Wall Street advances with focus on new US administration's trade policy
Wall Street's main indexes closed higher on Tuesday, with the S&P 500 and the Dow hitting their highest in more than a month, as investors assessed Donald Trump's first actions as U.S. president and breathed relief that he did not start his second term with blanket tariff increases.
Trump did not lay out any concrete plans on the universal tariffs and additional surcharges on close trade partners as previously promised, but said he was thinking about imposing duties on Canadian and Mexican goods as early as Feb. 1.
While investors remain cautious about tariffs and the potential for a global trade war pushing inflation higher, brokerage Goldman Sachs lowered its forecast for the chances of a universal tariff this year to 25% from about 40% seen in December.
According to preliminary data, the S&P 500 gained 52.84 points, or 0.88%, to end at 6,049.50 points, while the Nasdaq Composite gained 126.58 points, or 0.64%, to 19,756.78. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 540.68 points, or 1.24%, to 44,028.51.
Among the S&P 500 sectors were boosted by 3M which rallied after reporting upbeat fourth-quarter profits.
Source: Reuters
