Traders work on the floor at the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York City, U.S., April 8, 2025.
Brendan Mcdermid | Reuters
Stocks surged Tuesday in a slight reprieve from the tariff market turmoil, on rising hopes the U.S. would reach trade deals to lower the duties over time.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average surged 890 points, or 2.3%. The S&P 500 jumped 2.2%, while the Nasdaq Composite advanced 2.3%.
Trump posted on Truth Social Tuesday that he had a “great call” with the acting president of South Korea, and that China “also wants to make a deal badly.”
This comes amid a series of comments from White House officials that the U.S. is in negotiation talks with trading partners.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent’s told CNBC on Tuesday that around 70 countries had approached the U.S. for tariff negotiations. “If they come to the table with solid proposals, I think we can end up with some good deals,” Bessent said. “And part of the calculus of that may be that some part of the tariffs stay on.”
Despite talk of deals, however, none appear close to being hatched before Trump’s deadline for just after midnight when the higher reciprocal tariff rates kick in on top of the 10% baseline duty already implemented on Saturday.
The rebound come after three days of steep losses and violent volatility. Monday marked the highest trading volume for U.S. markets in at least 18 years, at roughly 29 billion shares. The 30-stock Dow Jones Industrial Average plunged more than 1,700 points at one point in the session. Between the day’s highs and lows, the index swung 2,595 points. The blue-chip index ultimately closed down by 349 points, or 0.9%.
The S&P 500 briefly entered bear market territory at the lows of Monday’s session, down more than 20% from its record, before rebounding slightly and finishing the session slightly lower. The benchmark lost 10% in two days to end last week, its worst losses since 2020 during the outbreak of Covid, on fears that Trump’s shockingly high tariff rates on most of the world will lead to a recession.
Despite Tuesday’s gains on growing optimism for tariff negotiations, investors will need to see more stability in trade policy for the bounce to have legs, according to Robert Ruggirello, chief investment officer at Brave Eagle Wealth Management.
“There has to be some staying power, something [where] corporations can make longer-term capital allocation decisions. They have to have confidence in a consistent policy,” said Ruggirello.
Apple, which was among the hardest-hit stocks due to its exposure to China, surged 4% Tuesday. Other megacap tech stocks were higher on the day, Nvidia and Meta Platforms gained around 5% each. Tesla shares also rallied more than 6%, while Amazon and Netflix were up more than 4% each.
The CBOE Volatility Index – known as Wall Street’s so-called fear gauge – spiked to about 60 on Monday, an extreme level that could signal a technical bounce was due. On Tuesday, it flickered around 40.
