Trump's Delay Of EU Tariffs Sparks Rally On Wall Street

(RTTNews) - After moving sharply higher early in the session, stocks saw further upside over the course of the trading day on Tuesday. With the strong upward move, the major averages largely offset the steep losses posted last week.

The Nasdaq shot up 461.96 points or 2.5 percent to 19,199.16, the S&P 500 surged 118.72 points or 2.1 percent to 5,921.54 and the Dow jumped 740.58 points or 1.8 percent to 42,343.65.

The rally on Wall Street came after President Donald Trump announced he is delaying a threatened 50 percent tariff on imports from the European Union.

"I received a call today from Ursula von der Leyen, President of the European Commission, requesting an extension on the June 1st deadline on the 50% Tariff with respect to Trade and the European Union," Trump said in a post on Truth Social on Sunday.

"I agreed to the extension — July 9, 2025 — It was my privilege to do so," he added. "The Commission President said that talks will begin rapidly."

Trump said in a subsequent Truth Social post this morning that the EU has "called to quickly establish meeting dates," which he described as a "positive event."

"I hope that they will, FINALLY, like my same demand to China, open up the European Nations for Trade with the United States of America," he said. "They will BOTH be very happy, and successful, if they do!!!"

The move by Trump came as analysts previously suggested the threatened tariff on the EU was just a negotiating tactic and not where the eventual rate will wind up.

Positive sentiment was also generated in reaction to a report released by the Conference Board showing a substantial improvement by U.S. consumer confidence in the month of May.

The Conference Board said its consumer confidence index spiked to 98.0 in May after plunging to a downwardly revised 85.7 in April.

Economists had expected the consumer confidence index to inch up to 87.3 from the 86.0 originally reported for the previous month.

Sector News

Airline stocks turned in some of the market's best performances on the day, with the NYSE Arca Airline Index soaring by 4.9 percent.

Substantial strength was also visible among semiconductor stocks, as reflected by the 3.4 percent spike by the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index.

Networking, computer hardware and banking stocks also saw considerable strength, moving higher along with most of the other major sectors.

Other Markets

In overseas trading, stock markets across the Asia-Pacific region turned in a mixed performance during trading on Tuesday. Japan's Nikkei 225 Index rose by 0.5 percent, while China's Shanghai Composite Index dipped by 0.2 percent.

Meanwhile, European stocks moved mostly higher on the day. The German DAX Index advanced by 0.8 percent and the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index climbed by 0.7 percent, although the French CAC 40 Index closed just below the unchanged line.

In the bond market, treasuries extended the upward move seen over the two previous sessions. As a result, the yield on the benchmark ten-year note, which moves opposite of its price, tumbled 7.5 basis points to 4.434 percent.