U.S. inventory indexes ended blended Wednesday, closing out a chaotic month for fairness markets following President Donald Trump’s ever-changing tariff insurance policies and rising recession fears. The S&P 500 gained 0.15% Wednesday whereas the Dow Jones Industrial Common elevated 0.35% at shut. In the meantime, the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite fell 0.09%.
After a turbulent begin to the month, shares had posted a latest restoration over the previous few days as Trump administration officers hinted at the potential for reaching commerce offers that that would cool an ongoing commerce battle. However information of the financial system’s 0.3% Q1 contraction—which got here earlier than the complete results of April’s tariffs are even accounted for—despatched indexes tumbling early Wednesday as recession fears elevated, although the S&P and Dow Jones recovered by the tip of the buying and selling day.
The Commerce Division’s announcement of a contracting financial system is because of enterprise uncertainty round Trump’s tariff plan and slowing shopper spending. The information additionally marks the primary contraction because the first quarter of 2022, and a dramatic flip from the two.4% progress in gross home product skilled within the final quarter of 2024.
Although shares took a beating within the aftermath of Trump’s “Liberation Day” tariff bulletins on April 2, they’d slowly been recovering within the ensuing weeks amid hopes the president would pare again his insurance policies or attain offers with buying and selling companions.
Thus far, no offers have emerged, and the Trump administration is giving conflicting accounts of the place negotiations stand. Wednesday afternoon, Trump prime commerce advisor Peter Navarro stated the White Home is near negotiating a tariff deal with India.
Trump’s first 100 days
The president is closing out his first 100 days in workplace with one of many worst begins for the inventory market of any president in latest reminiscence.
From January 20 to late April, the S&P 500 dropped nearly 8%, Fortune‘s Ben Weiss and Irina Ivanova reported Tuesday, the worst kick-off to a brand new presidential time period since Gerald Ford took over after Richard Nixon resigned.
“The U.S. stock market and the dollar have fared worse over the last hundred days than they fared during the first hundred days of all other presidential terms since 1980,” John Higgins, chief markets economist at Capital Economics, wrote Monday in a analysis observe titled, “Surely the next 100 days won’t be as turbulent as the last?”
Main earnings later Wednesday shall be intently watched by Wall Avenue: Qualcomm, Meta, and Microsoft all report after the closing bell.
This story was initially featured on Fortune.com
