NEW YORK: The S&P 500 wavered between gains and losses on Wednesday after a robust start to the week spurred by soft inflation data and the US-China tariff truce, as investors watched for trade developments during Donald Trump’s tour of the Gulf states.
Most megacap and growth stocks ticked up, with Nvidia among top gainers with a 3.3% jump. Advanced Micro Devices gained 5.2% after the chip designer approved a new $6 billion share buyback program.
As President Donald Trump secured $600 billion in commitments from Saudi Arabia during his visit, a number of US technology firms announced artificial-intelligence-related deals in the Middle East on Tuesday.
Boeing advanced 1.7% after state carrier Qatar Airways signed a deal to purchase jets from the US planemaker during Trump’s visit to Doha.
At 11:39 a.m. ET, the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 35.55 points, or 0.09%, to 42,175.98, the S&P 500 gained 12.06 points, or 0.20%, to 5,898.61, and the Nasdaq Composite gained 124.46 points, or 0.66%, to 19,134.54.
Eight of the 11 S&P sectors traded lower. Utilities , down 1.4%, were the worst hit.
US stocks have been buoyed since the weekend, when the United States and China hit pause on their fierce tariff dispute, signaling a joint effort to stave off a global economic downturn.
“The biggest fears that the market’s been having are the impact of ‘Liberation Day’ and the tariff propositions that Trump put,” said Lara Castleton, US head of portfolio construction and strategy at Janus Henderson.
“The fact that we were able to back down a lot sooner than many people expected and come to a potential agreement with China was a big surprise and a relief for the market.”
Data released on Tuesday showed US consumer prices rebounded moderately in April.
US Federal Reserve Vice Chair Philip Jefferson said while recent inflation data pointed to progress towards the Fed’s 2% inflation goal, the outlook was now uncertain. Chicago Fed president Austan Goolsbee said the data did not necessarily reflect the impact of rising tariffs.
Fed Chair Jerome Powell is slated to speak on Thursday and his comments will be closely watched for clues on how the central bank plans to proceed with monetary policy easing.
Meanwhile, the S&P 500 has swung back into positive territory for the year for the first time since late February. However, the benchmark index is more than 4% off the record peaks it hit earlier this year.
The 90-day tariff pause announced on April 9 for countries other than China, along with solid earnings reports and a limited US-UK trade agreement last week, helped the benchmark indexes claw back.
