Stocks rose Thursday, extending the two-day rally as investors want Trump to ease the trade war and weigh comments on the impact from Federal Reserve officials.
The S&P 500 won over 1% after stalling in early trading. The index was seen this week. There was a sharp sale on Monday, followed by a significant two-day profit after Trump said he was ready to be “very nice” in trade negotiations with China on Tuesday.
The rally was subsequently suspended after Chinese officials said they had not had any consultations with the US on easing trade tensions. However, the index continued to change its scrap of information on tariffs and monetary policy in the absence of concrete developments on the escalating world trade war.
On Thursday, Fed Gov. Christopher Waller told Bloomberg it would take some time for the economic blow from Trump's tariffs to appear in the data, suggesting that the central bank is not poised to immediately lower interest rates. But when asked what encouraged him to support interest rate cuts, Waller said:
“There are currently no economic and trade negotiations between China and the US, and the claims regarding the progress of economic and trade negotiations between China and the US are baseless rumors with no evidence, with no evidence,” Yadong, a spokesman for the Chinese Ministry of Commerce, said on Thursday.
Guo Jiakun, a spokesman for China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs, repeatedly reiterated the Chinese stance. This means that a tariff war is launched by the United States and China will engage in consultations only under certain conditions. “Chinese attitude is consistently clear. If you want to fight, we will fight to the end. If you want to talk, the door is open,” he said.
The day before, Treasury Secretary Scott Bescent dismissed speculation that Trump was considering unilaterally lowering China's tariffs, stressing that movements to emit trade tensions need to be mutual. “I don't think either side believes the current tariff levels are sustainable,” he said.
In other developments on Thursday:
Large companies reporting the latest revenue warned that tariffs and economic uncertainty will dent profits in the coming months. PepsiCo and Merck cut revenue forecasts, while American Airlines retracted previous forecasts for the remainder of the year until “the economic outlook becomes clearer.”
The rise in key technology inventory has led to an increase in the high-tech Nasdaq composite index. This was about 2% higher. Amazon's stocks rose more than 2%, while chip giant Nvidia also rose.
The US dollar fell against several major currencies, including the euro, the British pound and the Japanese yen.
The yield on 10-year financial obligations, which moves back to prices, fell to 4.32%.
Oil futures recovered some level of ground, and Brent's crude increased by almost 1%, approaching $67 a barrel.
Asian and European stocks were mixed. Japan's key indicators rose, Hong Kong and South Korea fell, and the UK, France and Germany markets remained almost flat.
Colby Smith and Danielle Kaye contributed to the report, while Siyi Zhao contributed to the research.
