news until about an hour after the markets closed and, hedging bets, investors were buying ahead of the news expecting a moderate approach. Also prompting the buying was reported news that Trump may be phasing out Musk’s role sooner than expected.  

S&P, Nasdaq end higher as Wall Street gyrates in Trump-tariffs limbo

S&P, Nasdaq end higher as Wall Street gyrates in Trump-tariffs limbo

By David French

Tue April 1, 2025 5:55 PM

There was all kind of erratic trading today with all indexes bouncing back and forth between black and red but closing near even except for the Nasdaq that enjoyed a healthy 3-digit gain. Tomorrow’s D-Day with all the markets bracing for whatever shock is coming, but there is at least some agreement that there will be at least a little more clarity after tomorrow which may help stabilize things a bit. Others are more skeptical, the overall backdrop expected to remain highly uncertain.