The S&P 500 rallied Friday, climbing back above where it was before President Donald Trump announced his sweeping “Liberation Day” tariffs.
The benchmark stock index had gained 86 points on the day as of Friday afternoon, or 1.5%, placing it at 5,690. On April 2, the day Trump announced wide-ranging tariffs on goods imported from almost every country, the S&P 500closed at 5,671, before it plunged to as low as 4,954 in the following days.
Pauses on some of those tariffs and positive economic data have sparked a stock market rally in recent weeks. The Labor Department’s jobs report on Friday revealed that U.S. employers added 177,000 nonfarm jobs in April. Economists surveyed by Bloomberg had estimated that employers would add 130,000 jobs. The unemployment rate was unchanged at 4.2%.
The April numbers were down from the unexpectedly high 228,000 jobs added in March, but an improvement over the 114,000 average seen in January and February.
Meanwhile, Trump has paused tariffs on many countries to give them time to negotiate. The White House says that dozens of countries have reached out to do so. U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has claimed the move was Trump’s “strategy all along” and not a reaction to market volatility. The U.S. and China remain mostly at a standstill, though some products from China have been exempted from the 125% tariffs slapped on the nation. Markets rose Friday following news that China would be willing to negotiate on trade talks.
Still, economists believe the surest signs of a tariff-related downturn will arrive in the second half of the year, as price hikes linked to the sweeping levies filter down. And some economists predict a recession is coming.
Overall, the S&P 500 is down 3% year-to-date and 6.8% since Trump took office. The Dow Jones Industrial Average is down 6.4% since Inauguration Day, while the Nasdaq has lost 8.6%.
—Shannon Carroll contributed to this article.
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