Stan Choe, AP Business Writer
NEW YORK (AP) – US stocks gathered Thursday after the US and the UK announced trade deals that lower tariffs and restrictions between the two countries.
The S&P 500 was on track with its 11th profit in the past 13 days, up 1.4% in the noon trade. The Dow Jones industrial average rose 566 points (1.4%) as of 11:45am Eastern time, with the Nasdaq Composite rising 1.8%.
It wasn’t just stocks. Bitcoin bounced over $101,000, and crude prices rose, but gold prices were eased as investors needed less safety.
Stocks and other financial markets have been shaking for weeks in hopes that President Donald Trump will be able to reach deals with other countries that lower tariffs. Trump praised what he called the “biggest trade deal” with the UK on Thursday. The UK maintains a 10% tariff on UK products, but cuts taxes on Rolls-Royces and other UK cars in exchange for increased access to the UK market for US beef, ethanol and other products.
Trump said it could take weeks to finalise all the details of the UK’s deal, but he also gave some potentially encouraged updates on a pending talk with China, a larger trading partner.
The world’s second largest economy is scheduled to meet with high-level US authorities in Switzerland this weekend. China is asking the US to cancel tariffs, but Trump has said it will not reduce the 145% tariff on Chinese products as a condition of negotiations.
Asked on Thursday if he would consider lowering tariffs if the weekend talk worked, Trump said, “It’s possible. We’re going to see. Now you can’t get any higher. That’s 145. So we know it’s going to go down.” He also said he expects talks in Switzerland to be “substantial.”
This has almost doubled the previous, more modest profits.
In addition to trade-related trade requests, strong profit reports from US companies also helped bring the S&P 500 closer to the best ever set of February.
Axon Enterprise, a company that sells Taser, body cameras and other public safety devices, jumped 14.4% after joining the list. We have benefited from strong software and services growth and raised our full year-round revenue forecasts.
Tapestry reported better profits and revenue than expected, up 4.1% after the company behind the coach and the company behind the Kate Spade brand. In particular, he praised new young customers in North America.
However, Molson Coors described the different landscape when they released their latest quarter results that didn’t meet analyst expectations. That inventory fell 3.6%.
“The global macroeconomic environment is unstable,” said CEO Gavin Hattersley. “Uncertainty about geopolitical events and the impact of global trade policy, including economic growth, consumer confidence, inflation expectations, and the impact on currency expectations, has put pressure on the beer industry and consumption trends.”
Taking into account uncertainty, it has become the latest company to lower or withdraw its 2025 financial forecasts.
Krispy Kreme fell 23.3% after withdrawing its annual forecast. Donut sellers said some have made the move as they have paused the rollout of “macro-economic softness” and more McDonald’s restaurants.
The US economy has been alright so far, and the Federal Reserve said Wednesday it still appears to be running at a solid speed beneath the surface. However, pessimism has become sour among US households due to tariffs, and fear is that all the uncertainty created by them may be sufficient to bring the economy into a recession.
Several mixed reports on the economy on Thursday did little to clear the attention. He said that only a few U.S. workers applied for unemployment benefits last week. But another said that more American workers were slower than expected economists in the first three months of the year. If tariffs can be set to raise the prices of any kind of imported products, it can maintain upward pressure on inflation.
Following the report, Treasury yields rose, with 10-year yields rising from 4.26% to 4.33% late Wednesday.
In the overseas stock market, the FTSE 100 slipped 0.3% in London after the Bank of England cut its main interest rate by a quarter point.
The index rose in many other countries in Europe and Asia.
AP business writers Eurikeyama and Matt Ott contributed.
Original issue: May 8, 2025 9:47am EDT
