After seeing substantial volatility over the past few sessions, stocks have shown a lack of direction over the course of the trading day on Friday. The major averages have spent the day bouncing back and forth across the unchanged line.
Currently, the major averages are posting modest gains. The Nasdaq is up 55.92 points or 0.3 percent at 16,443.23, the S&P 500 is up 10.88 points or 0.2 percent at 5,278.93 and the Dow is up 48.35 points or 0.1 percent at 39,642.01.
The choppy trading on Wall Street comes as traders take a step back to assess the wild swings by the markets over the past several days.
Stocks plummeted late last week into early this week in response to President Donald Trump’s “reciprocal tariffs” before skyrocketing on Wednesday after he announced a 90-pause on new tariffs on most countries.
However, stocks pulled back sharply on Thursday amid ongoing trade tensions between the U.S. and China, which was excluded from the pause.
Traders may also be looking for greater clarity on the tariff outlook, as China said it plans to increase tariffs on U.S. imports to 125 percent beginning Saturday.
The 125 percent would match the tariff on Chinese goods announced by Trump earlier this week, although a White House official told CNBC the effective rate is 145 percent when combined with a 20 percent fentanyl-related tariff.
Meanwhile, the European Union has announced that it is suspending its planned countermeasures to Trump’s tariffs for 90 days.
European Commission trade spokesperson Olof Gill also told Ireland’s RTE radio European Trade Commissioner Maros Sefcovic will travel to Washington on Sunday to “try and sign deals.”
On the U.S. economic front, preliminary data released by the University of Michigan showed a continued slump by U.S. consumer sentiment in the month of April.
The University of Michigan said its consumer sentiment index tumbled to 50.8 in April after plunging to 57.0 in March. Economists had expected the consumer sentiment index to fall to 54.5.
With the much bigger than expected decrease, the consumer sentiment index dropped to its lowest level since hitting 50.0 in June 2022.
The report also said year-ahead inflation expectations surged to 6.7 percent in April from 5.0 percent in March, reaching the highest reading since 1981.
A separate report released by the Labor Department showed an unexpected decrease by producer prices in the month of March, although the data has largely been shrugged off as “old news.”
Sector News
Transportation stocks have shown a significant move to the downside on the day, dragging the Dow Jones Transportation Average down by 2.1 percent.
Considerable weakness is also visible among housing stocks, as reflected by the 1.8 percent loss being posted by the Philadelphia Housing Sector Index.
Banking and commercial real estate stocks have also come under pressure, while gold stocks are moving sharply higher along with the price of the precious metal.
Other Markets
In overseas trading, stock markets across the Asia-Pacific region turned in a mixed performance during trading on Friday. Japan’s Nikkei 225 Index dove by 3.0 percent, while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index jumped by 1.1 percent.
The major European markets have also turned mixed on the day. While the U.K.’s FTSE 100 Index is up by 0.6 percent, the French CAC 40 Index is down by 0.3 percent and the German DAX Index is down by 1.1 percent.
In the bond market, treasuries have moved sharply lower after ending the previous session roughly flat. Subsequently, the yield on the benchmark ten-year note, which moves opposite of its price, is up by 15.1 basis points at 4.543 percent.
Business News
U.S. Stocks Showing A Lack Of Direction Following Recent Volatility
2025-04-11 14:52:14
