Traders work on the floor at the New York Stock Exchange on April 2, 2025.
Brendan McDermid | Reuters
Stocks turned higher on Wednesday in yet another volatile session as Wall Street readied for the expected rollout of President Donald Trump’s tariffs.
The S&P 500 ticked up 0.4%, while the Nasdaq Composite added 0.7%. The 30-stock Dow Jones Industrial Average added 150 points, or 0.3%. Earlier in the session, the broad market index was more than 1% lower.
Shares of Tesla climbed 5%, similarly turning around from earlier on the heels of weak quarterly delivery figures, after Politico reported that President Donald Trump has signaled to his cabinet that Elon Musk will be stepping back from his advisory role in the coming weeks.
The moves come ahead of the implementation of a raft of Trump’s reciprocal tariffs that will “start with all countries,” the president said Sunday. The White House revealed Tuesday that the levies “will be effective immediately” after being unveiled at an event in the Rose Garden slated for 4 p.m. ET.
Details are still scarce, which has fueled concerns about which industries will be most impacted and whether the economy could slow down as a result. The administration as of Tuesday had yet to decide on the tariff levels and was still considering several options, according to a report from Bloomberg News, citing people familiar.
“We expect to learn a lot more today from the president, but we also think the market will continue to remain on edge until we know about retaliation and/or escalatory measures[or] rhetoric from the major trading counterparts,” said Jon Brager, portfolio manager at Palmer Square Capital Management.
However, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told lawmakers that Wednesday’s duties will serve as a “cap,” where the tariffs that are announced will be the highest amount set, Rep. Kevin Hern, R-Okla. revealed to CNBC’s Emily Wilkins. That will give countries the opportunity to take steps to bring the tariff amount down.
Investors are hoping for a tariff level than what has been previously floated by the White House. The Washington Post reported Monday that the White House was considering imposing tariffs of roughly 20% on most imports coming into the country. However, the report said that advisors cautioned that several options are still on the table.
“Markets can deal with a lot of bad news – they sell off and then eventually find some silver lining and begin a recovery (or get the Fed to help along with easing),” said Jan Szilagyi, CEO and co-founder of Reflexivity. “However, in the current environment the complexity of possible scenarios would be tough to analyze even if you know definitively that one of them will happen – and we don’t. “
Stocks have come under pressure as uncertainty around Trump’s tariffs has spurred recent market volatility, with the broad market index down five out of the past six weeks. However, some investors think the sell-off is overdone.
