US stocks rose on Friday as investors weighed President Trump’s fresh round of punishing tariffs and breathed a relative sigh of relief over an inflation report that came in line with expectations.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average (^DJI) rose roughly 0.6%, leading gains, while the S&P 500 (^GSPC) gained 0.5%. The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite (^IXIC) ticked 0.2% higher. The gains come after three straight days of losses for the major US gauges.
August’s reading of the Personal Consumption Expenditures (PCE) index, which contains the Fed-favored “core” PCE measure of inflation, rose as expected. The “core” PCE price index rose 2.9% year-over-year and 0.2% month-over-month in August, both coming in alongside what economists were expecting even as inflation remained sticky and well above the Fed’s 2% target.
Meanwhile, investors are studying Trump’s new threat to put a 100% levy on imports of branded drugs. The rate will apply to any pharmaceutical company that isn’t already building a manufacturing plant in the US, the president said in a social media post late Thursday, but offered no further details. Shares of drugmakers in Europe and Asia faltered after the move.
Imports of heavy trucks and certain categories of furniture also face new heftier tariffs, Trump said, with the new duties to come into effect on Oct. 1 — less than a week away.
The trade salvo adds fresh uncertainty for markets already grappling with concerns about the sustainability of the AI boom and a high risk of US government shutdown. The S&P 500 is eyeing its first weekly loss this month after a Wall Street slump snapped a record-setting rally.
Meanwhile, Trump signed an order approving a deal to spin off TikTok’s US operations from China’s ByteDance, though Beijing still needs to sign off on the agreement. But the proposed $14 billion price tag was greeted with surprise on Wall Street, seen as undervaluing a global leader in social media estimated to potentially be worth $40 billion.
LIVE 12 updates
