Wall Street rallies and recovers Monday's losses as the dollar and US
bond market steady
[April 23, 2025] By
STAN CHOE
NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. stocks jumped in a widespread rally Tuesday, and
other U.S. investments steadied a day after falling sharply on worries
about President Donald Trump’s trade war and his attacks on the head of
the Federal Reserve.
The S&P 500 climbed 2.5%. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 1,016
points, or 2.7%, and the Nasdaq composite gained 2.7%. All three indexes
more than made up their big losses from the start of the week.
The value of the U.S. dollar also stabilized after sliding against the
euro and other competitors, while longer-term Treasury yields held
steadier as more calm returned to financial markets. Sharp, unusual
moves for the dollar and for Treasurys have recently raised worries that
Trump’s policies are making investors more skeptical about U.S.
investments’ reputation as the world’s safest.
The only prediction many Wall Street strategists are willing to make is
that financial markets will likely continue to veer up and down as hopes
rise and fall that Trump may negotiate deals with other countries to
lower his tariffs. If no such deals come quickly enough, many investors
expect the economy to fall into a recession.
The International Monetary Fund on Tuesday slashed its forecast for
global economic growth this year to 2.8%, down from 3.3%. But Vice
President JD Vance also said he made progress with India’s prime
minister, Narendra Modi, on trade talks Monday.
A suite of better-than-expected profit reports from big U.S. companies,
meanwhile, helped drive U.S. stocks higher.
Equifax jumped 13.8% after reporting a better profit for the first three
months of 2025 than analysts expected. It also said it would send more
cash to its shareholders by increasing its dividend and buying up to $3
billion of its stock over the next four years.
3M climbed 8.1% after the maker of Scotch tape and Command strips said
it made more in profit from each $1 of revenue during the start of the
year than it expected. The company also stood by its forecast for profit
for the full year, though it said tariffs may drag down its earnings per
share by up to 40 cents per share.
Homebuilder PulteGroup rose 8.4% after it likewise delivered a stronger
profit for the start of 2025 than analysts expected.
It’s been benefiting from some of the sharp moves in the bond market.
Drops for Treasury yields during the first three months of the year
translated into lower mortgage rates for potential customers, though
yields have been largely rising since early this month.
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Specialist James Denaro, right, and trader Dylan Halvorsan, center,
work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, Tuesday, April 22,
2025. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)
 CEO Ryan Marshall said buyers
“remain caught between a strong desire for homeownership and the
affordability challenges of high selling prices and monthly payments
that are stretched.”
Tesla rose 4.6% ahead of its earnings report, which arrived after
trading ended for the day. That trimmed its loss for the year so far
to roughly 41%.
Elon Musk’s electric car company had already reported its
first-quarter car sales dropped by 13% from the year before. It’s
been hurt by vandalism, widespread protests and calls for a consumer
boycott amid a backlash to Musk’s oversight of cost-cutting efforts
for the U.S. government.
Stocks also showed how Trump’s tariffs could create winners and
losers as he tries to remake the global economy and trade.
First Solar jumped 10.5% after the U.S. Department of Commerce
finalized harsher-than-expected solar tariffs on some southeast
Asian communities.
U.S. defense contractors, meanwhile, had some of the market’s
sharpest losses after RTX said tariffs on Mexican and Canadian
imports, along with other products, could mean an $850 million hit
to its profit this year. RTX, which builds airplane engines and
military equipment, fell 9.8% even though it reported a stronger
profit for the latest quarter.
Kimberly-Clark lost 1.6% even though the maker of Huggies and
Kleenex likewise reported a better-than-expected profit.
CEO Mike Hsu said that “the current environment will now mean
greater costs across our global supply chain” versus what it
expected at the start of the year, and the company lowered its
forecast for an underlying measure of profit this year.
Losers on Wall Street were the exceptions, though, as 99% of the
stocks within the S&P 500 index rose. All told, the S&P 500 climbed
129.56 points to 5,287.76. The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained
1,106.57 to 39,186.98, and the Nasdaq composite jumped 429.52 to
16,300.42.
In the bond market, longer-term yields eased following an unsettling
run higher the day before. The yield on the 10-year Treasury pulled
back to 4.39% from 4.42% late Monday.
In stock markets abroad, indexes rose across much of Europe
following modest, mixed moves across Asia. ___
AP Business Writers Yuri Kageyama and Matt Ott contributed.
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