Trump briefly shook markets shortly before Wall Street opened for trading on Friday, when he accused China of not living up to its end of the agreement that paused their tariffs against each other.
“So much for being Mr. NICE GUY!” Trump said on his Truth Social platform.
The S&P 500 finished Friday nearly unchanged after edging down by less than 0.1 per cent. The Dow Jones added 54 points, or 0.1 per cent, and the Nasdaq composite slipped 0.3 per cent.
Gap weighed on the market even though the fashion retailer reported stronger profit and revenue for the latest quarter than analysts expected. The company behind Banana Republic and Old Navy fell 20.2 per cent after saying tariffs on imports from China and other countries could add up to $US300 million ($466 million) to its costs this fiscal year.
This week and month on Wall Street have been dominated by questions about what will happen with Trump’s tariffs, which investors worry could grind the economy into a recession, slash companies’ profits and layer even more challenges on households already sick of inflation.
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Hopes had largely been rising that the worst of such worries had passed, which in turn sent stocks rallying, after Trump paused his tariffs on both China and the European Union. A US court then on Wednesday blocked many of Trump’s sweeping tariffs. It all sent the S&P 500 in May to its first winning month in four and its best since November.
But the tariffs remain in place for now while the White House appeals the ruling by the US Court of International Trade, and the ultimate outcome is still uncertain.
Friday’s most influential losses came from several big tech stocks. Nvidia fell 2.9 per cent to give back some of its gain from earlier in the week after it topped analysts’ expectations for profit in the latest quarter. It was the single heaviest weight by far on the S&P 500.
On the winning side of Wall Street was Ulta Beauty, which rose 11.8 per cent after the retailer reported stronger sales and profit than analysts forecast. It also raised the top end of its forecasted range for revenue this fiscal year even though CEO Kecia Steelman called the operating environment “fluid”.
In the bond market, Treasury yields eased after a report showed that the measure of inflation that the Federal Reserve likes to use was slightly lower in April than economists expected.
WIth AP
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