A trader works on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) at the opening bell on March 5, 2025, in New York City.
Timothy A. Clary | Afp | Getty Images
Stock futures climbed on Tuesday evening after President Donald Trump said he doesn’t plan to remove Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell from his post as central bank leader.
Dow Jones Industrial Average futures rose 664 points, or 1.7%. Futures tied to the S&P 500 popped 2%, while Nasdaq 100 futures surged 2.1%.
The rally in futures came after Trump said late Tuesday that he has “no intention” of firing Powell, whose term as Fed chair will end in May 2026.
The comment is a reversal of sorts for the president, who fired off barbs against Powell as recently as Monday, calling the central bank leader a “major loser” and demanding that interest rates come down.
Stocks are coming off of a winning session, with the 30-stock Dow surging more than 1,000 points to end a four-day losing streak. Both the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq Composite jumped more than 2%.
Investor sentiment in the regular session appeared to be aided by comments from Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, who hinted at the possibility of “de-escalation” in Trump’s trade war with China. “No one thinks the current status quo is sustainable,” Bessent said while speaking with a group of investors on Tuesday at a meeting hosted by JPMorgan Chase, according to a person in the room.
The Treasury secretary’s comments appeared to soothe investors’ worries around trade policy tensions. Although Trump earlier this month issued a 90-day pause on much of his “reciprocal” tariffs, he left in place a 145% duty on China. Beijing responded with a retaliatory tariff of 125%, which further escalated already shaky relations between the U.S. and China.
Even as stocks surged in the session, jittery investors have been flocking toward safe-haven assets in recent weeks. Gold futures are up more than 8% in April, and they touched an all-time high of $3,509.90 on Tuesday.
“There is a ton of money hiding out in gold at the moment, so there’s plenty of unproductive money that will find its way back into the market at some point,” said Jamie Cox, managing partner at Harris Financial Group. “The money is there, it’s just yellow at the moment.”