Following a panel of federal judges prohibiting President Donald Trump from imposing some of his far-reaching tariffs on China and other significant U.S. trading partners, stocks finished higher on Thursday.
Thursday afternoon, a federal appeals court decided to temporarily reinstate the tariffs; but, the future of the policy remains unknown.
The S&P 500 rose 0.4%; the Dow Jones Industrial Average closed up 117 points, or 0.2%. The Nasdaq, heavy in technology, rose 0.3%.
Late Wednesday’s verdict from the U.S. Court of International Trade dealt a significant blow to Trump’s tariff program, nullifying charges on dozens of nations announced in a Rose Garden ceremony he had dubbed “Liberation Day.”
Less than a day later, an appeals court decided to reinstate the administrative policy on less than a day’s worth of more time to review the matter.
Should the U.S. Court of International Trade’s decision be maintained, a series of tariffs targeted on Mexico and Canada over their claimed involvement in the fentanyl trade will likewise suffer. The ruling would also nullify a 10% levy applied on almost all items.
The Wednesday verdict gave the Trump government as many as 10 days to stop the tariffs.
Trump had reversed some of the taxes in dispute even before the court rendered its ruling.
Earlier this month, a trade deal between the United States and China cut tit-for–tat tariffs between the two biggest economies and sent the stock market soaring. Wall Street companies started to lower their recession estimates within days.
The U.S.-China agreement came weeks after the White House stopped the reciprocal taxes. Trump relaxed rules on some items imported from Mexico and Canada.
The decision has no bearing on sector-specific tariffs applied under other legal acts, including those aimed at automobiles, steel and aluminum.
