Investors push past tariff angst to power stocks to fresh all-time highs

US stocks hit records, and Nvidia closed above a $4 trillion market cap for the first time. Investors looked past tariffs and toward earnings season.

  • US stocks rose on Thursday to hit all-time highs, with traders looking past tariff concerns.
  • Trump fired off a salvo of trade updates this week, including a 50% tariff on copper.
  • Investors are looking ahead to earnings. Delta Air Lines spiked after reporting results.

US stocks broke fresh records on Thursday as traders shrugged off the latest tariff developments and drove a new risk-on rally heading into earnings season.

Major stock averages climbed on Thursday, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average gaining more than 250 points and the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq Composite clinching record highs. The rally powered past President Donald Trump's latest trade updates, including 50% tariffs on copper, as well as 50% tariffs on goods from Brazil.

Here's where US indexes stood at the 4 p.m. closing bell on Wednesday:

S&P 500

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Dow Jones Industrial Average

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Nasdaq 100

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The rally is one of the clearest signs investors aren't fretting over Trump's latest salvo in the trade war. The president announced a slew of tariff updates this week on more than 20 countries, and pushed out his original deadline for trade deals to August 1, a deadline he later committed to as the final date when duties will kick in.

"I find it very unlikely at this point," Aaron Hill, a chief analyst at FP Market, said of Trump sticking to the August 1st deadline in a note. "Investors are likely to remain complacent regarding Trump's approach to policy setting for now, and US equities are expected to continue finding a bid."

Traders are feeling confident that Trump will eventually back down on his tariff policy in order to support the market — in other words, that the TACO trade is still on.

"SO long as TACO is alive, the light is going to be green for the risk-on trade. Investors continue to be warm to the view that we are more likely to see further deferrals than the onset of a US-led global trade war," David Rosenberg, a top economist and the president of Rosenberg Research, wrote in a note.

"I remain in the camp that when all the dust settles, there will be freer trade with fewer tariffs, since many countries cannot fight with the US," Louis Navellier, the chairman of Navellier & Associates, wrote in a note.

Here are other big moves in the market on Friday:

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Shares of rare earth mining company MP Materials jumped more than 50% after the US Department of Defense took a big stake.

Bitcoin and Nvidia also unlocked fresh records this week amid the shift to risk-on.

The crypto surpassed $113,000 for the first time on Thursday.

Nvidia rose nearly 1% in Thursday's session after becoming the first-ever company to reach a $4 trillion valuation on Wednesday. The stock is now up 867.8% since November 2022, when ChatGPT first debuted.

"There is one company in the world that is the foundation for the AI Revolution and that is Nvidia with the Godfather of AI Jensen having the best perch and vantage point to discuss overall enterprise AI demand and the appetite for Nvidia's AI chips looking forward," Dan Ives, an analyst at Wedbush Securities, wrote in a note on Wednesday.

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