Stocks rise for second week as tariff shock fades: Markets wrap
Wall Street's risk-on brigade pushed the S&P 500 to its longest winning streak in two decades, with scars from April's tariff shock healing on fresh signs of US-China diplomacy.
The S&P 500 and the Nasdaq 100 rose more than 1% each on Friday, notching a second straight week of gains. A dollar index dropped. Treasuries slid, with the policy-sensitive two-year yield jumping over 10 basis points to 3.83%. Oil slipped as OPEC+ discussed making another major production increase. With demand for havens fading, gold suffered a second consecutive week of losses.
A strong jobs report earlier showed a labor market that's cooling but remaining resilient. That calmed fears about the impact President Donald Trump's would have on the economy. Recent developments also indicate that trade tensions are easing between China and the US.
'We may have reached peak policy uncertainty,' said Kevin Thozet, a member of the investment committee at Carmignac in Paris. 'There are talks ongoing, and Trump seems to have watered down some of his policies. If you add in that the earnings season has been fairly positive, the overall backdrop isn't that bad.'
Despite the rally, some caution that the worst isn't over. US stocks may be in for another drop that will push gauges to bear market territory in the coming months, said Tom DeMark, a veteran technical strategist. Lawrence Creatura, a fund manager at PRSPCTV Capital LLC, added that it may be too soon to conclude how tariff news is affecting US companies.
'A lot of people - based on Liberation Day and the events since - have forecast economic Armageddon and every time economic Armageddon doesn't happen, it's good news,' Creatura said. 'Maybe it's just too early. A lot of the phenomenon that people fear haven't really had time to sink into the data yet.'
He noted that companies are reporting earnings for a period ended March 31 while Trump announced tariffs on April 2.
Earlier, China said it's assessing the possibility of trade talks with the US. A report also showed that China has started exempting some US goods from tariffs.
Earnings
On Friday, stocks shook off lackluster earnings from Apple Inc. and Amazon.com Inc. that came in Thursday after markets closed.
Apple received at least two downgrades on Friday after its results reinforced concerns over tariffs and its growth potential. It shares fell 3.7%, bringing its year-to-date drop to 18%.
Amazon, meanwhile, said it's bracing for a tougher business climate in the coming months. While it reported a decent first quarter on Thursday, it said operating profit in the current period would be weaker than Wall Street anticipated. Its shares ended the day lower.
Some of the main moves in markets:
Stocks
The S&P 500 rose 1.5% as of 4:01 p.m. New York timeThe Nasdaq 100 rose 1.6%The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 1.4%The MSCI World Index rose 1.5%
Currencies
The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index fell 0.4%The euro rose 0.1% to $1.1305The British pound was unchanged at $1.3278The Japanese yen rose 0.3% to 145.01 per dollar
Cryptocurrencies
Bitcoin rose 0.5% to $96,975.61Ether was little changed at $1,839.07
Bonds
The yield on 10-year Treasuries advanced nine basis points to 4.30%Germany's 10-year yield advanced nine basis points to 2.53%Britain's 10-year yield advanced three basis points to 4.51%
Commodities
West Texas Intermediate crude fell 1.3% to $58.48 a barrelSpot gold fell 0.2% to $3,233.16 an ounce
With assistance from Cecile Gutscher, Julien Ponthus, John Viljoen, Edward Bolingbroke and Lu Wang.
Copyright (C) 2025, Tribune Content Agency, LLC. Portions copyrighted by the respective providers.
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