NEW YORK (AP) — Stock prices in the United States markets had another volatile day on Tuesday, due to uncertainty about what President Donald Trump will announce regarding tariffs on what he has called “Liberation Day,” which will be on Wednesday.
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The S&P 500 rose 0.4% after recovering from an initial 1% drop. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 11 points, or less than 0.1%, after swinging between a loss of 480 points and a gain of nearly 140, while the Nasdaq composite advanced 0.9%.
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Wall Street has been very unstable recently, experiencing fluctuations not only from one day to the next, but also from one hour to the next due to uncertainty about what Trump will do with tariffs and how much they will affect inflation and economic growth. For example, on Monday, the S&P 500 went from an initial loss of 1.7% to a gain of 0.7%.
In the bond market, yields fell after a report indicated that manufacturing activity in the United States contracted last month, breaking a two-month growth streak. A separate report noted that employers in the United States were posting slightly fewer job openings at the end of February than economists had expected.
Companies say they are already feeling the effects of Trump’s trade war, even though the main event will potentially be on Wednesday, when the US president announces a broad set of tariffs.
“Customers are placing orders ahead of time due to anxiety over the constant pressure of tariffs and prices,” commented an electronics and computer products company to the Institute for Supply Management in their monthly survey of manufacturers.
“We are starting to see slower sales than usual in Canada, and concerns that Canadians may boycott American products could become a reality,” stated a manufacturer in the food, beverage, and tobacco products industry in the ISM survey.
The economy of the United States continues to grow, undoubtedly, and the labor market has remained relatively strong even with the slightly weaker than expected job offers in February.
But one of the concerns affecting the market is that even if Trump announces less severe tariffs than feared on Wednesday, the intermittent deployment of his trade strategy could, by itself, cause households and businesses in the United States to freeze their spending, which would damage the economy. Trump has pushed for tariffs in part to bring back manufacturing jobs to the United States from other countries.
All the nervousness in the market has helped drive the price of gold to record levels, and on Tuesday it briefly surpassed $3,175 per ounce. At the beginning of the year, it was trading at $2,700.
On Wall Street, Tesla rose 3.6% a day before it is due to report how many vehicles it delivered during the first three months of the year.
There have been concerns about a possible negative reaction from customers, and protesters have been storming Tesla showrooms due to anger over Elon Musk’s role in the US government’s strategy to reduce spending. Nonetheless, Tesla’s stocks have lost about a third of their value so far this year.
PVH jumped 18.2% after the company behind the Calvin Klein and Tommy Hilfiger brands reported stronger earnings for the last quarter than analysts had expected. It also said it plans to return 500 million dollars to shareholders this year through the repurchase of its own shares.
Newsmax surged 179%, after having risen 735% on Monday, which was the first day of trading for the news company’s stocks.
On the losing side of Wall Street was Johnson & Johnson, which fell 7.6% after a judge in a US bankruptcy court denied the company’s liquidation plan related to baby powder. This is the third time the courts have rejected the company’s attempt to resolve the baby powder settlement through bankruptcy.
At the close, the S&P 500 rose 21.22 points to end at 5,633.07. The Dow fell 11.80 units and stood at 41,989.96, while the Nasdaq composite gained 150.60 points and closed at 17,449.89.
In Europe, Germany’s DAX gained 1.7%, and France’s CAC 40 rose 1.1% after the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, said that the world’s largest trading bloc would not back down in the face of trade demands from the United States.
“Europe has many cards, from trade to technology and the size of our market. But this strength is also based on our willingness to take firm action if necessary,” said Von der Leyen. “All instruments are on the table.”
The yield on the 10-year Treasury bond fell from 4.23% to 4.16%. In January, it was at 4.80%.