The S&P 500 rose on Friday, adding to its strong gains for the week, as investors continue to navigate an evolving global trade landscape while major tech names got a boost.
The broad market benchmark ended 0.74% higher at 5,525.21, while the Nasdaq Composite added 1.26% to end at 17,282.94. The Dow Jones Industrial Average lagged, but managed to close 0.05%, or 20 points higher, at 40,113.50.
Alphabet rose 1.5% after the Google parent and "Magnificent Seven" name reported a beat on the top and the bottom lines for the first quarter. Tesla, meanwhile, popped 9.8%, while fellow megacap names Nvidia and Meta Platforms advanced 4.3% and 2.7%, respectively.
The major averages rose on the week, notching their second positive week out of three. The S&P 500 gained 4.6%, while the Nasdaq climbed 6.7%. The Dow has underperformed but still cinched a one-week advance of 2.5%. With these latest gains, Nasdaq is now slightly positive for the month, but the S&P 500 is down 1.5% month to date. The Dow has fallen 4.5% so far in April.
Stocks have been taken for a wild ride in recent weeks, as traders try to make sense of the severity of President Donald Trump's tariffs first unveiled on April 2. Mixed messaging around trade has added to the volatility.
China said Thursday that there were no talks with the U.S. on a potential trade deal. This came after the U.S. appeared to soften its stance on trade relations with China.
On Friday, Time magazine published comments from Trump that said he would consider it a "total victory" if the U.S. has high tariffs of 20% to 50% on foreign countries a year from now. But his Tuesday comments published Friday also said the president expects announcements on many deals to be coming "over the next three to four weeks."
Adding to the confusion, Trump told reporters from Air Force One that he would not drop tariffs on China unless "they give us something."
Still, going forward, Jay Hatfield, founder and chief investment officer of InfraCap, is optimistic that the worst of the tariff-induced uncertainty is over.
"The confusion about whether there's really talks going on with China or not took some steam out of the market," he told CNBC in an interview. "Our view is that we've reached peak tariff tantrum and so it's likely to be more positive than negative."
Hatfield believes the key driver for markets next week will be earnings from big hyperscaler firms such as Microsoft and Amazon.
All three major indexes finished higher on Friday, making them positive on the week.
The S&P 500 added 0.74%, finishing at 5,525.21. The Nasdaq Composite rose 1.26% and settled at 17,382.94. The Dow Jones Industrial Average lagged with a gain of 20.10 points, or 0.05%, and closed at 40,113.50.
The damage to U.S. equities has already been done, Deutsche Bank wrote in a Friday note.
"For now markets continue to recover with U.S. assets in particular catching up on lost performance after the recent normalization of policy from the US administration," wrote Jim Reid, the firm's global head of macro and thematic research. "My view is that the damage to U.S. exceptionalism will be longer lasting but that it's understandable that there'll be a relief recovery after the U.S. has come back from the brink policy wise."
Going forward, Reid added that the performance of the "Magnificent Seven" tech titans will be of the utmost importance.
"It's also worth noting that before Liberation Day the Mag-7 were notably underperforming, especially since DeepSeek's arrival onto the scene and a generally disappointing Q4 earnings season for the group," he added. "How the Mag-7 perform from here will dictate a lot of the U.S. exceptionalism trade."
Piper Sandler believes the Trump administration is unlikely to engage in major tariff negotiations, at least in the near term.
"Trump has not pivoted on trade. Tariffs today are higher than his most ambitious proposals during the 2024 campaign and are at the highest levels in more than a century. Trump has always been and remains the driver of the trade agenda," the firm wrote in a Friday note. "There are likely to be few, if any, comprehensive deals with our major trading partners over the next couple of months."
Piper Sandler added that a tariff de-escalation looks especially unlikely, given the president's previous comments that he was willing to accept some economic softening.
"It seems much more likely that absent considerably more economic pain, Trump is going to leave tariffs roughly where they are today. We think Trump's pain threshold remains high and investors should remain defensive until evidence accumulates Trump's pain threshold has been reached," Piper Sandler said.
One-third of the way through first-quarter earnings season and with the busiest week coming up next week, corporate results have been better than expected so