Traders work on the floor at the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York City, U.S., August 6, 2025.
Jeenah Moon | Reuters
Stock futures inched higher Wednesday night as traders mulled over President Donald Trump’s announcement of a new steep tariff on imports of semiconductors and chips.
Futures tied to the Dow Jones Industrial Average added 44 points, or 0.1%. S&P 500 futures and Nasdaq 100 futures each advanced about 0.2%.
Trump announced late Wednesday that there would be a 100% tariff on imported chips, but not for companies that are “building in the United States.”
News of the levy comes after Apple said it plans to spend an additional $100 billion on U.S. companies and suppliers over the next four years. That’s on top of a $500 billion announcement Apple made in February. The iPhone maker was up 3% in extended trading, adding to its 5% advance from the regular session.
“We’re going to be putting a very large tariff on chips and semiconductors,” Trump said in the Oval Office on Wednesday afternoon. “But the good news for companies like Apple is if you’re building in the United States or have committed to build, without question, committed to build in the United States, there will be no charge.”
Stocks are coming off of a positive session. The S&P 500 ended Wednesday about 0.7% higher, while the Nasdaq Composite advanced 1.2%. The 30-stock Dow gained about 81 points, or 0.2%.
Traders continued to monitor tariff developments and quarterly financial results, which have mostly beaten analysts’ expectations, according to FactSet.
Earlier on Wednesday, Trump imposed an additional 25% tariff on India, bringing total U.S. levies on the major trading partner to 50%. The president said the hike is because India continues to buy Russian oil, a sign that he is following through on his threats to punish Russia’s trade partners unless a Ukraine peace deal is reached by September.
Week to date, the S&P 500 has gained 1.7% and the Nasdaq has added 2.5%. The 30-stock Dow has advanced 1.4%. Prior to Wednesday’s modest gains, the S&P 500 had notched five losing sessions over the past six trading days, and the Dow had had six negative days in the past seven.
Kristian Kerr, head of macro strategy at LPL Financial, noted that market volatility has dramatically declined since early April during the height of tariff tensions.
“Volatility across major asset classes is currently sitting at unusually low levels,” Kerr said in a note. “Equities have also followed suit, with one-month realized volatility in some of the indexes falling to levels not seen since June of last year.”
On Thursday, traders will watch for weekly jobless claims data, as well as releases on unit labor costs and productivity for the second quarter.
—CNBC’s Kevin Breuninger contributed reporting.