Stock Market Update

[BRIEFING.COM] The stock market is faring well amid anticipation of President Trump's impending tariff announcement, which he has dubbed "Liberation Day." The market won't get a chance to react to the tariffs today, reportedly effective immediately, due to the president speaking at 4:00 p.m. ET. 

The S&P 500 sports a 0.8% gain, the Nasdaq Composite trades 1.1% higher, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average is more than 200 points, or 0.6%, higher than yesterday. 

Buying interest is related to optimism that the tariffs will be less robust than feared. CNBC reported that a 20% universal tariff is unlikely and there's also some hope that tariffs are still largely being used as a bargaining chip to bring other countries to the negotiating table.

The market is also following a similar pattern that has played out so far this week. That is, rebounding from early weakness. Mega cap stocks have led the charge, but many names are participating. The equal-weighted S&P 500 trades 0.8% higher and eight of the 11 S&P 500 sectors are in the green.

The discretionary (+1.9%), technology (+0.9%), and financial (+0.8%) sectors are among the top performers. 

Treasuries have exhibited an unwinding of some safe-haven trading that drove market action in recent sessions. The 10-yr yield, which hit 4.13% earlier, sits at 4.21% now. The 2-yr yield, which hit 3.85% earlier, sits at 3.92% now.

Reviewing today's economic data:

• Weekly MBA Mortgage Applications Index -1.6%; Prior -2.0%
• March ADP Employment Change 155K (Briefing.com consensus 120K); Prior was revised to 84K from 77K
• February Factory Orders 0.6% (Briefing.com consensus 0.4%); Prior was revised to 1.8% from 1.7%
  • The key takeaway from the report is that new orders for nondefense capital goods excluding aircraft, which are considered a proxy for business spending, decreased 0.2% despite the headline beat.