US stock futures climbed on Tuesday as investors assessed President Donald Trump’s wave of first-day orders and the prospect of historic tariffs being imposed on Mexico and Canada within weeks.
Futures on the Dow Jones Industrial Average futures (YM=F) and the S&P 500 (ES=F) both rose roughly 0.4%. Contracts on the Nasdaq 100 (NQ=F) put on about 0.5% as Nvidia (NVDA) and other big tech megacaps ticked higher.
Wall Street is bracing for likely volatility in markets on the first trading day of Trump’s second term in office, as the new president storms ahead with his policy agenda, with energy and trade in focus. US markets were closed Monday for the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday.
Markets got a dose of relief as Trump held off from firing off the barrage of universal tariff hikes expected by many on his first day in office. China got a surprise reprieve as Trump failed to act on promised high duties on its imports. US stock futures rose, and the dollar (DX-Y.NYB) pulled back from a near two-year high in the wake.
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But the mood shifted after Trump said on Monday evening that he was looking at imposing 25% duties for Mexico and Canada from Feb. 1. And Chinese stocks (000300.SS) closed out Tuesday with only slight gains, suggesting investors aren’t convinced that a US-China reset is coming to avert a trade war.
Meanwhile, the 10-year Treasury yield (^TNX) fell nearly 4 basis points to around 4.59% on Tuesday, recovering somewhat from a deeper drop in Asia trading amid the initial reaction.
Bitcoin has been on a ride, rising to a record higher above $109,000 on Monday as Trump was sworn in and the new president issued an official TRUMP “memecoin” token. The leading digital currency then fell steeply early Tuesday after a hoped-for pro-crypto push failed to appear in the first policy actions. It has since recovered somewhat to trade slightly higher at $103,804.
The next batch of quarterly earnings will provide other food for thought for investors. Netflix (NFLX) is expected to deliver strong results, while Charles Schwab (SCHW), D.R. Horton (DHI) are also on the crowded docket.
Coming soon
Stock market coverage for Tuesday, January 21, 2025.