Wall Street rises again
NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. stocks climbed again on Monday as Wall Street’s wild roller- coaster ride veers back upward. The S&P 500 rose 0.6% for a second straight gain after it fell 10% below its record late last week. The Dow Jones Industrial Average climbed 353 points, or 0.9%, and the Nasdaq composite added 0.3%.
More big swings could be ahead, with a decision by the Federal Reserve on interest rates coming later in the week and worries continuing about President Donald Trump’s trade war.
Stocks have been mostly tumbling on worries that Trump’s rat -a- tat announcements on tariffs and other policies are creating so much uncertainty that they’ll push U.S. households and businesses to freeze their spending, which would hurt the economy. Surveys have shown sharp drops in confidence, and some companies are already warning about changes in behavior from their customers.
A report on Monday said U.S. retailers broadly saw weaker revenue last month than economists expected, but it may not have been quite as bad as it seemed on the surface.
Much of the shortfall in growth versus expectations was due to weaker-than-forecast sales of automobiles and lower fuel costs. Outside of them, the performance was closer to expectations.
Treasury yields initially rose immediately following the report’s release. That’s often an indication of firming confidence among bond investors about the strength of the U.S. economy, though yields quickly yo-yoed afterward through the day.
“In our view, this morning’s February retail sales report offers evidence of a limited, modest economic slowdown, rather than signaling a gathering recession,” said Jennifer Timmerman, investment strategy analyst at Wells Fargo Investment Institute.
It’s a sharp turnaround for investors even to be talking about a possible recession after the U.S. economy closed last year running at a solid rate. Excitement at the time was also building about policies coming from Trump to accelerate growth. To be sure, hiring still remains relatively healthy, and that could help keep the economy growing. But the talk about recession by itself could sap confidence.
That’s the precarious stage onto which Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell will step Wednesday, when he announces the Fed’s latest decision on interest rates.
Virtually no one expects the Fed to make a move Wednesday. The central bank has been keeping rates steady so far this year, preferring to see how conditions play out. Earlier, heading into the end of last year, it had been cutting rates sharply in hopes of relaxing pressure on the U.S. economy after high inflation had slowed.
Wall Street’s focus will be on what Powell says about the rest of the year. Expectations are still high the Fed may cut its main interest rate two or three times in 2025. The risk of cutting interest rates too quickly or aggressively is that it could push up inflation. But keeping rates too high for too long could also create unnecessary pain for the economy by slowing borrowing and overall activity.