Dow Futures Edge Higher After Two Days Of Gains: Expert Says Trump Tariffs 'Distorting Pretty Much Everything'

U.S. stock futures were slightly higher on Wednesday after advancing for two consecutive days. Futures of major benchmark indices rose slightly in premarket.

On Wednesday morning, a tariff increase signed by Donald Trump on Tuesday evening took effect, raising duties on steel and aluminum imports from 25% to 50%, with the UK being the sole trading partner exempted from this hike.

This latest action by the president intensifies ongoing trade disputes between the U.S. and major partners like China and the EU.

Meanwhile, the 10-year Treasury bond yielded 4.47% and the two-year bond was at 3.96%. The CME Group's FedWatch tool‘s projections show markets pricing a 98.7% likelihood of the Federal Reserve keeping the current interest rates unchanged in its June meeting.

The SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust SPY and Invesco QQQ Trust ETF QQQ, which track the S&P 500 index and Nasdaq 100 index, respectively, rose in premarket on Wednesday. The SPY was up 0.18% at $597.17, while the QQQ advanced 0.16% to $528.17, according to Benzinga Pro data.

Cues From Last Session:

Sectoral moves led U.S. stocks to close higher on Tuesday. Most S&P 500 sectors ended positively, with energy, materials, and information technology stocks posting the largest gains.

However, communication services and real estate stocks defied the broader market trend, finishing the session in the red.

Nvidia Corp. NVDA shares soared approximately 3%. Dollar General Corp. DG shares skyrocketed about 16% after the company announced stronger-than-anticipated first-quarter earnings and boosted its full-year forecast.

Signet Jewelers Ltd. SIG shares climbed more than 12% on Tuesday following better-than-expected first-quarter financial results and an upward revision of its FY26 guidance.

On the economic data front, U.S. job openings grew by 191,000 to 7.391 million in April, surpassing market expectations of 7.10 million. New orders for U.S.-manufactured goods fell 3.7% month-over-month to $594.6 billion in April, compared to a 3.4% increase in March.

The Dow Jones index ended 214 points or 0.51% higher at 42,519.64, whereas the S&P 500 index rose 0.58% to 5,970.37. Nasdaq Composite advanced 0.81% to 19,398.96, and the small-cap gauge, Russell 2000, gained 1.59% to end at 2,102.98.

Insights From Analysts:

Jim Cramer cautioned that President Trump's erratic trade policies are skewing stock valuations and encouraging short sellers anticipating daily market drops.

The host of CNBC's "Mad Money" stated that Trump's tariff threats and aggressive global stance are rendering accurate stock pricing almost unachievable.

"When you examine the market's mistakes, they share a common theme: the president's distorting pretty much everything, especially with his tariffs and his jingoistic approach to the rest of the world," reported CNBC.

He also explained that in such a situation, investors would rather be short as they expect the market to come down every day.

Talking about equities, analysts at BlackRock said in their weekly note that they have flipped back to being pro-risk in April.

This came after “it became clear that hard economic rules limit how far U.S. policy can move from the status quo, such as how foreign investors fund U.S. debt,” the note stated.

“Our U.S. equity overweight relies on that rule, just as another rule – supply chains can't rewire overnight without serious disruption – proved binding on trade policy. This overweight is grounded in the artificial intelligence mega force – reinforced by Nvidia's earnings beat last week,” BlackRock’s note stated.

See Also: How to Trade Futures

Upcoming Economic Data

Here’s what investors will keep an eye on Wednesday:

• May’s ADP employment data will be out by 8:15 a.m. ET.
• May’s S&P final U.S. services PMI will be released at 9:45 a.m., and ISM services data will be out by 10:00 a.m. ET.
• Atlanta Fed President Raphael Bostic and Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook will speak at the Fed listens event at 10:15 a.m. ET.
• Fed Beige Book will be out by 2:00 p.m. ET.

Stocks In Focus:

• Dollar Tree Inc. DLTR rose 1.84% in premarket on Tuesday as analysts expect it to report quarterly earnings of $1.20 per share on revenue of $4.54 billion, before the opening bell.
• Thor Industries Inc. THO fell 0.19% ahead of its earnings, which are supposed to be released before the opening bell. Analysts expect earnings of $1.76 per share on revenue of $2.61 billion.
• PVH Corp. PVH was 1.79% higher as analysts expect it to report quarterly earnings of $2.24 per share on revenue of $1.93 billion, before the opening bell.
• Crowdstrike Holdings Inc. CRWD dropped 6.5% as it expected second-quarter revenue to be between $1.145 billion and $1.152 billion, versus estimates of $1.23 billion.
• Hewlett-Packard Enterprise Co. HPE advanced 5.14% after reporting better-than-expected second-quarter earnings after the market closed on Tuesday.
• Kosmos Energy Ltd. KOS gained 1.10% after it signed a memorandum of understanding with other firms to extend Ghana production licenses to 2040.
• Mastercard Inc. MA was up 0.081% and PayPal Holdings Inc. PYPL rose 0.38% after the two firms partnered on Mastercard One Credential to allow consumers to choose their payment method at checkout.

Commodities, Gold, And Global Equity Markets:

Crude oil futures were trading lower in the early New York session by 0.52% to hover around $63.08 per barrel.

Gold Spot US Dollar rose 0.26% to hover around $3,362.08 per ounce. Its last record high stood at $3,500.33 per ounce. The U.S. Dollar Index spot was lower by 0.16% at the 99.0700 level.

Asian markets closed higher on Wednesday as India's S&P BSE Sensex, Japan's Nikkei 225, South Korea's Kospi, Australia's ASX 200, China’s CSI 300, and Hong Kong's Hang Seng indices rose. European markets were also higher in early trade.

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