Big Tech carries Wall Street to the close of its winning, roller-coaster
week
[April 26, 2025] By
STAN CHOE
NEW YORK (AP) — Big Tech stocks carried Wall Street Friday to the close
of a winning, roller-coaster week, one that saw markets swing from fear
to relief and back to caution because of President Donald Trump’s trade
war.
The S&P 500 rose 0.7% to add some more to a big three-day rally, and
it’s back within 10.1% of its record set earlier this year. Spurts for
Nvidia and other influential tech stocks sent the Nasdaq composite up a
market-leading 1.3%.
But they masked a mixed day of trading on Wall Street, where more stocks
fell within the S&P 500 than rose, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average
added only a modest 20 points, or 0.1%.
Alphabet climbed 1.7% in its first trading after Google’s parent company
reported late Thursday that its profit soared 50% in the beginning of
2025 from a year earlier, more than analysts expected.
Alphabet is one of the biggest companies on Wall Street in terms of
size, and that gives its stock’s movements extra influence on the S&P
500 and other indexes. Another market heavyweight, Nvidia, was also a
major force pushing the S&P 500 index upward after the chip company rose
4.3%.
They helped offset a 6.7% drop for Intel, which fell even though its
results for the beginning of the year also topped expectations. The chip
company said it’s seeing “elevated uncertainty across the industry” and
gave a forecast for upcoming revenue and profit that fell short of
analysts’ expectations.
It wasn’t just Intel. Roughly three out of every five stocks in the S&P
500 sank, including Eastman Chemical, which dropped 6.2% after it gave a
forecast for profit this spring that fell short of analysts’
expectations.
CEO Mark Costa said that the “macroeconomic uncertainty that defined the
last several years has only increased” and that future demand for its
products “is unclear given the magnitude and scope of tariffs.”
Skechers U.S.A., the shoe and apparel company, pulled its financial
forecasts for the year due to “macroeconomic uncertainty stemming from
global trade policies” even though it just reported a record quarter of
revenue at $2.41 billion. Its stock fell 5.3%.
Companies across industries have increasingly been saying the
uncertainty created by Trump's tariffs is making it difficult to give
financial forecasts for the upcoming year.
Stocks bounced back from a steep slide on Monday on hopes that Trump may
be softening his approach on trade and his criticism of the Federal
Reserve, which had earlier shaken markets. The hope is that if Trump
rolls back some of his stiff tariffs, he could avert a recession that
many investors see as otherwise likely because of his trade war.
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Specialist Meric Greenbaum works on the floor of the New York Stock
Exchange, Friday, April 25, 2025. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)
 But Trump’s on-again-off-again
tariffs may nevertheless be pushing households and businesses to
alter their spending and freeze plans for long-term investment
because of how quickly conditions can change, sometimes seemingly by
the hour.
“Business owners scrambling to figure out their supply chains and
exposure to tariffs is more than just a distraction,” according to
Brian Jacobsen, chief economist at Annex Wealth Management. “It
could be an existential threat, especially for smaller businesses
that don’t have the scale or resources to have the same supply chain
flexibility as larger firms.”
All told, the S&P 500 rose 40.44 points to 5,525.21. The Dow Jones
Industrial Average added 20.10 to 40,113.50, and the Nasdaq
composite jumped 216.90 to 17,382.94.
In stock markets abroad, indexes rose modestly across much of Europe
following more mixed movements in Asia. Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 jumped
1.9%, but stocks in Shanghai slipped 0.1%.
In the bond market, Treasury yields eased some more, and the yield
on the 10-year Treasury fell to 4.25% from 4.32% late Thursday.
It’s been generally falling since approaching 4.50% earlier this
month in a surprising rise that suggested investors worldwide may
have been losing faith in the U.S. bond market’s reputation as a
safe place to park cash.
Yields have dropped as several reports on the U.S. economy have come
in weaker than expected, bolstering expectations that the Federal
Reserve may cut interest rates later this year to support growth.
A report on Friday morning said sentiment among U.S. consumers sank
in April, though not by as much as economists expected. The survey
from the University of Michigan said its measure of expectations for
coming conditions has dropped 32% since January for the steepest
three-month percentage decline seen since the 1990 recession.
The value of the U.S. dollar meanwhile held steady against the euro
and other rival currencies. It’s been recovering some of its sharp,
unexpected losses from earlier this month that had rattled
investors.
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AP Writers Jiang Junzhe and Matt Ott contributed.
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