Stock market highlights: S&P 500 soars 9.5% after Trump limits some tariffs

Long-threatened tariffs from U.S. President Donald Trump have plunged the country into trade wars abroad — all while on-again, off-again new levies continue to escalate uncertainty.

Here’s just a handful of dates that show how we got here:

Jan. 20

On his first day in office, Trump says he expects to put 25% tariffs on Canada and Mexico starting on Feb. 1, while declining to immediately flesh out plans for taxing Chinese imports.

Feb. 1

Trump signs an executive order to impose tariffs on imports from Mexico, Canada and China — 10% on all imports from China and 25% on imports from Mexico and Canada starting Feb. 4. Trump invoked this power by declaring a national emergency — ostensibly over undocumented immigration and drug trafficking.

Feb. 3

Trump agrees to a 30-day pause on his tariff threats against Mexico and Canada, as both trading partners take steps to appease Trump’s concerns about border security and drug trafficking.

Feb. 13

Trump announces a plan for “reciprocal” tariffs — promising to increase U.S. tariffs to match the tax rates that other countries charge on imports “for purposes of fairness.” Economists warn that the reciprocal tariffs, set to overturn decades of trade policy, could create chaos for global businesses.

April 2

Trump announces his long-promised “reciprocal” tariffs — declaring a 10% baseline tax on imports across the board starting April 5, as well as higher rates for dozens of nations that run trade surpluses with the U.S. to take effect April 9.

April 4

China announces plans to impose a 34% tariff on imports of all U.S. products beginning April 10, matching Trump’s new “reciprocal” tariff on Chinese goods, as part of a flurry of retaliatory measures.

▶ Read the full timeline of Trump’s trade war

With so many back-and-forth tariff actions and threats, it can be tough to keep track of where things stand. Here’s a rundown of what you need to know:

What tariffs took effect on Wednesday — and are now delayed?

Before announcing a 90-day pause, higher rates for Trump’s latest — and most sweeping — round of tariffs took effect early Wednesday.

Trump announced these new import taxes on April 2, which he dubbed “Liberation Day,” as part of a sweeping “reciprocal” trade plan. Claiming that other countries had “ripped off” the U.S. for years, Trump declared that the U.S. would tax nearly all of America’s trading partners at a minimum of 10% and impose individualized, steeper rates for dozens of countries that he said run trade surpluses with the U.S.

The 10% baseline already went into effect Saturday — and will now stay in place for most trading partners going forward. Wednesday’s 90-day pause means that those steeper levies, which ran as high as 50%, will be delayed.

What about China?

Meanwhile, more aggressive tariffs on China still went into effect Wednesday. After initially announcing a 34% “reciprocal” rate on Chinese goods last week, on top of previously-imposed levies of 20%, Trump added another 50% in response to Beijing’s recently-promised retaliation — bringing the combined total to 104% tariffs on China after the clock struck midnight. But he said he was upping that to 125% Wednesday afternoon.

Are more tariffs coming?

Yes. Starting Thursday, China has already said it will tax American goods at 84%.

▶ Read more about what we know about Trump’s latest tariff shake-up

Trump told reporters at the White House that he “can’t imagine” he’d need to increase tariffs on China again to get them to the negotiating table.

“We calculated it very carefully,” the president said.

Oct. 13, 2008 +11.6%
Oct. 28, 2008 +10.8%
April 9, 2025 +9.5%
March 24, 2020 +9.4%
March 13, 2020 +9.3%
Oct. 21, 1987 +9.1%

On Wednesday:

• The S&P 500 rose 474.13 points, or 9.5%, to 5,456.90.
• The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 2,962.86 points, or 7.9%, to 40,608.45.
• The Nasdaq composite rose 1,857.06 points, or 12.2%, to 17,124.97.
• The Russell 2000 index of smaller companies rose 152.45 points, or 8.7%, to 1,913.16.

For the week:

• The S&P 500 is up 382.82 points, or 7.5%.
• The Dow is up 2,293.59 points, or 6%.
• The Nasdaq is up 1,537.19 points, or 9.9%.
• The Russell 2000 is up 86.13 points, or 4.7%.

For the year:

• The S&P 500 is down 424.73 points, or 7.2%.
• The Dow is down 1,935.77 points, or 4.6%.
• The Nasdaq is down 2,185.82 points, or 11.3%.
• The Russell 2000 is down 317 points, or 14.2%.
  

Trump said he was watching the markets the last few days and said that “it looked pretty glum,” and that he saw Tuesday that on the bond market, “people were getting a little queasy.”

“The bond market right now is beautiful,” the president told reporters at the White House.

Trump defended his decision to launch the tariffs, sending shocks into the market, because the situation with the U.S.’s trading partners “wasn’t sustainable.”

“Somebody had to pull the trigger. I was willing to pull the trigger,” he said.
The president said he would consider exempting some companies who’ve been hit particularly hard by the tariffs, but when asked how he would make those determinations, he said, “Just instinctively.”

“You almost can’t take a pencil to paper. It’s really more of an instinct,” he said.

Trump was asked about volatile markets and his decision to back off on many tariffs after previously suggesting he wouldn’t do so.

Trump says he pulled back on many tariffs on U.S. trading partners — but not on China — because people were getting ‘yippy’ and ‘afraid.’

His comments came as he was chatting with reporters during an event with racing champions on the White House driveway.

The head of the World Trade Organization says the rising trade tensions between the United States and China could curb merchandise trade between the two countries by as much as 80%.

Director-General Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, wading into the rising trade war between the world’s top two economies, said the “tit-for-tat approach” by the U.S. and China “could severely damage the global economic outlook.”

“Of particular concern is the potential fragmentation of global trade along geopolitical lines,” she wrote in a statement late Wednesday. “A division of the global economy into two blocs could lead to a long-term reduction in global real GDP by nearly 7%.”

Citing WTO projections, she warned the negative effects could ripple through to other economies, especially developing ones.

She urged countries to ensure an open global trading system and resolve differences through cooperation.

In a week of wild swings, Wall Street pulled off perhaps the most dramatic turn Wednesday when the Dow Jones Industrial Average went from a loss of about 350 points to a gain of 2,700 points in a matter of minutes.

At 2:30 p.m., the S&P 500 was up more than 7%, the Nasdaq composite gained nearly 10% and the Dow was up nearly 2,400 points, or 6.3%. Moves like this hadn’t been seen since the early days of the global pandemic in 2020.

Shares of automakers, travel companies, technology giants and retailers surged after some sharp declines in previous days amid predictions of dire consequences for the economy. Companies that sourced parts and materials from countries in Asia and Europe sank on expectations of sharply higher costs.

Tesla jumped nearly 18%, Apple gained 9.5%, JPMorgan added more than 7%, and Warner Bros. jumped almost 17%. Travel-related companies in particular skyrocketed, with United Airlines and Delta gaining more than 20% and Norwegian Cruise Line up almost 18%.

“In this twilight zone week since the tariff slate was announced last week this was the first sign that the Trump Administration would need to back off quickly,” analyst Dan Ives of Wedbush Securities wrote in a note to clients.

Ives notes that Trump did not remove the 104% tariffs he imposed on China, would could still be an issue for companies such as Apple.

African nations account for only a sliver of America’s trade balance, yet they stood on the brink of crushing tariffs. Nations including Lesotho, Madagascar and Ivory Coast may now breath a sigh of relief after Trump’s Tuesday announcement.

Many impoverished nations export goods such as vanilla, cocoa, and blue jeans but lack the means to import much in return. They were staring down tariffs as high as 60%, but now will have 90 days to make a case to White House officials that trade deficits are a poor measure for weighing the worth of a relationship.

Karen Mathiasen of the Center for Global Development said the effects of tariffs in parts of sub-Saharan Africa could be devastating, costing tens of thousands of jobs and risking the meltdown of entire sectors.

“What they could focus on is disproportionate impact,” she said. “The case they could make is, ‘It will be devastating for us and for the United States, it won’t even be measurable. Trying to focus on incredibly uneven outcomes might be one way for them to be persuasive.”

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told reporters at the White House that the tumult in the market came because investors didn’t understand Trump’s tariff strategy.

“The market didn’t understand, those were maximum levels. The countries can think about those levels as they come to us to bring down their tariffs, their non-trade barriers,” Bessent said.

He said Trump “created maximum negotiating leverage for himself” and the Chinese have “shown themselves to the world as the bad actors”

General Motors rose 5.7%, Ford gained 5.6% and Stellantis rose 11.9%.

The companies have supply chains and production facilities that span North America. Tariffs mean more costly production for the companies and higher prices for consumers. Their stocks are all still down for the year.

Tesla rose 14.1%. The electric vehicle maker is less exposed to tariffs because it assembles all vehicles sold in the U.S. within the U.S. But the company has faced a backlash amid CEO Elon Musk’s work with Trump to lead efforts in slashing government spending. Tesla’s shares are down 40% since Trump’s inauguration.

“This just accentuates the policy uncertainty and sense of unreliability Trump is creating,’’ said William Reinsch, a former U.S. trade official now at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. “Sure it’s good news, but how does anybody know that he won’t change his mind on Friday or next week? Countries are going to drift away from the U.S. and, more important, from the dollar.’’

Passenger airlines, cruise lines, travel booking companies and hotels are surging in afternoon trading. Companies tied to travel and tourism had seen their shares slump the past few days amid fears of a possible recession.

Delta Air Lines and United Airlines built on earlier gains, with Delta up more than 18% and United rising 17%.

Cruise line operators Carnival Corp. and Royal Caribbean also posted double-digit increases.

Booking Holdings, operator of the online travel sites Booking.com, Priceline and Kayak, rose more than 7%. Expedia jumped 16%.

Hotel and casino companies also surged, with Marriott rising 8% and MGM Resorts gaining more than 10%. Airbnb also rose more than 10%.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told reporters that Trump was pausing his so-called ‘reciprocal’ tariffs on most of the country’s biggest trading partners, but maintaining his 10% tariff on nearly all global imports.

It was seemingly an attempt to narrow what had been an unprecedented trade war between the U.S. and most of the world to one between the U.S. and China.

Imports tariffs on goods from China, though, would surge to 125% “effective immediately” Trump said on social media.

President Donald Trump on Wednesday abruptly backed down on his tariffs on most nations for 90 days, but raised his tax rate on Chinese imports to 125%.

It was seemingly an attempt to narrow what had been an unprecedented trade war between the U.S. and most of the world to one between the U.S. and China.

Global markets surged on the development, but the precise details of Trump’s plans to ease tariffs on non-China trade partners were not immediately clear.

Prime Minister Taoiseach Micheal Martin said Wednesday the 20% tariff on EU exports could have a significantly negative impact on the Irish economy.

“There is no way to sugar coat it,” Martin told members of parliament. “We are already hearing from some who are seeing orders from the United States slowing or even drying up entirely, putting valuable and skilled jobs at risk, and there may be more to come.”

Ireland is in a unique situation because it shares a border and trade with Northern Ireland, which is part of the U.K., and only subject to a 10% tariff.

Martin said their supply chains were interconnected, particularly in the farm sector, and he would continue to be in close touch with northern leaders.

Mary Lou McDonald, leader of Sinn Fein, a minority party, said the two governments need to be lockstep because ordinary people will be hit hardest by the higher prices and threats to their jobs.

“It’s a serious issue that we now have two different tariff rates on this small island of ours, and potentially two very different responses to those rates and the dynamic that is now unfolding around us,” McDonald said.

Martin said he was he was confident a settlement could be reached to avoid disrupting the significant pharmaceutical and medical-tech industries.

Meanwhile, deputy premier Simon Harris was in Washington to meet with U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick.

Peabody Energy’s stock is heating up after President Donald Trump signed executive orders meant to bolster the coal mining industry in the U.S.

Peabody’s stock is up 3.8%, following a 9.2% jump on Tuesday. It’s still down nearly 50% for the year, though.

Trump is using his emergency authority to allow some older coal-fired power plants set for retirement to keep producing electricity. He is directing federal agencies to lift barriers to coal mining and prioritize coal leasing on U.S. lands. He is also temporarily exempting coal-fired plants from emissions standards on toxic chemicals including mercury and arsenic.
Demand for coal and other energy sources has been rising amid the need to power growing data centers.

Delta Air Lines, which believed as recently as January that it was on track for its best financial year in company history, said Wednesday that disruptions in global trade have created such enormous uncertainty that it scratched its performance expectations for 2025.

It is a remarkable walk-back for the nation’s most profitable airline, and other companies are following suit. Hours after Delta removed its guidance for the year, Walmart dropped the first-quarter operating profit guidance it had provided to investors, citing tariff risks.

Delta is cutting its flight schedule in anticipation of a slowdown in spending as businesses and households brace for higher prices.

The European Chamber in China said Wednesday that the latest U.S. tariffs will necessitate a strategic rethink of business models and supply chains for many.

This will lead to a substantial increase in operational costs and inefficiencies, and ultimately higher prices for consumers.

Some companies that currently produce in China for export to the U.S. will need to identify alternative markets, while others may need to move production from China in order to continue servicing the U.S. market.

China’s countermeasures will also have a negative impact on some foreign-invested enterprises in China that import certain components from the U.S. for their production. For companies that are unable to source alternatives, this could also result in them having to move their production out of China altogether.

Gold futures rose for a second straight day, with futures climbing more than 3% to $3,085 per ounce Wednesday morning.

Interest in buying gold typically spikes in times of uncertainty, as anxious investors seek a “safe haven” for parking their money.

Copper prices rose for the first time in five days, gaining 1.4% to $4.20 per pound.
Silver gained nearly 2% to $30.22 per ounce.

Beijing today issued a travel advisory asking its citizens to evaluate risks of visiting the U.S. as tourists and to exercise caution.

The advisory, issued by the Chinese Ministry of Culture and Tourism, cited the deterioration of the China-U.S. economic and trade relations as well as the “safety situation” in the U.S. The advisory came shortly after China raised its tariffs on the U.S. to 84%, as the trade war between the two countries escalated.

Oil prices slid to a multiyear low Wednesday as fears of a global recession grew amid the latest round of tariff increases.

Prices for U.S. crude were down $2.17 per barrel, or 3.7%, to $57.41 per barrel after the opening bell on Wall Street. Prices recovered some of the overnight losses that pushed them to their lowest level since February of 2021, when the U.S. and global economies were still emerging from the COVID-19 economic downturn.

Brent crude, the European standard, fell $2.36 to $60.46 per barrel.

Rapidly falling oil prices often signal investor pessimism about economic growth and can be a harbinger of a recession as companies use less fuel to produce goods.

Major U.S. oil companies’ shares also fell in morning trading Wednesday. Chevron was down 1.6%, while Exxon Mobil lost 1.9%.

European Union member states voted to approve the retaliatory tariffs on $23 billion in goods in response to Trump’s 25% tariffs on imported steel and aluminum.

The tariffs will go into effect in stages, with some on April 15 and others on May 15 and Dec. 1. The EU executive commission didn’t immediately provide a list of the goods Wednesday.

Members of the 27-country bloc repeated their preference for a negotiated deal to settle trade issues: “The EU considers U.S. tariffs unjustified and damaging, causing economic harm to both sides, as well as the global economy. The EU has stated its clear preference to find negotiated outcomes with the U.S., which would be balanced and mutually beneficial.”

The head of the EU’s executive commission, Ursula von der Leyen, has offered a zero-for-zero tariffs deal on industrial goods including cars. But Trump has said that’s not enough to satisfy U.S. concerns.

The U.S. stock market is quivering but holding relatively steady in early Wednesday trading after other markets worldwide swung sharply as Trump’s trade war keeps escalating.

The S&P 500 was nearly unchanged after futures markets had earlier indicated it could be heading for a much steeper loss. It swung between gains and losses in the first five minutes of trading. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 170 points, or 0.5%, as of 9:35 a.m. Eastern time, and the Nasdaq composite was 0.5% higher.

Financial markets have been prone to huge swings recently, though, not just day to day but hour to hour. On Tuesday alone, the S&P 500 careened between a gain of 4.1% and a loss of 3% for its second day of stunning reversals.

Wall Street’s latest moves came after Trump’s latest round of tariffs kicked in after midnight for imports from around the world. That included a 104% tax on things coming from China, and the world’s second-largest economy quickly retaliated by saying it would raise tariffs on U.S. goods to 84% on Thursday.

▶ Read more about the US stock market

President Donald Trump is promising to impose tariffs on pharmaceuticals so that more medications would be made in the U.S. Some investors aren’t waiting around to find out the exact details.

“We’re going to be announcing, very shortly, a major tariff on pharmaceuticals,” Trump said Tuesday night.

Eli Lilly shares dropped 2.7% early Wednesday, while Pfizer shares gave back 2.4%. Merck and Johnson & Johnson each fell almost 2%. In overseas trading, Novartis shares fell 5.8% and Roche Holding dropped 4.6%.

Trump lamented that the U.S. no longer produces many of the pharmaceuticals that Americans take, and said new tariffs would change that by bringing production of medication back to the U.S.

Some of Wednesday’s strongest action was in the normally staid U.S. bond market.

The yield on the 10-year Treasury jumped to 4.44% from 4.26% late Tuesday and from just 4.01% at the end of last week. That’s a huge move for the bond market and could be an indication of stress.

Analysts say several reasons could be behind the move, including hedge funds and other investors having to sell their Treasury bonds to raise cash in order to make up for losses in the stock market and elsewhere. Investors outside the United States may also be selling their U.S. Treasurys because of the trade war.

Regardless of the reasons behind it, the higher yields on Treasurys add pressure on the stock market and could push up rates for mortgages and other loans for U.S. households.

China has used a meeting of the World Trade Organization to lash out at the Trump administration’s tariffs, accusing the United States of setting the global trading system “ablaze.”

A Chinese envoy at a WTO council meeting on Wednesday said the U.S. tariffs infringed on the right of countries to develop, and noted for example that earthquake-hit Myanmar was facing an “exorbitant” 44% tariff and even an “uninhabited island, home only to penguins and seals” faced a 10% tariff.

The official said President Donald Trump’s tariffs contravened the U.S.’s commitments under WTO rules, and the “so-called ‘reciprocal tariff” has set the very architecture of the multilateral trading system ablaze.”

The Chinese mission provided a copy of the statement in the closed-door session to The Associated Press but declined to identify the speaker by name.

Contacted by the AP, the U.S. diplomatic mission in Geneva declined to comment.

Walmart, the nation’s largest retailer, is standing behind its full-year sales and operating income outlook even as President Trump has launched tariff wars with China and nearly every trading partner.

The Bentonville, Arkansas-based company said Wednesday it still expects first-quarter sales growth of 3% to 4%. But it walked away from guidance for first-quarter operating profit growth of between 0.5% to 2%, citing the risk of tariffs.

Walmart said it wants “to maintain flexibility to invest in price as tariffs are implemented.”

The retailer has built in hedges against some tariff threats. Two-thirds of Walmart’s merchandise is sourced in the U.S., with groceries driving much of that. Groceries account for roughly 60% of Walmart’s U.S. business.

Trump says tariffs will be “ZERO” for companies that come back to America.

“This is a GREAT time to move your COMPANY into the United States of America,” the

Republican president wrote on his social media site as he continues to defend sweeping global tariffs he announced last week that have roiled the stock market.

U.S. stock futures were sinking again in premarket trading on Wednesday after massive U.S. tariffs against China kicked in overnight, followed by China retaliating with a huge tariff increase on U.S. imports.

China has raised tariffs on American goods to 84% to match Trump’s addition of a 50% tariff, while adding an array of additional countermeasures Wednesday.

The 84% tariff will go into effect Thursday, and comes as a 104% tax on the country’s exports to the U.S. came into effect.

“If the U.S. insists on further escalating its economic and trade restrictions, China has the firm will and abundant means to take necessary countermeasures and fight to the end” the Ministry of Commerce wrote in a statement introducing the white paper.

The government declined to say whether it would negotiate with the White House, as many other countries have started doing.

Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Wednesday said he is sending a delegation to the United States for talks with the Trump administration over 29% tariffs on Pakistani imports.

According to a government statement, the delegation will include prominent business leaders and key exporters.

It said the decision was made during a high-level meeting chaired by Sharif in Islamabad to discuss how to enhance exports and review the impact of U.S. tariffs on Pakistan.

Pakistan heavily relies on foreign loans, and any decline in its exports will harm its already fragile economy.

French businesses should suspend their investments in the United States “at least during the first weeks and months of negotiations” about trade tariffs, government spokesperson Sophie Primas said, echoing a similar call last week by President Emmanuel Macron.

“We need to stand united,” Primas said, while she acknowledged Paris and Brussels can’t prevent European companies “from moving elsewhere.”

“But I think a pause (in investments) is welcome,” she said.

Europe’s response to the tariffs will be “united, proportionate and determined,” Primas said.

“Nothing is set in stone at this stage as we obviously need to negotiate with all our European partners. But nothing has been ruled out,” she added.

Primas said it’s only through maintaining a power struggle with the U.S. that “we’ll be able to protect our interests,” even though she stressed the EU would prefer a “negotiated solution.”

Japanese Finance Ministry official Atsushi Mimura told reporters Wednesday his ministry had agreed with Bank of Japan and the Financial Services Agency “to do their utmost to keep stability in the global financial markets.”

Mimura made the comment to Kyodo and other reporters after he met with Koji Nakamura and Seiichi Shimizu, directors at the Bank of Japan, and other financial officials at the ministry’s offices.

Although the name of U.S. President Donald Trump was not mentioned, the hastily called meeting appeared to be a response to recent volatility in global stock markets, including the Tokyo Exchange, that has followed Trump’s tariffs, as well as worries about possible damage to the Japanese economy.