A key stock market index reached a record high Friday, capping off a comeback from the selloff driven by President Trump’s tariffs this spring.
The S&P 500 index was up 0.5 percent Friday morning, rising roughly 32.6 points and exceeding the all-time high of 6,147 points set in February. The Nasdaq composite was up 0.3 percent and the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 0.4 percent.
After falling sharply in March and April as Trump rolled out his trade agenda, stocks have rallied back to their previous highs after the president dramatically reduced the scale and scope of his import taxes.
Trump shook markets in April by announcing he would impose roughly $600 billion in tariffs on nearly every U.S. trading partners. His new “Liberation Day” tariffs followed import taxes he levied on Canada, Mexico and China earlier in his term, along with additional taxes on foreign metals, autos and auto parts.
Despite initially brushing off the market’s reaction, Trump adjusted his trade agenda two weeks later by reducing and delaying his April tariffs on all other countries, but ramping them up to levels as high as 145 percent on China.
The U.S. and China have since struck several smaller agreements to reduce tariffs on each other’s goods and open up Chinese exports of rare metals to the states.