All Content

The first full trading week in April was chaotic as markets swung wildly any time news about tariffs was released. On Monday, the indexes had their largest daily range since March 2020 after a report came out saying that Donald Trump was considering a 90-day pause on most tariffs. Markets rallied after the report came out and then fell again after it was revealed that the report was not correct.

However, on Wednesday, it was announced that Trump was putting a 90-day pause on most reciprocal tariffs. The 10 percent flat tariff on all countries remains in effect while China was hit with a tariff of up to 145 percent. Existing tariffs on goods coming to the United States from Mexico and Canada also remained in place. News of the pause caused indexes to rally as much as 10 percent, which marked one of the best days for equities since World War II.
Although tariff talk dominated the market this week, they were not the only thing that moved prices. On Thursday, inflation data for the month and year were made public. In March, inflation actually fell by .1 percent compared to an expected increase of .1 percent. On an annualized basis, inflation was 2.4 percent compared to a predicted 2.5 percent.

Also on Thursday, unemployment claim data for the last seven days was made public, and during the past week, 223,000 people sought benefits, which was in line with analyst predictions.

On Friday, the Price Producers Index (PPI) came out and found that prices were down .4 percent in March. Core PPI was down .1 percent compared to an expected increase of .3 percent. Finally on Friday, the University of Michigan released its consumer sentiment and inflation expectations report. Consumer sentiment came in at 50.8, which was the lowest in several years. Meanwhile, respondents expect the inflation rate to soar to 6.7 percent in the next 12 months.

The S&P 500 had flirted with bear market territory early in the week as it opened at 4,883 on Monday morning. This would be the low of the week as it made a massive move to the upside on Tuesday and Wednesday. On Wednesday afternoon, the market hit its high of the week at 5,459. For the week, the index gained 477 points, which is an increase of 9.78 percent from Monday’s open.

The Dow also started the week at its lowest point opening at 36,751 on Monday morning. It would also make a significant move to the upside on Tuesday and Wednesday hitting a high of 40,586. On Friday, the market closed at 40,212, which was an increase of 9.39 percent from Monday’s opening price.

Finally, the Nasdaq followed the other two major indexes lower to start the week. On Monday, the market opened at 14,845 before making significant gains the next few days. By Wednesday afternoon, the index roared to a high of 17,107 before reversing to close at 16,724, which was a gain of 12.57 percent from Monday’s opening.

In international news, the European Union (EU) and China both imposed retaliatory tariffs on the United States. The EU has paused those tariffs after Trump paused the tariffs against countries in that bloc.

The upcoming week is sure to be another interesting one as there are several news announcements on the schedule. Retail sales data is due to be released on Wednesday while unemployment claims data comes out on Thursday. Jerome Powell will speak on Wednesday afternoon, which is almost certainly going to gin up some market volatility.