- All the major stock indexes went up on Wednesday after a morning speech by Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent that promised the U.S. would not abandon global trade. Elsewhere in the market, bond yields fell slightly, and the U.S. dollar rose, both encouraging signs.
U.S. stocks continued to rally on Wednesday as markets welcomed news that the White House intended to soften its stance on its hard-line tariff policies.
The S&P 500 went up 1.67%, the Nasdaq a further 2.5%, and the Dow rose 419 points (1.07%) on the day.
Stocks rose for the second consecutive day after they finished Tuesday with a gain. Meanwhile, gold prices came down 3.33% to $3,305 after hitting an all-time high of $3,500 on Tuesday. Gold, along with Bitcoin, has become a safe haven for investors that are eager for cover amid the ongoing turmoil in the equities market. But with stocks stabilizing, demand for those assets subsided.
Investors’ relief stemmed from Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent’s speech Wednesday morning at the Institute of International Finance in Washington, D.C. In his remarks, Bessent assuaged concerns the U.S. would cut itself off from global trade entirely, and reiterated the U.S.’s commitment to remaining a major player in international trade.
“I wish to be clear: America First does not mean America alone,” Bessent said. “To the contrary, it is a call for deeper collaboration and mutual respect among trade partners.”
Bessent also pulled back from the Trump administration’s harsh tone toward China, which had been singled out with 145% tariffs. Now it appears the White House is making more explicit overtures to its Chinese counterparts, inviting them to work on a trade deal.
“Everyone knows [China] needs to change,” Bessent said. “And we want to help it change—because we need rebalancing, too.”
Fears over a full-on trade confrontation that could result in a genuine decoupling between the world’s two largest economies had rippled throughout the markets as a worst-case scenario.
“Today’s incremental illumination of the dark global trade tunnel offers investors a rising degree of assurance regarding the Trump put,” wrote José Torres, senior economist at Interactive Brokers, referring to the investment thesis that Trump will reverse course on tariffs to keep the stock market happy.
The bond market and the U.S. dollar also started to recover after several days of steep declines that had signaled an unusual lack of faith in the U.S. economy. Yields for 20-year and 30-year notes were marginally lower on Wednesday. Yields on the 10-year also fell slightly. The U.S. dollar rose 0.93% against a basket of similar currencies.
Bitcoin ended the day up 0.22%. Wednesday’s moves broke, however marginally, a pattern that had started over the past few days in which Bitcoin moved inversely to equities. Historically, the two had moved in sync with one another.
“We have the intuition that BTC’s strength comes as a consequence of [the dollar index]’s weakness: Bitcoin rallied at the same time as gold, the yen, the Swiss franc, and the euro, against the USD,” said Aurelie Barthere, a research analyst at crypto trading platform Nansen.