NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. stocks are drifting on Tuesday, and financial markets worldwide are holding relatively steady as the wait continues for more updates on President Donald Trump’s tariffs and how much they’re affecting the economy.
The S&P 500 was 0.4% higher in midday trading, coming off a modest gain that added to its stellar May. It's back within 3% of its all-time high set earlier this year after falling roughly 20% below two months ago.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 74 points, or 0.2%, as of 11:15 a.m. Eastern time, and the Nasdaq composite was 0.7% higher.
Dollar General jumped 12.7% for one of the market’s bigger gains after reporting stronger profit and revenue for the start of the year than analysts expected. The discount retailer also raised its forecasts for profit and revenue over the full year, though it cautioned that “uncertainty exists for the remainder of the year” because of tariffs and how they might affect its customers.
Many other companies have cut or withdrawn their financial forecasts for the upcoming year because of the uncertainty caused by Trump’s on-again-off-again rollout of tariffs. The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development said on Tuesday that it’s forecasting 1.6% growth for the U.S. economy this year, down from 2.8% last year.
But while Trump’s tariffs have certainly made U.S. households feel more pessimistic about where the economy and inflation are heading, reports have suggested only a moderate hit so far. Manufacturers have begun to feel the effects, but the overall job market has remained solid overall with layoffs remaining relatively low, and inflation has not taken off.
A report on Tuesday morning showed U.S. employers were advertising more job openings at the end of April than economists expected, another signal that the labor market remains solid. It sets the stage for a more important report coming on Friday, which will show how much hiring and firing U.S. employers did in May.
On the trade front, hopes are still high on Wall Street that Trump will reach trade deals with other countries that will ultimately lower tariffs, particularly with the world’s second-largest economy. The U.S. side said President Donald Trump was expecting to speak with Chinese leader Xi Jinping this week. A Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson said Tuesday that they had no information on that.
On Wall Street, Constellation Energy rose 0.8% after signing a 20-year deal to provide Meta Platforms with power from its nuclear plant in Clinton, Illinois.
In the bond market, Treasury yields held relatively steady. The yield on the 10-year Treasury eased to 4.44% from 4.46% late Monday, though it had been lower earlier in the morning before the stronger-than-expected report on U.S. jobs openings.
It’s a cooldown following a sharp rise for yields over the last two months. Yields had been climbing in part on worries about how the U.S. government may be set to add trillions of dollars to its debt through tax cuts.
Besides making it more expensive for U.S. households and businesses to borrow money, higher Treasury yields can also discourage investors from paying high prices for stocks and other investments.
In stock markets abroad, indexes were mixed amid mostly modest moves across Europe and Asia.
Hong Kong was an exception, where the Hang Seng jumped 1.5%. That came despite a report showing Chinese manufacturing activity slowed in May.
South Korean markets were closed for a snap presidential election triggered by the ouster of Yoon Suk Yeol, a conservative who now faces an explosive trial on rebellion charges over his short-lived imposition of martial law in December.
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AP Business Writers Matt Ott and Elaine Kurtenbach contributed.
