Stock Market News Review: SPY, QQQ Near Record-Highs on Flexible Tariff Deadlines, EU Trade Concessions
Thursday was another green day for the stock market, as both the S&P 500 (SPX) and the Nasdaq 100 (NDX) closed near their respective all-time highs, shrugging off a lower revision to U.S. GDP.
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GDP is now projected to fall by 0.5% during the first quarter, down from the prior estimate for a 0.2% decline. While it was known that a surge in imports would lead to lower GDP, consumer spending growth was revised lower to 0.5% from 1.2% amid rising economic uncertainty driven by tariffs.
On the trade front, White House economic advisor Stephen Miran expects the U.S. to push back the July 9 trade deal deadline for countries ' negotiating in good faith.' Miran also said that President Trump's baseline 10% tariff will either remain in place or be slightly lower for countries that ink a deal.
What's more, the European Union is close to finalizing its plan to combat U.S. tariffs ahead of its July 9 deadline. While earlier reports said that the bloc was preparing retaliatory tariffs, the Wall Street Journal said today that it may consider lowering tariffs on certain imported U.S. goods and reduce non-tariff countermeasures while increasing imports of items like liquefied gas. Trump had previously said that the EU was formed to 'screw' the U.S. on trade.
Following the Israel-Iran truce, the extent of the damage to Iran's nuclear program was widely disagreed upon. Some news publications published leaked data from U.S. intelligence documents that showed Iran's nuclear progress was only pushed back by a few months. President Trump once again reiterated that the damage resulted in the complete destruction of the program while sending shots at the reporters responsible for publishing the leaked data.
'FAKE NEWS REPORTERS FROM CNN & THE NEW YORK TIMES SHOULD BE FIRED, IMMEDIATELY!!! BAD PEOPLE WITH EVIL INTENTIONS!!!' said Trump on Truth Social this morning.
Finally, housing data showed an encouraging signal for the market. May's pending home sales increased by 1.8% month-over-month, above the expectation for a 0.1% jump and staging a recovery from April's 6.3% drop. 'Consistent job gains and rising wages are modestly helping the housing market,' said NAR Chief Economist Lawrence Yun. 'Hourly wages are increasing faster than home prices.' That's a good sign for the stock market, as consumers wouldn't purchase homes if they weren't financially stable with a positive outlook on the economy.
The S&P 500 closed with a 0.80% gain while the Nasdaq 100 returned 0.94%.
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