NEW YORK: Wall Street’s main indexes moved higher in volatile trading on Tuesday as a mixed bag of corporate earnings, soft economic data and fresh developments on the US-China trade front kept investors on the sidelines.
US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent predicted China could lose 10 million jobs quickly due to tariffs, but signaled progress on trade deals with other countries including Japan and India.
The world’s two largest economies have slapped tit-for-tat import tariffs on each other and uncertainty around the state of negotiations between the two has kept markets on edge.
There is still some optimism around “what will likely be deals with India, Japan, Australia, and South Korea”, but talks with China will likely be “the last pin to fall”, said Patriarch Organization CEO Eric Schiffer.
A day after US officials said the Trump administration will move to reduce the impact of automotive tariffs, shares of Ford were only marginally higher and Tesla fell 0.6%.
The blue-chip Dow got a boost as Honeywell jumped 5.4% on reporting a rise in adjusted profit for the first quarter. Paintmaker Sherwin-Williams gained 5% after its quarterly profit beat estimates.
However, General Motors fell 1.6% after the automaker pulled its annual forecast due to tariff uncertainty.
The day’s data releases also pointed to an increasingly murky economic outlook. The Conference Board’s consumer confidence index dropped to its lowest reading since May 2020, while job openings came in at 7.19 million in March, below estimates of 7.48 million.
“We’re just in this eye of the storm ... for a lot of investors, consumers, and business leaders wondering what the future looks like as potential tariffs kick in down the road,” said Matthew Stucky, chief portfolio manager at Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management.
At 11:49 a.m. ET, the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 243.76 points, or 0.61%, to 40,471.35, the S&P 500 gained 13.75 points, or 0.25%, to 5,542.50 and the Nasdaq Composite gained 26.30 points, or 0.15%, to 17,392.44.
More economic data, including nonfarm payrolls, is expected this week, and results from many of the “Magnificent Seven” group of megacap stocks are also due, with investors hawk-eyed on any signs of tariff impact on their outlook.
All three major indexes remain down for the year, despite the S&P 500 logging its best winning streak since November on Monday.
HSBC became the latest brokerage to trim its year-end target for the S&P 500 index, cutting it to 5,600 from 6,700 earlier.
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