S&P 500 barely gains, investors focus on trade, wait for data
ADVERTISEMENT Investors were watching out for more trade developments while President Donald Trump toured the Gulf states and secured $600 billion in commitments from Saudi Arabia. Some U.S. tech companies rallied after the administration announced artificial-intelligence-related deals in the Middle East on Tuesday.
"There's overhanging uncertainty about what world leaders, including President Trump are going to say about trade," said Tim Ghriskey, senior portfolio strategist at Ingalls & Snyder in New York, noting that while earlier tariff policies were on pause there were no final deals in place.
"The recent announcements have been good and that caused a huge rally, but we still have uncertainty," he said. U.S. stocks had rallied sharply on Monday and advanced again on Tuesday after the United States and China hit pause for 90 days on their fierce tariff dispute. And it had also helped that data released on Tuesday showed U.S. consumer prices rebounded moderately in April.
ADVERTISEMENT Prior to this week, the U.S. announcement of a 90-day tariff pause on April 9 for countries other than China and a limited U.S.-UK trade agreement last week had also helped equities. U.S. Federal Reserve Vice Chair Philip Jefferson said on Wednesday that while recent inflation data pointed to progress towards the Fed's 2% inflation goal, the outlook was now uncertain. Chicago Fed President Austan Goolsbee said the data did not necessarily reflect the impact of rising tariffs.
ADVERTISEMENT Fed Chair Jerome Powell is slated to speak on Thursday, and his comments will be closely watched for clues on how the central bank plans to proceed with monetary policy easing.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 89.37 points, or 0.21%, to 42,051.06 and its biggest losers were drug companies Merck & Co, down 4%, and Amgen, which finished down 3%.
ADVERTISEMENT The S&P 500 gained 6.03 points, or 0.10%, to 5,892.58. This added slightly to its year-to-date gain after closing higher for the year on Tuesday for the first time since February 28. The benchmark is still about 4% below its Feb. 19 record closing high, for its sixth straight day of gains.
The Nasdaq Composite gained 136.72 points, or 0.72%, to 19,146.81.
ADVERTISEMENT Eight of the S&P 500's 11 major industry sectors closed lower with Healthcare, down 2.31%, and materials , down 0.96%, the weakest of the bunch. The biggest gainers were communications services, up 1.6%, and technology, which added about 0.96%. With Wednesday being a relatively quiet day for economic data, Andrew Graham, managing partner and founder of Jackson Square Capital, said investors were holding steady before April's Producer Price Index (PPI) and retail sales readings due on Thursday morning. "People are looking for any sort of evidence that the tariff situation has leaked into the real economy," said Graham, but with 90-day pauses to tariff policies in place, he said he is less concerned about April's data readings.
Megacap and growth stocks rose, with Nvidia the biggest S&P 500 boost, rising more than 4%. Chip designer Advanced Micro Devices shares rose 4.7% after it approved a $6 billion share buyback program. Boeing shares rose 0.6% after state carrier Qatar Airways signed a deal to purchase jets from the U.S. planemaker during Trump's visit to Doha.
In individual stocks, American Eagle Outfitters shares sank 6.4% after the apparel company withdrew its annual forecasts, citing tariff-fueled economic uncertainty. Declining issues outnumbered advancers by a 1.97-to-1 ratio on the NYSE where there were 132 new highs and 68 new lows. On the Nasdaq, 1,612 stocks rose and 2,807 fell as declining issues outnumbered advancers by a 1.74-to-1 ratio. The S&P 500 posted 3 new 52-week highs and 9 new lows while the Nasdaq Composite recorded 59 new highs and 104 new lows.
On U.S. exchanges 19.73 billion shares changed hands compared with the 16.77 billion average for the last 20 sessions.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Indian Express
20 minutes ago
- Indian Express
Trump nominates conservative economist to head agency that compiles jobs, inflation data
President Donald Trump said Monday that he has nominated E.J. Antoni, chief economist at the conservative Heritage Foundation, to head the agency that compiles and publishes the nation's employment and inflation figures. 'Our Economy is booming, and E.J. will ensure that the Numbers released are HONEST and ACCURATE,' Trump said on social media late Monday. Antoni, if approved by the Senate, would replace Erika McEntarfer, who was appointed commissioner of the Bureau of Labor Statistics by former President Joe Biden. Trump fired McEntarfer August. 1 after the July jobs report showed hiring slowed sharply this spring, with job gains in May and June revised much lower than initially estimated. Trump accused McEntarfer, without evidence, of rigging the jobs data for political reasons. The announcement comes one day before the BLS is scheduled to release the latest inflation data, for July. It is forecast to show that consumer prices rose for the third straight month as tariffs are pushing up the cost of many imported goods. Antoni has criticized the bureau's' collection and publication of the jobs data for years, particularly since the Covid-19 pandemic, after which the agency has frequently revised its initial jobs estimates lower. Many conservatives have argued that this potentially benefited Biden by producing a large initial monthly job gain, only to have it reduced in subsequent months. However, revisions — including downward revisions — are not unusual and occurred during the Trump administration as well. Overall hiring jumped after the pandemic and the unemployment rate stayed low even after the revisions. Antoni called for McEntarfer to be fired after the jobs report was released August. 1. Last Monday he wrote on X, 'There are better ways to collect, process, and disseminate data — that is the task for the next BLS commissioner, and only consistent delivery of accurate data in a timely manner will rebuild the trust that has been lost over the last several years.' The BLS commissioner is the only political appointee at the agency, which is otherwise staffed by career civil servants. Most previous commissioners have been mild-mannered technocrats. Antoni, however, has been an unabashed partisan in his economic analyses posted on the Heritage website. For example, two months ago, in an analysis of the May jobs report, he wrote, 'A deep dive into the report shows any weakness started long before the Trump administration, which is making undeniable progress reprivatizing the economy.' Antoni's nomination quickly attracted an unusual level of criticism. Jason Furman, a top economist in the Obama administration, wrote on X: 'I don't think I have ever publicly criticized any Presidential nominee before. But E.J. Antoni is completely unqualified to be BLS Commissioner. He is an extreme partisan and does not have any relevant expertise.' Kyle Pomeleau, a tax expert for the right-leaning Tax Foundation and the conservative American Enterprise Institute, wrote on X: 'There are a lot of competent conservative economists that could do this job. E.J. is not one of them.'
India.com
22 minutes ago
- India.com
Is It Worth Bearing Heavy Tariffs For Cheaper Russian Oil; Has India Made A Dangerous Bargain?
New Delhi: Nobel Prize-winning economist Abhijit Banerjee has urged India to reflect on the cost of cheaper Russian oil. He questioned whether paying high U.S. tariffs is worth the savings. His comments came days after U.S. President Donald Trump announced a 25% extra tariff on Indian goods. The action targets India's continued large-scale purchases of discounted Russian crude. With the imposition of new tariff, Indian products entering the U.S. market will now face a total duty of 50%. This marks one of the highest rates imposed by Trump on any country. The additional tariff takes effect on August 27. The long-discussed India-US trade deal remains stalled. Washington seeks greater access to India's farm and dairy sectors, while New Delhi has held back on concessions. The impact could be severe. About $27 billion worth of Indian exports without special trade exemptions may lose competitiveness in the United States. Speaking to news agency PTI on the sidelines of an event at BML Munjal University, Banerjee said the government should weigh options carefully. He suggested exploring whether the United States would remove tariffs if India halted Russian oil imports. India remains the largest global buyer of Russian crude. In July, refiners purchased 1.6 million barrels per day. For August and September, no new orders have been placed. Black Sea oil now offers a discount of only about $2 per barrel. In 2024-25, India imported 88 million tonnes of Russian oil. This formed a large share of the 245 million tonnes of total crude imports. Oil contracts for August and September were finalised before Trump's tariff announcement on August 7. Banerjee emphasised that at a 25% tariff, some Indian exports had already lost their price advantage. Raising it to 50% may not change much for those products. He added that policy circles are already discussing a cut in Russian crude purchases. On the economy, he described the current year's outlook as weaker than expected. He cited low private investment and pressure on the middle class. He pointed to hiring freezes in major firms such as the Tata Consultancy Service (TCS) and stagnant wages in the information technology (IT) sector. These issues, he said, remain unresolved. India's seafood sector is already feeling the strain. The Seafood Exporters Association of India (SEAI) has urged the commerce and finance ministries for urgent relief. It says nearly $2 billion in shrimp exports face serious obstacles in the U.S. market due to Trump's tariff. The SEAI seeks a 30% increase in working capital through soft loans, with interest subsidies and a 240-day moratorium on loans for pre- and post-packing operations. SEAI Secretary-General K.N. Raghavan told PTI the shrimp industry is under heavy stress and needs immediate government intervention.
The Print
36 minutes ago
- The Print
Indian refiners can do without Russian oil, but with trade-offs
US President Donald Trump last week announced an additional 25 per cent tariff on US imports from India — raising the overall duty to 50 per cent — as a penalty for the country's continued imports of Russian oil. Russian crude supports high distillate yields – the share of crude converted into fuels like petrol, diesel, and jet fuel through distillation. Replacing Russian crude, which accounts for up to 38 per cent of India's refinery intake, with alternatives will shift yields, resulting in lower middle distillates (diesel and jet fuel) and higher residue outputs, according to global real-time data and analytics provider Kpler. New Delhi, Aug 10 (PTI) Indian refiners, the world's biggest user of Russian oil, can operate without supplies from Moscow from a technical standpoint, but the shift would involve major economic and strategic trade-offs, analysts said. Since the steep tariffs are likely to hit the USD 27 billion of non-exempt exports that India does to the US, there has been chatter around stopping or curtailing oil imports from Russia. 'Indian refiners can operate without Russian crude from a technical standpoint, but the shift would involve major economic and strategic trade-offs,' Kpler said in a report, 'US Tariffs on Indian Imports: Implications for Energy Markets & Trade Flows'. India turned to purchasing Russian oil sold at a discount after Western countries imposed sanctions on Moscow and shunned its supplies over its invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. Consequently, from a mere 1.7 per cent share in total oil imports in 2019-20 (FY20), Russia's share increased to 35.1 per cent in FY25, and it is now the biggest oil supplier to India. In terms of volume, India imported 88 million tonnes from Russia in FY25, out of the total shipment of 245 million tonnes. In July, India received 1.6 million barrels per day of crude from Russia, ahead of China's nearly 1 million bpd and Turkey's around 5,00,000 bpd. Kpler said deep discounts and strong compatibility with India's refining systems led to a surge in imports of Russian Ural crude oil. 'Russian crude supports high distillate yields (diesel and jet fuel) and is ideally suited to India's advanced refining infrastructure. It has enabled both state-owned and private refiners to operate above nameplate capacity while maintaining strong margins. 'A reversal of this will result in a mild yield shift (lower middle distillate yields, higher residue yields) and probably a small reduction in primary throughput rates, as margins will no longer command a sizeable premium against regional benchmarks, considering existing discounts on Russian oil,' Kpler said. The Indian government has issued diplomatic but firm responses to the US tariffs, emphasising the importance of maintaining energy security. 'Should Russian oil become inaccessible, India could face an additional USD 3-5 billion in annual import costs (based on a USD 5 per barrel premium on 1.8 million bpd). If global prices rise further (a scenario in which Russian crude exports are being curtailed, in the absence of sufficient buying interest from India), the financial burden could increase significantly,' the report said. This may prompt the government to cap retail fuel prices, which could strain fiscal balances. A spike in the import bill could even lead to a reduction in overall crude purchases. India's limited storage capacity further constrains its ability to manage such disruptions. While Russian flows to India continue under a 'business-as-usual' stance, the escalating US rhetoric has reopened conversations about supply diversification, with some Indian refiners reportedly booking increased volumes of Middle Eastern crude. According to Kpler, replacing 1.8 million barrels per day (bpd) of Russian crude would require a multi-regional approach. The Middle East remains the most viable option operationally, grades such as WTI Midland from the US could contribute 2,00,000-4,00,000 bpd. These (US crude) are lighter and yield less diesel, a disadvantage for India's distillate-heavy demand. Long-haul freight and cost considerations will also restrict scalability, it said. West Africa and Latin America (LatAm) crudes offer moderate potential. 'A balanced replacement strategy may involve 60-70 per cent of substitute volumes from the Middle East, with US and African/LatAm crudes serving as tactical fillers. Nevertheless, none match Russian barrels in cost, quality, or reliability (some of the Russia-to-India barrels have already been contracted under term agreements),' it noted. According to Kpler, Indian refiners can technically adapt to the loss of Russian barrels, but with significant economic consequences. 'Replacing 1.7-2.0 million bpd of discounted, medium-sour crude would erode refining margins and misalign product yields. Lighter substitutes like WTI or West African grades produce more gasoline and naphtha, reducing diesel output and hurting both domestic and export economics.' Even Middle Eastern grades, while closer in quality, are priced tightly to official selling prices (OSP), leaving limited arbitrage opportunities. 'In addition to higher feedstock costs, Indian refiners would face elevated freight and credit charges,' it said. 'The transition is commercially painful, even if technically feasible.' PTI ANZ BAL BAL This report is auto-generated from PTI news service. ThePrint holds no responsibility for its content.
