Wall Street ends up with Nvidia, appeals court reinstates Trump tariffs

CNA

29-05-2025

NEW YORK: United States stocks ended higher on Thursday (May 29) as shares of Nvidia gained after its quarterly results, while investors digested a late-afternoon court ruling that reinstated the most sweeping of President Donald Trump's tariffs.
The appeals court ruling came a day after a trade court had ordered an immediate block on the tariffs.
Trading was choppy for much of the day and indexes ended well off their highs of the session, however, with investors trying to digest the rulings and as shares of Salesforce fell 3.3 per cent. Salesforce's stock was down even as the enterprise software provider raised its annual revenue and adjusted profit forecasts.
"Trump has already rolled back most of these tariffs anyway, so these court rulings are just headlines," said Adam Sarhan, chief executive of 50 Park Investments in New York.
"As long as the market doesn't tank on the news, it's just a secondary" thing, he said.
Nvidia gained 3.2 per cent after the company late on Wednesday reported upbeat sales results, driven by customers stockpiling AI chips ahead of US export restrictions on China.
The company, however, warned that the new curbs are expected to cut US$8 billion from its current-quarter sales.
Optimism about corporate earnings and Nvidia in particular is providing some support, said Oliver Pursche, senior vice president, adviser for Wealthspire Advisors in Westport, Connecticut.
"It's about corporate earnings in general," he said.
Nvidia, which is now up just 3.6 per cent for the year, was the last of the "Magnificent Seven" megacap tech and growth companies to report results for this earnings period.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 117.03 points, or 0.28 per cent, to 42,215.73, the S&P 500 gained 23.62 points, or 0.40 per cent, to 5,912.17 and the Nasdaq Composite gained 74.93 points, or 0.39 per cent, to 19,175.87.
Trade developments have whipsawed the stock market this year, especially after Trump's Apr 2 announcement of sweeping tariffs on imports globally.
The S&P 500 has rebounded from a selloff in early April as trade tensions have eased and as first-quarter earnings have been mostly better than expected. The index is now up 0.5 per cent for 2025 but off its February record high.
Still, investors have become accustomed to Trump announcing steep tariffs, only to postpone them soon afterward. That has led to the acronym TACO (Trump Always Chickens Out), coined by the Financial Times.
"It's cute; it's not a strategy," said Pursche, referring to the acronym.
"However, from a purely American business perspective, there have been incremental gains achieved by the Trump administration on trade, and that shouldn't be ignored."
Boeing rose 3.3 per cent after CEO Kelly Ortberg said the planemaker aims to increase production of its best-selling 737 MAX jets to 42 aircraft per month in the next few months and boost output to 47 a month in early 2026.
On the economic front, a second reading from the Commerce Department showed gross domestic product contracted 0.2 per cent in the first quarter. Economists polled by Reuters had forecast a 0.3 per cent contraction.
In other earnings-related news, Best Buy shares fell 7.3 per cent after the electronics retailer lowered its annual comparable sales and profit forecasts amid concerns that US tariffs would weigh on consumer demand for big-ticket items.
Advancing issues outnumbered decliners by a 2.26-to-1 ratio on the NYSE. There were 114 new highs and 35 new lows on the NYSE.
On the Nasdaq, 2,673 stocks rose and 1,806 fell as advancing issues outnumbered decliners by a 1.48-to-1 ratio.