Please ensure Javascript is enabled for purposes of website accessibility
Stock Market Today: Wall Street Takes Trump's Latest Tariff Threats in Stride, and Indexes Rise
gvw_ap_news
By Associated Press
Published 3 months ago on
February 10, 2025

Trader Peter Mancuso works on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, Tuesday, Feb. 4, 2025. (AP/Richard Drew)

Share

Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...

NEW YORK — Wall Street is taking President Donald Trump’s latest threat on tariffs in stride, on the whole, and U.S. stocks are rising on Monday.

The S&P 500 was up 0.6% in morning trading, coming off a losing week that was bookended by worries about how potential tariffs could push up inflation and threaten the economy. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 137 points, or 0.3%, as of 10:15 a.m. Eastern time, and the Nasdaq composite was 1.1% higher as Nvidia and other Big Tech stocks led the way.

The bond market also remained relatively firm, with Treasury yields ticking lower after Trump said over the weekend that he will impose 25% tariffs on all steel and aluminum imports, as well as other import duties later in the week.

Fear around tariffs has been at the center of Wall Street’s moves recently, and experts say the market likely has more swings ahead. The price of gold, which often rises when investors are feeling nervous, climbed again Monday to top $2,930 per ounce and set another record. But Trump has shown he can be just as quick to pull back on threats, like he did with 25% tariffs he had announced on Canada and Mexico, suggesting they may be merely a negotiating chip rather than a true long-term policy.

Trump, of course, has already gone ahead with 10% tariffs on China. Those will likely affect Wall Street by cleaving winning industries from losing ones, but they won’t necessarily drag the entire market lower, according to Michael Wilson and other strategists at Morgan Stanley. A big, market-wide impact would be more likely “if we were to see sustained tariffs on a range of countries including 25% tariffs on Mexico and Canada.”

US Steel, Aluminum Producer Stocks Jumped

Stocks of U.S. steel and aluminum producers jumped Monday, banking on expectations tariffs could help their profits, while the overall S&P 500 index remained relatively calm.

Nucor rose 5.5%, Cleveland-Cliffs jumped 11.6% and Alcoa climbed 3.8%.

Some companies that use lots of such metals were mixed. General Motors fell 0.9%, Ford Motor lost 0.5% and Whirlpool rose 0.5%.

In the meantime, earnings reports from big U.S. companies are also helping to drive trading.

McDonald’s climbed 4.9% even though it reported profit and revenue for the end of 2024 that was just shy of analysts’ expectations. Investors focused instead on better-than-expected strength for its restaurants outside the United States, particularly in the Middle East, Japan and other markets with licensed McDonald’s locations.

Big Tach Has Strongest Forces

Big Tech stocks were some of the strongest forces pushing the S&P 500 higher, including a 3.7% climb for Nvidia. It had come under pressure last month after a Chinese upstart upended Wall Street’s artificial-intelligence boom by saying it had developed a large language model that could perform like the world’s best without having to use the most expensive, top-flight chips.

Despite the development by DeepSeek, big U.S. companies have said in recent weeks that they’re still planning to plow billions of dollars into their AI endeavors. That’s calmed worries that DeepSeek could have turned off a huge spigot of spending for the industry, at least for now.

Such gains helped offset a 7.8% drop for Incyte after the biopharmaceutical company reported weaker profit for the latest quarter than analysts expected.

In the bond market, the yield on the 10-year Treasury fell to 4.46% from 4.50% late Friday. The yield on the two-year Treasury, which more closely tracks expectations for what the Federal Reserve will do with short-term interest rates, fell by a similar amount. It eased to 4.25% from 4.29%.

The Fed cut its main interest rate sharply at the end of last year, but traders have been sharply curtailing their expectations for more reductions in 2025, in part because of fears that higher inflation from tariffs could tie its hands. While lower rates can give a boost to the economy and investment prices, they can also goose inflation higher.

Fed Chair to Speak to Congress

Fed Chair Jerome Powell will be offering testimony before Congress later this week, where he could offer more hints about what the Fed is thinking. In December, it sent financial markets sharply lower after indicating it may cut rates only twice this year. Now, some traders and economists think it may not cut at all.

Reports are also coming this week on inflation, which could further drive the Fed’s actions. On Wednesday, economists expect a report to show prices for eggs, gasoline and other living costs for U.S. consumers were overall 2.9% higher in January than a year earlier.

In stock markets abroad, indexes rose across much of Europe and Asia.

Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 was virtually unchanged after Japan’s government reported a record current account surplus last year.

RELATED TOPICS:

DON'T MISS

What Are Fresno Real Estate Experts Predicting for 2025 and Beyond?

DON'T MISS

First California EV Mandates Hit Automakers This Year. Most Are Not Even Close

DON'T MISS

Republicans’ Trust in Media Increases Following Trump’s Return to White House

DON'T MISS

Jeanine Pirro to Be Interim US Attorney for DC, Trump Says

DON'T MISS

Fresno Police Catch Fleeing Gang Member Who Tossed Gun Over Fence

DON'T MISS

Suit Challenges New Rules on Children in Federal Custody Who Crossed Into US

DON'T MISS

Fresno Mayor Dyer Bullish on Growth, Calls on Newsom for $200 Million

DON'T MISS

Rejoicing Peruvians See Pope Leo XIV as One of Their Own After His Many Years in Peru

DON'T MISS

FEMA’s Acting Administrator Is Replaced a Day After Congressional Testimony

DON'T MISS

North Korea’s Kim Jong Un Leads Missile Test, Stresses Nuclear Force Readiness, KCNA Says

DON'T MISS

Shohei Ohtani Could Have Landed 15-Year Deal, Agent Says, but He Didn’t Want to Risk Skills Decline

DON'T MISS

White House Overhaul of Troubled US Air Traffic Control System Will Cost ‘Lots of Billions’

UP NEXT

Jeanine Pirro to Be Interim US Attorney for DC, Trump Says

UP NEXT

Fresno Police Catch Fleeing Gang Member Who Tossed Gun Over Fence

UP NEXT

Suit Challenges New Rules on Children in Federal Custody Who Crossed Into US

UP NEXT

Fresno Mayor Dyer Bullish on Growth, Calls on Newsom for $200 Million

UP NEXT

Rejoicing Peruvians See Pope Leo XIV as One of Their Own After His Many Years in Peru

UP NEXT

FEMA’s Acting Administrator Is Replaced a Day After Congressional Testimony

UP NEXT

North Korea’s Kim Jong Un Leads Missile Test, Stresses Nuclear Force Readiness, KCNA Says

UP NEXT

Shohei Ohtani Could Have Landed 15-Year Deal, Agent Says, but He Didn’t Want to Risk Skills Decline

UP NEXT

White House Overhaul of Troubled US Air Traffic Control System Will Cost ‘Lots of Billions’

UP NEXT

US Military to Start Kicking out Transgender Troops Next Month, Memo Says

Suit Challenges New Rules on Children in Federal Custody Who Crossed Into US

3 hours ago

Fresno Mayor Dyer Bullish on Growth, Calls on Newsom for $200 Million

3 hours ago

Rejoicing Peruvians See Pope Leo XIV as One of Their Own After His Many Years in Peru

3 hours ago

FEMA’s Acting Administrator Is Replaced a Day After Congressional Testimony

3 hours ago

North Korea’s Kim Jong Un Leads Missile Test, Stresses Nuclear Force Readiness, KCNA Says

3 hours ago

Shohei Ohtani Could Have Landed 15-Year Deal, Agent Says, but He Didn’t Want to Risk Skills Decline

3 hours ago

White House Overhaul of Troubled US Air Traffic Control System Will Cost ‘Lots of Billions’

3 hours ago

US Military to Start Kicking out Transgender Troops Next Month, Memo Says

3 hours ago

Los Angeles Coliseum and SoFi Stadium to Share Opening and Closing Ceremonies for 2028 Olympics

4 hours ago

Jennifer Aniston’s Alleged Stalker Appears in Court Shirtless and a Judge Orders a Mental Evaluation

4 hours ago

Republicans’ Trust in Media Increases Following Trump’s Return to White House

Americans’ trust in news organizations and social media has increased since last year, with Republicans driving this shift following T...

2 hours ago

https://www.communitymedical.org/thecause?utm_source=Misfit+Digital&utm_medium=GVWire+Banner+Ads&utm_campaign=Branding+2025&utm_content=thecause
2 hours ago

Republicans’ Trust in Media Increases Following Trump’s Return to White House

Fox News Channel host Jeanine Pirro and other members of the news media work outside the Manhattan Criminal Court building during the 2nd day of jury deliberations in former U.S. President Donald Trump’s criminal trial over charges that he falsified business records to conceal money paid to silence porn star Stormy Daniels in 2016, in New York City, U.S. May 30, 2024. REUTERS/Mike Segar
2 hours ago

Jeanine Pirro to Be Interim US Attorney for DC, Trump Says

Fresno police arrested a known gang member who ran from officers and tossed a gun over a fence in southeast Fresno. (Fresno PD)
2 hours ago

Fresno Police Catch Fleeing Gang Member Who Tossed Gun Over Fence

3 hours ago

Suit Challenges New Rules on Children in Federal Custody Who Crossed Into US

3 hours ago

Fresno Mayor Dyer Bullish on Growth, Calls on Newsom for $200 Million

3 hours ago

Rejoicing Peruvians See Pope Leo XIV as One of Their Own After His Many Years in Peru

3 hours ago

FEMA’s Acting Administrator Is Replaced a Day After Congressional Testimony

A handout photo shows missiles being launched, in North Korea, May 8, 2025. KCNA via REUTERS
3 hours ago

North Korea’s Kim Jong Un Leads Missile Test, Stresses Nuclear Force Readiness, KCNA Says

Help continue the work that gets you the news that matters most.

Search

Send this to a friend