Wall St leaps after Trump announces 90-day tariff pause

Wall Street’s main indexes jumped on Wednesday after U.S. President Donald Trump authorized a 90-day pause on tariffs, effective immediately.

Trump declared a 90-day pause on reciprocal and 10% tariffs that he had unveiled initially last week, while raising duties on China to 125.

China on Wednesday imposed additional levies of 84% on all U.S. goods from April 10, up from the 34% previously announced, after U.S. levies of 104% on its imports went into effect.

Meanwhile, the U.S. Treasury’s $39-billion 10-year note auction came in within market expectations, priced at a high yield of 4.435%, lower than the rate forecast at the bid deadline, suggesting solid investor demand.

The yield on the 10-year note was last at 4.370% amid a sell-off in the bond market, where tariff-driven turmoil prompted investors to dump safe-haven U.S. Treasuries for a dash of cash, pushing yields higher.

Rate-sensitive real estate and utilities – often seen as a bond proxy owing to their steady income regardless of the economic situation – cut losses and were last up 5% and 3.2% respectively.

Wall St rallies after sharp losses on hopes of tariff talks

Large technology stocks still led gains, with Apple rising 10% and Nvidia up 13%.

“The reflex to buy the dip is very strong and certainly the wipeout you’ve seen in tech stocks makes them cheap relative to where they were,” said Chris Beauchamp, chief strategist at IG.

At 01:32 p.m. the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 2,305.81 points, or 6.13%, to 39,959.81, the S&P 500 gained 334.86 points, or 6.72%, to 5,317.63 and the Nasdaq Composite gained 1,254.95 points, or 8.22%, to
16,522.86.

The upcoming earnings season will offer more insights into the health of corporate America as investors fear a hit to economic growth from the tariffs. U.S. banks, including JPMorgan Chase, will report first-quarter results on Friday.

All major sub-sectors on the S&P 500 were higher, with information technology and consumer discretionary in the lead, up 11% and 8.5% respectively.

The CBOE Volatility index – seen as Wall Street’s ‘fear gauge’ – was last at 36.78 points.

Minutes from the Fed’s March policy meeting are due later in the day, while a consumer price inflation reading is set for Thursday, which could offer clues on the inflation trajectory.

Delta Air Lines gained 17% as the carrier beat first-quarter profit expectations. The company though pulled its 2025 financial forecast and projected current-quarter profit below expectations.

Advancing issues outnumbered decliners by a 3.04-to-1 ratio on the NYSE and by a 2.97-to-1 ratio on the Nasdaq.

The S&P 500 posted one new 52-week high and 100 new lows while the Nasdaq Composite recorded 6 new highs and 637 new lows.