Stock Market Today: Stocks higher in Apple boost; Trump tariffs in focus
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U.S. equity futures moved higher in early Friday trading, with the dollar on pace for its best week in seven, as markets found support from another solid set of tech earnings while waiting for a final word from the White House of the first round of tariffs from President Donald Trump.
Stocks finished firmly higher on Thursday, with Tesla (TSLA) and Meta Platforms (META) helping offset a slump in Microsoft MSFT and driving the S&P 500 into a 0.53% gain by the close of trading.
Apple (AAPL) looks set to take the baton this morning following last night’s better-than-expected first quarter earnings and a current quarter revenue outlook that topped Street forecasts.
“We came away [from last night’s conference call]optimistic about secular stories tied to services, expanding AI capabilities/geographic expansion and profit margin expansion potential,’ said CFRA analyst Angelo Zino.
Shares in the world’s biggest tech company, and the heaviest weight on both the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq, were marked 3.37% higher in premarket trading.
Shutterstock-Ringo Chiu
The tech gains were somewhat tempered, however, by a muted profit outlook from Samsung Electronics, which noted weakness in the sale of AI components thanks in part to U.S. export restrictions.
Away from equities, the U.S. dollar index jumped 0.4% to trade at 108.235 against a basket of its global peers after President Trump reiterated his threat to apply a 25% tariff on imported goods from Canada and Mexico, which operate in a trade agreement that he renegotiated in 2019, starting Feb. 1.
The President also warned the so-called BRIC nations, which include Brazil, Russia, India and China, that forming a common currency that competes with the dollar would lead to “100% tariffs”.
Related: Analysts revisit Meta stock price targets after earnings surprise
Trump noted that oil imports could be excluded from the levies, a remark that added downward pressure to global crude prices.
“Investors are confused by the unclear tariff rollouts from the Trump administration [and] the lack of details is complicating market pricing,” said Boris Kovacevic, global macro strategist at Convera.
In the bond market, Treasury yields nudged modestly higher amid the tariff news and heading into today’s reading of the Federal Reserve’s preferred inflation gauge, the PCE Price Index, at 8:30 am Eastern time.
Benchmark 10-year note yields were last marked 2 basis points higher at 4.535% while 2-year notes were pegged at 4.209%.
Heading into the start of the trading day on Wall Street, futures contracts tied to the S&P 500 suggest an opening bell gain of around 25 points, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average called 165 points higher. The Nasdaq, meanwhile, is also priced for a 165 point gain.
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In overseas markets, yesterday’s ECB rate cut is helping the Stoxx 600 towards its seventh consecutive weekly gain, with the regional benchmark last seen 0.4% higher in mid-day Frankfurt trading.
Overnight in Asia, Samsung’s fourth quarter earnings report and outlook kept South Korea’s KOSPI in the red following its return from the Lunar New Year Holiday week, dragging the MSCI ex-Japan benchmark 0.11% lower into the close of trading.
Japan’s Nikkei 225, meanwhile, rose 0.15% into the close of trading to trim its January loss to 0.81%.
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