Wall Street Inches Higher Even as China Ups Its Tariff on American Goods to 125%

“We are doing really well on our tariff policy,” President Trump insists as media and tech stocks open Friday to mixed results

Donald Trump (Getty Images)

After what has felt like a weeklong rollercoaster ride for most investors, Wall Street was off to a relatively tame Friday morning, with the three major indexes all modestly moving higher in early trading. The green morning comes after wild back-to-back days on Wall Street and after China raised its tariff on U.S. goods to 125% earlier on Friday.

Still, President Trump showed confidence that the ongoing tariff battle with China — and the tariff negotiations with several other countries — was going to turn out OK in a Truth Social post soon after markets opened.

“We are doing really well on our TARIFF POLICY,” the president posted. “Very exciting for America, and the World!!! It is moving along quickly. DJT.”

His post comes the day after Wall Street took a big hit — which itself followed a historic rally on Wednesday, following President Trump’s announcement he was pausing his “liberation day” reciprocal tariff plan for 90 days so that countries could work out trade deals with the U.S.

A half hour into trading on Friday, the S&P 500 was up 0.10%, the Dow Jones was up 0.04%, and the Nasdaq was up 0.14%.

Here’s how a number of tech and media stocks are performing:

Meta: -1.01%
Google: +1.97%
Fox Corp.: -0.59%
News Corp.: +0.90%
Amazon: +0.28%
Comcast: +0.56%
WBD: -3.40%
Netflix: +1.66%
Roku: -0.10%
Snap Inc.: +0.32%

Apple’s stock price was up 0.76% to $191.87 per share. The world’s most valuable company has had about $700 billion shaved from its market cap since the president announced his new tariff plan on Apr. 2.

Investors have been spooked because Apple assembles iPhones and a number of other products in China; the company recently flew in planes full of devices to avoid being hit by the new tariff on Chinese imports. President Trump on Thursday raised the tariff on China to 145%.

It will be worth seeing if any trade deals are announced on Friday — something that could give investors a bit more clarity heading into the weekend, compared to a week ago. President Trump on Thursday said he believes “we will be able to work out something that’s good for both countries” when discussing China. Check back after 4:00 p.m. ET to see how the day went for Wall Street.

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