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.  

The bad news is that the IMF has downgraded U.S. GDP growth for 2025 to 1.8% due to the century-high tariffs, the S&P is still 14% below the February high (though that’s much better than the 17% it was just yesterday) and S&P Q1 has also been downgraded from the January estimate of 12.2% to today’s 8.1%.  But the best news is the consensus as summarized by today’s expert, “Current earnings are showing a continuation of good fundamentals, which is not a surprise, but investors are parsing corporate guidance for clarity on what companies are planning to do in response to tariff policy.”  Volume remains well below the 18.9 billion-average coming in at just 15.2 billion, likely due to spring break vacations. 

DJ: 38,170.41  -971.82      NAS: 15,870.90  -415.55       S&P: 5,158.20  -124.50       4/21

DJ: 39,186.98  +1,016.57  NAS: 16,300.42  +429.52      S&P: 5,287.76  +129.56      4/22

Tue 4-22-25 4:56 pm Wall Street ends higher on earnings, hopes of easing tariff tensions | Reuters