On Tuesday, Trump said he would be announcing tariffs on pharmaceutical drugs at a “very, very high rate, like 200 per cent.” He also said he would sign an executive order placing a 50 per cent tariff on copper imports, matching the rates charged on steel and aluminum.
Copper prices eased Wednesday after spiking a day earlier. Shares in mining company Freeport-McMoRan fell 1.5 per cent.
Financial markets swooned from day-to-day for weeks after the White House rolled out its proposed tariff hikes in the spring. With the new batch of U.S. taxes on imports not set to kick in until next month, that gives Wall Street a breather just as the next corporate earnings season is set to begin.
“I think most people are tired of tariff news and they’re starting to realise it just doesn’t matter much,” said Jay Hatfield, CEO of Infrastructure Capital Advisors. “We’re pretty bullish about earnings. I think the rest of the market is too.”
Wall Street analysts predict that companies in the S&P 500 will deliver a combined 5 per cent annual growth in second-quarter earnings, according to FactSet. That would mark the lowest growth rate for the index since the fourth quarter of 2023.
Delta Air Lines kicks off earnings season on Thursday, with most analysts expecting the airline’s second-quarter profit to decline from a year ago. Delta and other major U.S. carriers have trimmed their flight schedules and pulled their forecasts this year as consumers pull back on travel and other nonessential spending due to uncertainty about how Trump’s tariffs will affect their budgets.
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Gains in technology and communication services stocks outweighed declines in energy and other sectors Wednesday.
Microsoft rose 1.4 per cent, Meta gained 1.7 per cent and Google parent Alphabet added 1.3 per cent.
Amazon rose 1.4 per cent a day after the online retail giant kicked off Prime Day, extending it for the first time to four days.
All told, the S&P 500 rose 37.74 to 6,263.26. The Dow added 217.54 to 44,458.30, and the Nasdaq gained 192.87 to close at 20,611.34.
In bond market trading, the yield on the 10-year Treasury slid to 4.34 per cent from 4.40 per cent late Tuesday.
In overseas markets, stock indexes closed broadly higher in Europe after a mixed finish in Asia.
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