US stock futures steadied on Wednesday, holding near recent gains as investors looked to President Trump’s latest comments for more clarity on the scope of looming tariffs.
S&P 500 futures (ES=F) traded broadly flat, following a third winning day in a row for the benchmark index. Contracts on the Dow Jones Industrial Average (YM=F) and on the tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 (NQ=F) were also little changed.
Stocks are on shifting sands as markets respond to changes in tone from Trump on coming tariffs. The major gauges rallied after Trump indicated on Friday and then again on Monday that he might be “flexible” or offer countries “breaks” in reciprocal duties set to take effect on April 2.
As of 8:18:13 AM EDT. Market Open.
YM=F ES=F NQ=F
But Trump told Newsmax on Tuesday that he “doesn’t want to have too many exceptions” to the levies — a potential swing back to the hard line seen earlier in March. Those threats directed at the EU and Canada fueled a sell-off that pushed the S&P 500 into correction territory.
Read more: The latest on Trump’s tariffs
Meanwhile, the White House appears to be accelerating its plans for copper levies. Tariffs on copper imports could be coming within several weeks, months ahead of a deadline for implementing the measures, Bloomberg reported. Copper (HG=F) prices surged to a record on the heels of the news.
In corporates, GameStop (GME) stock jumped around 15% in premarket after the video game retailer’s approval of a plan to buy bitcoin (BTC-USD) with its cash holdings.
Dollar Tree’s (DLTR) shares were up almost 3% after a report the retailer is nearing a sale of its Family Dollar business for around $1 billion, but paring earlier gains on the heels of a quarterly profit miss.
LIVE 3 updates
