Traders work on the floor at the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York City, U.S., July 8, 2025.
Jeenah Moon | Reuters
The S&P 500 was trading little changed after President Donald Trump on Tuesday offered no exceptions to his Aug. 1 tariff start date.
The broad market benchmark traded 0.1% lower, while the Nasdaq Composite was flat. The Dow Jones Industrial Average slipped 175 points, or 0.4%.
Trump late Monday said the new Aug. 1 tariff deadline is “not 100% firm,” adding that “If they call up and they say something a different way, we’re going to be open to that.” His comments came after he posted letters to countries announcing new tariffs on their respective imports.
Stocks sold off Monday following Trump’s posts, with the Dow tumbling more than 400 points, after the president set 25% tariffs on goods imported from South Korea and Japan. Overall, at least 14 countries are set to face new duties including South Africa and Kazakhstan.
But Trump appeared to take a firmer tone on Tuesday, posting on Truth Social that there will be no change or extension to Aug. 1 date.
However, some traders no longer forecast the latest U.S. tariffs to be as strict as initially feared, with many expecting that the worst from the trade war has now passed.
“What we’ve seen since April has really been the markets getting past the idea that tariffs would have a particularly detrimental impact on growth, earnings, inflation, etc.,” said Bill Merz, head of capital markets research at U.S. Bank Wealth Management. “Investor sentiment has shifted a lot in a very short period of time and become more optimistic, as we can see in equity market pricing and how we’re right around all time highs across multiple indices.”
Nvidia shares rose 0.6% on Tuesday. The chipmaker is also closing in on reaching a $4 trillion market cap. Tesla shares also rebounded 3% after losing 6.1%.
On the other hand, big banks were the worst performing cohort after HSBC adopted a “more cautious stance” on larger banks. Shares of JPMorgan and Bank of America shed 3%, while Goldman Sachs slipped 2%.
