Stocks Rise as Trump Says ‘Buy’ Before China Talks: Markets Wrap

(Bloomberg) — Wall Street’s risk-on mood prevailed on Thursday, with stocks up and bonds down as Donald Trump announced a trade deal with the UK while noting that if China talks go well, tariffs could be lowered. Equities also gained after the president said investors should buy shares now.

For a market hoping for an easing of tensions between the US and its top commercial partners, that was enough to boost the S&P 500 – with the gauge briefly topping its April 2 high before the advance subsided. While most major industries rose, gains were led by economically-sensitive sectors. Bitcoin surpassed $100,000. As the safety bid ebbed, gold and haven currencies fell. Treasury yields surged as traders pared bets on interest-rate cuts.

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Trump pitched his trade framework with the UK as a historic achievement, and the first step in his revolutionary effort to overhaul the global economy. As the US prepares for the start of talks with China — the biggest target of Trump’s tariff onslaught — the president said he believed negotiations could result in tangible progress.

“As we get the details of this trade deal today, and find out how much progress the US and China are making towards the most important trade deal this weekend, it should give investors some more clarity about how much of an impact the trade issue will have on the US and global economy going forward,” said Matt Maley at Miller Tabak + Co.

Trump also said that promising trade news paired with Republican efforts to pass legislation extending and expanding his signature tax cuts should be reason for investor optimism.

“This country will hit a point that you better go out and buy stock,” he said.

The S&P 500 rose 0.6%. The Nasdaq 100 gained 1%. The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 0.6%. The Russell 2000 climbed 1.8%.

The yield on 10-year Treasuries advanced 11 basis points to 4.38%. A soft $25 billion sale of 30-year bonds also weighed on the market. The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index rose 0.6%.

“Tariffs are steering the boat again,” said Louis Navellier, chief investment officer at Navellier & Associates. “We are seeing a risk-on sentiment. The fear of missing out on favorable agreements being reached has limited the number of sellers.”

Trade indeed remains the primary story, says Chris Larkin at E*Trade from Morgan Stanley. And markets will likely take their cues from how upcoming negotiations unfold, he added.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer are set to meet in Switzerland with Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng on trade in the coming days. Trump said that if talks went well, he could consider lowering the 145% tariff he has imposed on many Chinese goods.

Icebreaker or Breakthrough?

While the real game-changer would be progress with China, that’s where it gets murky, according Fawad Razaqzada at City Index and Forex.com.

“The weekend meeting between the US and China feels more like a diplomatic icebreaker than a breakthrough moment,” Razaqzada noted. “We could be in for a long, drawn-out negotiation season, which may limit the upside potential for risk assets.”

While we may be incrementally moving toward de-escalation of the global trade war, there is still plenty of uncertainty remaining, not least given the extensive list of countries that still need to obtain individual deals, noted Martin Frandsen at Principal Asset Management.

“Markets will likely need further evidence that the peak uncertainty is tailing before we see a recovery in consumer and business confidence,” he said.

Trump’s fast-evolving tariff war has prompted dizzying swings on Wall Street. Just a month ago, the S&P 500 dropped to the brink of a bear market and later rebounded almost 14% on hopes that trade talks will prove constructive.

“While trade with the UK pales in comparison to trade with our neighbors to the North and South, and especially in comparison to China, it is an important test case and a model for what could be accomplished,” said Chris Zaccarelli at Northlight Asset Management. “If the administration can follow this up with additional agreements, it would go a long way toward healing a stock market that has been battered and bruised this year.”

The US equity benchmark’s median performance following one-month rallies of over 10%, as well as those that occurred after declines of that same magnitude in the prior month, has been better than the average for all periods since 1953, according to Bespoke Investment Group.

Corporate Highlights:

• Adobe Inc. will offer a package of its products to the government at a discounted rate following scrutiny on software spending by the Trump administration.
• Expedia Group Inc. posted weaker-than-expected gross bookings for the first three months of 2025, a sign that domestic travel demand began to soften even before US tariffs shook global markets.
• Lyft Inc. reported better-than-expected gross bookings in the first quarter, drawing a sharp contrast with the disappointing results issued by its much-larger ride-hailing rival Uber Technologies Inc. a day earlier.
• DraftKings Inc. jumped in extended trading as investors looked past a disappointing first quarter hurt by a March Madness basketball tournament that went especially well for gamblers.
• Sweetgreen Inc. cut its annual guidance — another sign that US restaurant spending is softening.
• Illumina Inc. cut its full-year adjusted profit guidance for the second time in three months as it grapples with the impact of tariffs and China banning imports of its gene-sequencing machines.
• Paramount Global, the parent of CBS and MTV, reported first-quarter results that beat analysts’ estimates, reflecting the improving performance of its Paramount+ streaming platform.
• Coinbase Global Inc.’s first-quarter revenue jumped while profit declined as the largest US crypto exchange navigated the volatile price swings of the digital asset market.
• British Airways parent IAG SA is poised to order about 30 Boeing Co. 787 Dreamliner aircraft, according to people familiar with the matter.

Some of the main moves in markets:

Stocks

• The S&P 500 rose 0.6% as of 4 p.m. New York time
• The Nasdaq 100 rose 1%
• The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.6%
• The MSCI World Index rose 0.2%
• Bloomberg Magnificent 7 Total Return Index rose 1.3%
• The Russell 2000 Index rose 1.8%

Currencies

• The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index rose 0.6%
• The euro fell 0.7% to $1.1226
• The British pound fell 0.4% to $1.3242
• The Japanese yen fell 1.5% to 145.93 per dollar

Cryptocurrencies

• Bitcoin rose 4.7% to $101,323.45
• Ether rose 18% to $2,117.36

Bonds

• The yield on 10-year Treasuries advanced 11 basis points to 4.38%
• Germany’s 10-year yield advanced six basis points to 2.53%
• Britain’s 10-year yield advanced nine basis points to 4.55%

Commodities

• West Texas Intermediate crude rose 3.4% to $60.02 a barrel
• Spot gold fell 1.7% to $3,308.29 an ounce

–With assistance from Sujata Rao and John Viljoen.

©2025 Bloomberg L.P.