
US stocks edged higher on Wednesday, eyeing a rebound from a sharp sell-off, amid hopes that President Donald Trump could soon scale back his new tariffs on Canada and Mexico. But a soft print on labor-market hiring revived worries about a slowdown.
The S&P 500 (^GSPC) rose about 0.1% while the Dow Jones Industrial Average (^DJI) was roughly flat. The Nasdaq Composite (^IXIC) was up about 0.2%. Both the S&P 500 and Nasdaq entered Wednesday’s trading session near four-month lows.
A fresh look at the jobs market Wednesday provided another sign of potential cracks in the economy. Data from ADP showed that private-sector companies added just 77,000 jobs in February, a significant slump from January and also far below economist expectations. The ADP print is one in a series of jobs readings that tee up Friday’s all-important nonfarm-payrolls report.
As of 10:01:39 AM EST. Market Open.
^GSPC ^DJI ^IXIC
Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick threw a wrench in tariff developments late Tuesday, saying an existing Trump trade deal could provide a pathway to relief on some imports for Canada and Mexico as soon as Wednesday.
Late Tuesday, the president sent a message to markets, saying in an address to Congress, “There’ll be a little disturbance, but we’re OK with that. It won’t be much.” Trump is widely believed to watch Wall Street’s performance closely as a measure of how well he’s doing.
A wave of selling hit stocks in recent days as investors fretted over potential harm to the economy from Trump’s escalating trade war. The S&P 500 hit its lowest level in four months on Tuesday, erasing all of its post-election gains, amid retaliation to Trump implementing 25% tariffs on Canada and Mexico and doubling duties on China.
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