Washington, DC – March 12 : President Donald J Trump meets with Ireland’s Prime Minister Michael Martin in the Oval Office at the White House on Wednesday, March 12, 2025 in Washington, DC.
Jabin Botsford | The Washington Post | Getty Images
The S&P 500 inched higher Wednesday, as traders looked for a market bottom after days of volatility, even as China and the European Union announced retaliatory tariffs on U.S. goods in the latest escalation of global trade tensions.
The S&P 500 traded up 0.9%, while the Nasdaq Composite climbed 1.8%. The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 215 points, or 0.6%.
China announced it will impose an 84% levy on U.S. goods starting Thursday. This comes after U.S. tariffs of 104% on Chinese imports took effect shortly after midnight. The EU also approved its first set of tariffs on the U.S. set to start on April 15.
U.S. tariffs on imports from other countries also took effect. Canada reconfirmed Tuesday plans to put into effect 25% retaliatory tariffs on U.S.-made vehicles. This includes vehicles that aren’t compliant with the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement, in addition to non-Canadian and non-Mexican content of USMCA-compliant fully assembled vehicles brought into Canada from the U.S.
Some traders may have been encouraged that Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said he would be taking a lead negotiating role in tariff negotiations. Wall Street would favor a bigger role for Bessent over Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick or trade advisor Peter Navarro.
“Our base case is tariffs will, over time, drift lower than today’s level but stay off the charts – at the highest levels of our lifetimes,” Piper Sandler analyst Andy Laperriere wrote on Tuesday. “They are more likely to go higher in the near-term, though there could be some deals (probably minor ones) in the near term, too.”
Anxiety around the rollout of the tariffs has fueled a four-day rout for stocks. The volatility continued on Tuesday, with the S&P 500 up more than 4% at one point before ending the day with a loss of 1.6%. The 30-stock Dow climbed 3.9% at its high for the day but ultimately fell 0.8% at the end of trading. The broad market index is nearly 19% off its record high.
The S&P 500 over the past five trading days.
Over the course of the previous four trading sessions, the Dow lost more than 4,500 points, while the S&P 500 sustained a 12% loss. The Nasdaq Composite is down more than 13% in that period.
Compounding Wall Street’s worries is an unusual jump in Treasury yields. The benchmark 10-year Treasury note yield spiked more than 10 basis points higher to 4.37% on Wednesday. Earlier in the week, it hit a low below 4%.