Markets soared Tuesday morning following the Trump administration's decision to delay and revise its latest round of punitive tariffs against China. The Dow jumped more than 400 points while the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq Composite both rose roughly 2 percent.
Earlier this month, President Trump announced that U.S. would impose a 10 percent tariff on $300 billion worth of Chinese imports. The tariffs followed seemingly hollow trade talks in Shanghai and were set to go into effect on September 1.
Yet the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) said on Tuesday that tariffs on certain products should be delayed until December 15. These included “cell phones, laptop computers, video game consoles, certain toys, computer monitors, and certain items of footwear and clothing,” the USTR said in a statement.
The agency added that certain products will be removed all together from the targeted tariff list “based on health, safety, national security and other factors,” and that it will conduct an additional “exclusion process” on other products.
The earlier proposed tariff on $300 billion worth of goods would have essentially blanketed all Chinese imports, which totaled roughly $558 billion in 2018, with tariffs.
President Donald Trump said he has decided to lower his combined tariff rates on imports of Chinese goods to 47% after talks with Chinese leader Xi Jinping on curbing fentanyl trafficking.
Universal Music Group and AI platform Udio have settled a copyright lawsuit and will collaborate on a new music creation and streaming platform. The companies announced on Wednesday that they reached a compensatory legal settlement and new licensing agreements. These agreements aim to provide more revenue opportunities for Universal's artists and songwriters. The rise of AI song generation tools like Udio has disrupted the music streaming industry, leading to accusations from record labels. This deal marks the first since Universal and others sued Udio and Suno last year. Financial terms of the settlement weren't disclosed.
Nvidia on Wednesday became the first public company to reach a market capitalization of $5 trillion. The ravenous appetite for the Silicon Valley company’s chips is the main reason that the company’s stock price has increased so rapidly since early 2023.
Chris Williamson, Chief Business Economist at S&P Global, breaks down September’s CPI print and inflation trends, explaining what it means for markets.
