The stock market has rebounded to where it was before President Donald Trump unveiled a suite of tariffs on April 2 that prompted a historic selloff. The S&P 500 gained 1.5% on Friday to close the week at 5,687, slightly more than where it had been just before Trump announced his “Liberation Day” tariff plans. The tech-heavy Nasdaq jumped 1.5%, and the Dow Jones rose 1.4%. The gains are the ninth day in a row the S&P 500 has risen and capped a positive week for the three major stock indices.
The market upswing comes as the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Friday that the U.S. added 177,000 jobs in April. That’s a drop from 185,000 jobs gained in March, but it beats the 135,000 predicted by economists polled by FactSet. The April job numbers, however, most likely don’t reflect the impact of the Trump tariffs, some of which have yet to go into effect in full force.
Trump has already instituted a 145% tax on imports from China. Investors Friday saw a sliver of relief when the People’s Republic said it was open to negotiations with the Trump administration. The two governments have issued conflicting statements about whether they’ve been in touch after Trump set off a tit-for-tat tariff battle, but China’s willingness to negotiate may signal progress on a trade deal.
The broader outlook for global markets remains uncertain. The Bureau of Economic Analysis reported Thursday a 0.3% drop in the U.S. gross domestic product, the first time the American economy has contracted since the first quarter of 2022.
“We continue to think that a gradual rise in the unemployment rate is in the cards,” Samuel Tombs and Oliver Allen, U.S. economists at Pantheon Microeconomics, wrote in a note published Friday.
And big tech firms are warning of potential damage from Trump’s trade war. The CFO of Block, which owns popular payments apps Cash App and Square, warned of a “pronounced shift in consumer behavior” during an earnings call in which Block missed quarterly profit forecasts and saw its stock tank 20%.
Apple also warned of expected financial costs due to tariffs. In an earnings call on Thursday, Apple CEO Tim Cook said that the new tax on imported supplies would cost Apple an extra $900 million in the second quarter.
“We will manage the company as we already have—with thoughtful deliberate decisions,” Cook declared.
