Stan Choe
The US stock market is rising again and regaining more of its losses for the week following the latest walkback by President Donald Trump from tariffs he had earlier threatened.
The S&P 500 climbed 0.7 per cent and added to its big gain from Wednesday, when Trump said he had reached โthe framework of a future deal with respect to Greenlandโ and called off 10 per cent tariffs on European countries that he said opposed his having the Arctic island. The index has recovered most of the losses it took after Trump shook financial markets with his initial tariff threat.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 408 points, or 0.8 per cent, as of 11:30 a.m. Eastern time, and the Nasdaq composite was 1 per cent higher.
The Australian sharemarket is set to rise, with futures at 5am AEDT pointing to a rise of 10 points, or 0.1 per cent, at the open. The ASX added 0.8 per cent on Thursday after stronger=than-expected jobs figures. The Australian dollar continued to strengthen and was trading at US68.40ยข at 5.15am AEDT.
Trumpโs U-turn is the latest example of Trump making a big, initial threat, only to pull back after seeing how much pain it created in financial markets. The pattern has led to the โTACOโ acronym, suggesting that โTrump Always Chickens Outโ if markets react strongly enough. Tuesdayโs drop for the US stock market was the worst since October and large enough that Trump, who often takes credit when Wall Street is doing well, acknowledged โthe dip.โ
But the pattern has also led to deals for Trump that outsiders may have initially considered unlikely if not for his extreme initial threat.
Details are still sparse about the framework of a deal on Greenland that Trump said he reached with the head of NATO. And it is not a signed deal yet.
Financial markets were still showing some signals of nervousness on Thursday. Goldโs price swivelled between small losses and gains before turning 0.9 per cent higher. Its price often rises when investors are looking for something safer to own. The value of the US dollar also slipped against the euro and several other foreign currencies, though the slide wasnโt as sharp as earlier in the week when global investors bailed out of several US markets.
Treasury yields held relatively steady in the bond market following encouraging reports on the US economyโs strength. One said that fewer US workers applied for unemployment benefits last week than economists expected in a potential signal that the pace of layoffs remains low. A second suggested the US economy grew at a faster rate during the summer than the government initially estimated.
A third said that inflation in November was close to economistsโ expectations, while spending by US consumers was a touch better than expected.
They helped the yield on the 10-year Treasury remain at 4.26 per cent, where it was late Wednesday.
On Wall Street, Northern Trust climbed 5.6 per cent after reporting a stronger profit for the end of 2025 than analysts expected. CEO Michael OโGrady also said that the financial services company is entering 2026 with โstrong momentum across all our businesses.โ
Procter & Gamble added 2.7 per cent after likewise delivering a better profit than analysts expected. Revenue for the company behind the Downy, Pantene and Tide brands, though, fell just shy of expectations amid what CEO Shailesh Jejurikar called a โchallenging consumer and geopolitical environment.โ
Another winner was Generac, which sells power generators. It rose 3.8 per cent as forecasters warned a potentially catastrophic ice storm may hit a large swath of the United States.
They helped offset a 7.5 per cent drop for spice seller McCormick & Co., whose profit fell short of expectations. CEO Brendan Foley said it continues to face rising costs because of โa shifting global trade environment.โ
Shares of BitGo, a company that helps crypto businesses and traditional financial firms hold and manage digital assets, are set to begin trading later in the day on the New York Stock Exchange for the first time. The company priced its stock at $US18 per share in its initial public offering, above its earlier estimated range of $US15 to $US17.
In stock markets abroad, indexes climbed across Europe and Asia amid relief on Trumpโs walkback of tariffs.
Japanโs Nikkei 225 jumped 1.7 per cent, and Franceโs CAC 40 climbed 1.2 per cent for two of the worldโs bigger gains.
Global markets also got support from a continuing easing of long-term yields in Japanโs bond market. They had spiked early in the week on worries that Japanโs popular prime minister could make moves that would add heavily to the governmentโs already big debt.
But the 40-year Japanese government bond yield has eased since hitting a record and dropped back below 4 per cent on Thursday after hitting 4.22 per cent on Tuesday.
AP
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