- Markets on Wednesday continued the week’s steady upward climb following earlier news of a tariff truce between the U.S. and China. Semiconductor stocks Nvidia and AMD rose on the day. Meanwhile, the Nasdaq saw the successful debut of the Israeli fintech company eToro—a promising sign for the otherwise stagnant IPO market.
Markets didn’t change much on Wednesday, ending the day roughly where they started. The S&P 500 was practically flat rising less than 0.1%, the Dow finished the day down 0.2%, and the Nasdaq was up 0.5% by market close.
The day’s trading session did see several peaks and troughs in the various indices. At one point mid-afternoon the S&P 500 fell by 0.4% from Wednesday’ s open, before recovering. The Dow was by about 200 points. And the Nasdaq oscillated throughout the day but spent most of the session above the open.
The relatively calm trading day came after the U.S. and China agreed to lower their mutual tariff rates for the next 90-days. That pause gave investors hope the two superpowers would ultimately find an agreement that could restore global trade to some semblance of normalcy. At the very least, they hope that some future accord would provide some long-term clarity about what would or wouldn’t happen in the world economy. The truce between the U.S. and China soothed investor’s worst fears that a recession is imminent.
“The de-escalation of tensions with China presents modest upside risks to our growth forecast, but more importantly, meaningfully reduces risks of recession and a sharper deterioration in the labor market,” Deutsche Bank economists in an analyst note published Wednesday.
U.S. equities all popped at the start of the week after the pause between the U.S.and China was announced late Sunday. Significantly, this week’s performance has tipped the S&P 500 into positive territory for the year with a 0.4% return since January 1. The Dow and the Nasdaq both remain down about 0.8% and 0.9% for the year respectively.
A couple individual semiconductor stocks in Nvidia and AMD rose throughout the day on the back of their own favorable geopolitical news. Nvidia and AMD both announced deals with the Saudi Arabian AI company Humain during President Donald Trump’s state visit across the gulf. Humain reached a deal with Nvidia that will see it purchase 18,000 of its state-of-the-art Blackwell chips. At the same time AMD, which designs chips, announced a $10 billion partnership with Humain. Both stocks rose 4% on the day.
Wednesday also saw the market debut of the Israeli trading app eToro, which had a stellar first day on the Nasdaq. Shares of the company shot up more than 40%. eToro’s introduction to the public markets was somewhat closely watched by investors as a sign of what might be in store for the IPO market this year. The IPO market has been quiet since 2021, a phenomenon that was not helped by this spring’s market tumult.