The move revived hope on Wall Street that Trump may avoid a worst-case trade war that grinds down economies and sends inflation higher.
The S&P 500 rose 1.1 percent to 5,842, to bounce back from a sell-off that had erased all of its ‘Trump bump’ since Election Day. The Dow Jones Industrial Average also climbed 1.1 percent to end at 43,006, and the Nasdaq composite gained 1.5 percent to 18,552.
The market turned sharply higher after Trump said he was granting a one-month exemption for US automakers on his stiff new tariffs for Mexican and Canadian imports.
Trump made the move after talking with Ford, General Motors and Stellantis, which owns Chrysler.
All of the Big Three automakers could have been hurt by such tariffs because of how much production happens across the countries.
Trump’s announcement sent relief through Wall Street, and Ford’s and General Motors’ stock both jumped more than 5 percent to help lead a widespread rally across the market.
The worry has been that such tariffs would not only hurt profits for companies but also jack up prices for cars and other bills for US households already struggling with still-high inflation.
A couple reports on Wednesday gave a mixed read on the US economy. One suggested US employers pulled back sharply on their hiring last month.
The report from payrolls processing firm, ADP, could be a warning signal ahead of the more comprehensive jobs report that’s coming Friday from the US Labor Department.
A separate report said growth for US finance, real estate and other businesses in the services sector is better than economists expected. But businesses also said in the survey they’re confronting “chaos” and uncertainty because of tariffs, according to the Institute for Supply Management. (AP)
