The major U.S. index futures on the Dow Jones, S&P and Nasdaq are currently pointing to a lower open for the markets on Friday, with stocks likely to give back ground after ending yesterday’s choppy session moderately higher.
The futures came under pressure after President Donald Trump accused China of violating the trade agreement reached earlier this month.
Trump said in a post on Truth Social that “everything quickly stabilized and China got back to business as usual” following the trade deal.
“Everybody was happy! That is the good news!!!” Trump said. “The bad news is that China, perhaps not surprisingly to some, HAS TOTALLY VIOLATED ITS AGREEMENT WITH US. So much for being Mr. NICE GUY!”
Trump’s claim comes after Treasury Secretary Bessent said in a Fox News interview on Thursday that U.S.-China trade talks “are a bit stalled.”
In U.S. economic news, a closely watched report release by the Commerce Department showed consumer prices in the U.S. crept slightly higher in the month of April.
After failing to sustain a strong move to the upside early in the session, stocks fluctuated over the course of the trading day on Thursday.
The major averages bounced back and forth across the unchanged line before eventually closing moderately higher.
The Dow rose 117.03 points or 0.3 percent to 42,215.73, the Nasdaq climbed 74.93 points or 0.4 percent to 19,175.87 and the S&P 500 increased 23.62 points or 0.4 percent to 5,912.17.
Early buying interest was generated in reaction to news that a federal court blocked Trump’s “reciprocal tariffs” on imports from U.S. trade partners from going into effect.
The Court Of International Trade ruled Trump overstepped his authority to impose the tariffs by invoking emergency economic powers.
“The Worldwide and Retaliatory Tariff Orders exceed any authority granted to the President by IEEPA to regulate importation by means of tariffs,” the three-judge panel wrote.
The judges also said tariffs on Canada, Mexico and China related to drug trafficking “fail because they do not deal with the threats set forth in those orders.”
The Trump administration immediately appealed the decision, with an appeals court temporarily pausing the lower court’s ruling later in the day.
A positive reaction to earnings news from Nvidia (NASDAQ:NVDA) also contributed to initial strength on Wall Street, with the AI darling jumping by 3.2 percent on the day.
The jump by shares of Nvidia came after the company reported fiscal first quarter results that exceeded analyst estimates on both the top and bottom lines.
Buying interest waned over the course of the session, however, as lingering uncertainty about trade continued to hang over the markets.
Reflecting the relatively lackluster performance by the broader markets, most of the major sectors showed only modest moves on the day.
Biotechnology stocks showed a strong move to the upside, however, with the NYSE Arca Biotechnology Index climbing by 1.2 percent.
Oil producer, healthcare and commercial real estate stocks also saw some strength, while computer hardware and networking stocks moved to the downside.