Wall Street took the postponement of the U.S.-China tariff deadline in stride and refocused on inflation numbers arriving Tuesday that may play an outsized roll in the decision by the Federal Reserve about weather to cut rates, as President Donald Trump is demanding, or stand pat.
Futures for the S&P 500, Dow Jones Industrial Average and Nasdaq were all nearly unchanged before the bell.
President Donald Trump signed an executive order late Monday putting on hold a possible showdown between the world’s two major economies to allow 90 more days for more talks on a broad trade agreement. Without an extension, taxes on Chinese imports might have jumped from an already high 30%.
Beijing acted in kind.
The reprieve makes room for a possible deal with Trump, but also prolongs the uncertainty that has bedeviled companies and households since the president began escalating his trade war.
“The extension isn’t about goodwill; it’s about keeping oxygen in the room for deals that matter,” Stephen Innes of SPI Asset Management said in a commentary.
Later Tuesday, the U.S. government will report on inflation across the country in July. Economists expect the data to show U.S. consumers had to pay prices for groceries, gasoline and other costs of living that were 2.8% higher than a year earlier, an acceleration from June’s 2.7% inflation.
Inflation has remained above the Federal Reserve's target of 2%, even if it has improved substantially from its peak above 9% three years ago. The worry remains that Trump’s tariffs could push prices still higher. Some prices are already heading up.
That is raising fears about a potential, worst-case scenario called “stagflation” where the economy stagnates but inflation remains high. The Federal Reserve has no good tool to fix both at once, and it would need to concentrate on either the job market or inflation first. But helping one of those areas by moving interest rates would likely hurt the other.
In equities trading before Tuesday's opening bell, Intel shares rose 3% after Trump met with CEO Lip-Bu Tan and backed off his demand that Tan resign. Intel shares took a hit last week when Trump posted on social media that Tan was “highly conflicted" after Sen. Tom Cotton expressed concern over Tan’s investments and ties to semiconductor firms that are reportedly linked to the Chinese Communist Party and the People’s Liberation Army.
Elsewhere, in Europe at midday, France's CAC 40 and Britain’s FTSE 100 each gained 0.1%, while Germany's DAX shed 0.5%.
In Asia, Tokyo's benchmark Nikkei 225 jumped 2.2% to finish at 42,718.17, topping its past all-time record. Toyota Motor Corp.'s shares surged nearly 3% and other heavyweight shares also saw big gains after the U.S. confirmed that tariffs on imports from Japan would be taxed at 15% and not subject to “stacking” the rate on top of already existing duties.
Honda Motor Co.'s stocks finished 2.6% higher, chips maker Tokyo Electron gained 1.1%, while electronics maker Sharp's stocks jumped 11%. Sanrio, the company behind Hello Kitty, saw its shares surge 16%, while watchmaker Seiko added nearly 14%.
Hong Kong's Hang Seng rose 0.3% to 24,969.68, while the Shanghai Composite climbed 0.5% to 3,665.92.
Elsewhere Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 rose 0.4% to 8,880.80. South Korea’s Kospi lost 0.5% to 3,189.91.
In energy trading, benchmark U.S. crude fell 25 cents to $63.71 a barrel. Brent crude, the international standard, lost 16 cents to $66.47 a barrel.
In currency trading, the U.S. dollar edged up to 148.46 Japanese yen from 148.15 yen. The euro cost $1.1605, down from $1.1618.
