Stock market bounces back after Trump pauses some tariffs

President Donald Trump on Wednesday raised tariffs on imports from China to 125 percent while simultaneously pausing many new tariffs on goods from other nations, sending the stock market surging after a tumultuous week on Wall Street.

Trump’s midday post on Truth Social said the higher China tariff would take place immediately. He also said more than 75 other countries that were set to face what the White House has called “reciprocal tariffs” have been involved in negotiations and would see their levies paused or lowered to 10 percent for 90 days, also effective immediately.

“The big move wasn’t what I did today,” Trump told reporters at the White House. “The big move was what I did on Liberation Day,” referring to April 2, when he announced the tariffs. “We’re liberated from all the horrible deals that were made.”

The major stock indexes climbed rapidly, after they’d mostly slid over the last week. The widely followed S&P 500 gained more than 8 percent by midafternoon, and the narrower Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 6 percent. The tech-heavy Nasdaq composite index popped 10 percent. Trading was heavy Wednesday.

“What you’re seeing is a once-in-a-lifetime ‘relief rally’ on hopes — and I use that word tentatively — that that pause will turn into a permanent removal of the haphazard punitive tariffs that were applied to America’s global trade partners,” said Joe Brusuelas, chief economist at RSM. But, he added: “It still does not remove the risk of recession from the table.”

Caption from article by Jeff Stein, Aaron Gregg and Rachel Siegel.