As the week concluded, dominant stock indices largely exhibited a sagging trend by the end of Friday’s trading session, as traders collectively turned their gaze towards the upcoming discussions with delegates from China. The noted Dow Jones Industrial Average index slipped by approximately 0.29%, settling at 41,429.38 points, concurrently, the S&P 500 indexes marked a marginally less decline of 0.07% to wrap the day at 5,659.91 points, while the Nasdaq Composite ended the session unaltered at 17,928.92 points.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average ended the final trading day of the week quite soft, shedding around 119.07 points. This dismal performance somewhat consumed the upward stride from the preceding trading session, following the revelation from the White House that it had concluded a trade pact with Westminster – the first such accord since Trump made the ‘reciprocal’ tariffs public on April 2.
International trade was once again under the spotlight on this particular trading day, with the spotlight on the impending meeting of Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and trade envoy Jamieson Greer with their corresponding Chinese officials in Switzerland over the weekend break. Neither of these officials suggested any changes to the United States’ current 145% tariff rate on Chinese imports.
Despite President Trump implementing a three-month hold on tariffs for the bulk of nations, he tweeted on the eve of the talks that a slightly more than halved ‘80% Tariff on China seems right.’ The large-scale tax on Chinese goods imports into America remains unchanged even after these remarks.
Trump further tweeted confidently on Friday, proclaiming ‘Many Trade Deals in the hopper, all good (GREAT!) ones!’, inducing an air of optimism among the market players. This buoyant tweet was issued a day following the declaration of the President’s preliminary commerce agreement with the United Kingdom, which prompted market players to hold high hopes regarding the possible establishment of a model for the United States to secure similar agreements with other global powerhouses.
Against the backdrop of this impending trade talks and market fluctuations, no significant data releases emerged to shift the narrative on Friday. Instead, the focus was on anticipated verbal inputs from several key Federal Reserve Bank officials, whose words hold the potential to sway market trends.
In the context of individual corporations, the social media platform, Pinterest, bucked the general trend and saw a significant increase in share value. This double-digit hike was a consequence of the company’s projection of a stronger Q2 performance than what market analysts had anticipated.
On the flip side, other corporates like Coinbase and Expedia could not keep up with market expectations. Coinbase shares suffered a drawback due to their Q1 revenues not meeting the anticipation of market analysts, while online travel agency Expedia appeared to lose its traction on the market following poor guidance and a decline in their Q1 revenues.