US stocks edged higher on Friday, recouping part of the week’s losses as investors assessed fresh tariff announcements from President Donald Trump alongside key inflation data.
The S&P 500 gained 0.2%, on track for its first positive close in four sessions. The Dow Jones Industrial Average advanced 191 points, while the Nasdaq Composite was flat. Futures also ticked higher ahead of the opening bell, with Dow futures up 0.2% and both the S&P 500 and Nasdaq futures rising 0.1%.
The modest rebound came after new inflation figures strengthened expectations that the Federal Reserve will continue cutting interest rates. The Fed delivered its first rate cut of the year last week, and investors are watching closely to see how many more reductions could follow.
Markets, however, faced crosscurrents from Trump’s latest trade measures. On Thursday he announced tariffs including a 100% duty on imported pharmaceutical drugs effective next week, as well as new taxes on furniture, cabinetry, and heavy trucks.
He argued that foreign-made products were undermining US producers.
The immediate market reaction was mixed. US pharmaceutical shares rose, but home-furnishing retailers fell, with Wayfair and Williams-Sonoma each sliding about 3% and RH dropping 5%. Paccar, a US truck manufacturer, jumped 6%, while Boeing gained more than 3% after reports that federal safety regulators would ease oversight of the plane maker.
Investors are also awaiting consumer spending data due later Friday, including the Fed’s preferred inflation gauge, which will help guide the central bank’s next policy decision scheduled for late next month.
In Europe, midday trading was upbeat: Germany’s DAX rose 0.7%, France’s CAC-40 added 0.8%, and London’s FTSE 100 climbed 0.5%.
In Asia, markets closed mostly lower as traders reacted to the tariff news. Japan’s Nikkei 225 slipped 0.9%, dragged by losses in pharmaceutical stocks, while South Korea’s Kospi tumbled 2.5%. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index shed 1.4% and Shanghai’s Composite lost 0.7%.
India’s Sensex fell 0.9% and Taiwan’s Taiex dropped 1.7%. Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 was the outlier, edging up 0.2%.
Analysts warned that the targeted US tariffs, though specific, are rattling global sentiment. “Tariffs aimed at pharma may be targeted, but they ripple through investor psychology like a pebble dropped into a still pond,” said Stephen Innes of SPI Asset Management.
