Wall Street’s main indexes were set to open higher on Friday following earnings from big banks including JPMorgan, while markets also assessed the latest escalation in the trade war with China increasing its tariffs on U.S. imports to 125%.
JPMorgan Chase gained 1% before the bell after beating first-quarter profit estimates. Wells Fargo slipped about 1% despite beating quarterly earnings estimates.
Morgan Stanley edged 0.6% lower even as it beat quarterly profit estimates.
Meanwhile, China retaliated after U.S. President Donald Trump on Thursday doubled down on the country by increasing tariffs to an effective rate of 145%, even as he announced a 90-day tariff reprieve on most trading partners.
Stocks have been on a roller-coaster ride in response to tariff announcements in the past few days. Wall Street fell for four straight sessions, before bouncing back on Wednesday with the S&P 500 seeing its largest one-day percentage jump since October 2008.
Stocks, however, slumped again on Thursday and were more than 7% off from levels seen before last week, when Trump’s “reciprocal” tariffs sparked the market rout.
“The market is oversold and has been for a while on many different metrics,” said Thomas Martin, senior portfolio manager at Globalt Investments.
At 08:47 a.m. ET, Dow E-minis were up 142 points, or 0.36%, S&P 500 E-minis were up 18.25 points, or 0.34%, and Nasdaq 100 E-minis were up 65 points, or 0.35%.
Selloff accelerates on Wall Street as traders weigh tariff risks
Amid the volatility, all three major Wall Street indexes are set for robust weekly gains, with the Nasdaq set for its best weekly showing so far this year.
Most megacap and growth stocks were higher after initial losses in premarket trade, with gains in Apple, Nvidia and Amazon.com.
“A lot of de-risking has happened in the (tech) space and investors don’t want to take too much risk of being too underweight those areas,” Martin added.
Investors sought refuge in traditional safe-haven assets such as gold, which jumped to a record high. Safe-haven currencies such as the Japanese yen and Swiss franc also strengthened against the dollar.
The rally in the precious metal lifted gold miners, with Newmont and U.S.-listed shares of Barrick Gold rising more than 3% each.
U.S. monthly producer prices unexpectedly fell in March, coming on the heels of a consumer prices reading which also showed an unexpected decline last month.
Treasury yields remained elevated after a steep bond selloff earlier this week. The yield on the 10-year note was at 4.46%, hovering near its February highs.
At least three Fed officials, including New York Fed President John Williams, are scheduled to speak throughout the day.
Traders currently expect more than 90 basis points of interest rate cuts by the Federal Reserve this year, starting in June, according to LSEG data.
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