The S&P 500 rose on Friday, adding to its strong gains for the week, as investors continue to navigate an evolving global trade landscape, while major tech names got a boost.
The broad market benchmark ended 0.74% higher at 5,525.21, while the Nasdaq Composite added 1.26% to end at 17,282.94. The Dow Jones Industrial Average lagged, but managed to close 0.05%, or 20 points higher, at 40,113.50.
Alphabet rose 1.5% after the Google-parent and “Magnificent Seven” name reported a beat on the top and the bottom line for the first quarter. Tesla, meanwhile, popped 9.8%, while fellow megacap names Nvidia and Meta Platforms advanced 4.3% and 2.7%, respectively.
The major averages rose on the week, notching their second positive week out of three. The S&P 500 gained 4.6%, while the Nasdaq climbed 6.7%. The Dow has underperformed but still cinched a one-week advance of 2.5%. With these latest gains, Nasdaq is now slightly positive for the month, but the S&P 500 is down 1.5% month to date. The Dow has fallen 4.5% so far in April.
Stocks have been taken for a wild ride in recent weeks, as traders try to make sense of the severity of President Donald Trump’s tariffs first unveiled on April 2. Mixed messaging around trade has added to the volatility.
China said Thursday that there were no talks with the U.S. on a potential trade deal. This came after the U.S. appeared to soften its stance on trade relations with China.
On Friday, Time magazine published comments from Trump that said he would consider it a “total victory” if the U.S. has high tariffs of 20% to 50% on foreign countries a year from now. But his Tuesday comments published Friday also said the president expects announcements on many deals to be coming “over the next three to four weeks.”
Adding to the confusion, Trump told reporters from Air Force One that he wouldn’t drop tariffs on China unless “they give us something.”
Still, going forward Jay Hatfield, founder and CIO of InfraCap, is optimistic that the worst of the tariff-induced uncertainty is over.
“The confusion about whether there’s really talks going on with China or not took some steam out of the market,” he told CNBC in an interview. “Our view is that we’ve reached peak tariff tantrum and so it’s likely to be more positive than negative.”
Hatfield believes that the key driver for markets next week will be earnings from big hyperscaler firms such as Microsoft and Amazon.
