NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. stocks are rising Thursday after President Donald Trump said he was set to announce an agreement on trade with the United Kingdom, the first of what Wall Street hopes will be enough to keep a recession from hitting the economy.
The S&P 500 was 0.6% higher in morning trading and on track for an 11th gain in the last 13 days. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 260 points, or 0.6%, as of 10:35 a.m. Eastern time, and the Nasdaq composite was 0.8% higher.
Stocks have been swinging for weeks with hopes that Trump could reach deals with other countries that would lower his tariffs, which many investors believe would cause a recession if left unchecked. Trump said Thursday that the U.K. agreement is “a full and comprehensive one.”
“Many other deals, which are in serious stages of negotiation, to follow!” he added on his Truth Social account.
It could be an encouraging start, and analysts said they’re curious to see if it will affect the 10% tariffs that Trump placed on all imports coming into the United States on “Liberation Day.” But bigger trading partners could offer bigger hurdles, including China.
The world's second-largest economy again on Thursday called on the United States to cancel its tariffs, ahead of high-level talks between the world's two largest economies that could take place this weekend. That followed Trump saying on Wednesday that he wouldn't reduce his 145% tariffs on Chinese goods as a condition for negotiations.
Besides hopes for deals on trade, strong profit reports from U.S. companies have also helped to drive the S&P 500 closer to its all-time high set in February.
Axon Enterprise, the company that sells Tasers, body cameras and other public safety equipment, jumped 12.5% after joining the list. It benefited from strong growth for its software and services, and it raised its forecast for revenue over the full year.
Tapestry rose 2.7% after the company behind the Coach and Kate Spade brands also reported better profit and revenue than expected. It credited new, younger customers in North America, among other things.
Molson Coors, though, described a different landscape when it released its latest quarterly results, which fell short of analysts’ expectations. Its stock fell 4.9%.
“The global macroeconomic environment is volatile,” CEO Gavin Hattersley said. “Uncertainty around the effects of geopolitical events and global trade policy, including the impacts on economic growth, consumer confidence and expectations around inflation, and currencies has pressured the beer industry and consumption trends.”
It became the latest company to either lower or pull its financial forecasts for 2025 given the uncertainty.
Krispy Kreme tumbled 19.5% after withdrawing its forecasts for the full year. The doughnut seller said it made the move in part because of “macroeconomic softness” and because it’s pausing the rollout of sales of its doughnuts at more McDonald’s restaurants.
The U.S. economy has remained OK so far, with the Federal Reserve saying Wednesday that it still looks to be running at a solid rate underneath the surface. But pessimism has soured sharply among U.S. households because of tariffs, and the fear is that all the uncertainty created by them could be enough to force the economy into a recession.
A couple mixed reports on the economy Thursday did little to clear the caution. One said slightly fewer U.S. workers applied for unemployment benefits last week. But another one said productivity for U.S. workers slowed by more than economists expected during the first three months of the year. That could keep upward pressure on inflation, when tariffs could be set to raise prices for all kinds of imported products.
Treasury yields rose following the reports, and the 10-year yield climbed to 4.32% from 4.26% late Wednesday.
In stock markets abroad, the FTSE 100 slipped 0.3% in London after the Bank of England cut its main interest rate by a quarter of a percentage point.
Indexes were modestly higher across much of the rest of Europe and Asia.
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AP Business Writers Yuri Kageyama and Matt Ott contributed.
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