US stock indexes stayed green on Thursday, lifted slightly by Nvidia’s earnings win, but the market had to fight through fresh uncertainty tied to Donald Trump’s tariff policy and a confusing round of legal whiplash.
According to data from CNBC, the S&P 500 rose 0.3% after hitting a 0.9% intraday peak before pulling back. The Nasdaq Composite gained 0.2%, far below the 1.5% jump seen earlier in the day.
The Dow Jones rose by 76 points, or 0.3%, despite a 3.5% drop in Salesforce after it posted disappointing earnings.
Tariff court drama shakes confidence
Wednesday night, the US Court of International Trade ruled that Trump exceeded his authority by slapping on so-called “reciprocal” tariffs. The court ordered those tariffs to be vacated immediately. But the White House responded fast, filing a notice of appeal within hours.
By Thursday afternoon, a federal appeals court had reinstated the levies. Officials inside Trump’s administration also said they might ask the Supreme Court as early as Friday to temporarily freeze the initial ruling if needed.
The sudden back-and-forth around tariffs has kept traders stuck in a cycle of caution. Last month, Trump’s on-again-off-again tariff talk rattled Wall Street, as investors tried to price in what the return of new duties might mean for inflation.
Some companies blamed the policy chaos for pulling back on earnings forecasts. Others flagged the consumer uncertainty it’s creating.
“Markets don’t like uncertainty, because it makes forecasting more difficult,” said Larry Tentarelli, the founder of Blue Chip Daily Trend Report, who added, “We expect the tariff news cycle to be an extended process, which can lead to higher short-term volatility.”
Even with the legal chaos around trade, Nvidia still gave the market something to hold onto. The chipmaker’s stock jumped nearly 3% after its latest earnings report blew past expectations.
Nvidia said its data center business grew 73% year over year in the first quarter. Both revenue and profit came in well above Wall Street estimates. That gave traders a temporary distraction from the situation in Washington.
“Nvidia’s strong report can rejuvenate investor optimism across the board and help investors to focus on the power of AI and less on headlines out of Washington on tariffs and taxes,” said James Demmert, chief investment officer at Main Street Research.
Indexes eye a strong finish to the month
Despite Wednesday’s underwhelming session, all three major indexes are still on track for weekly and monthly gains. The S&P 500 has climbed 1.7% this week. The Dow, made up of 30 big-name stocks, is up 1.2%. The Nasdaq, which skews heavily toward tech, has added more than 2%.
Zooming out to the full month, the numbers are even stronger. The S&P 500 has gained 6% in May. The Dow has gone up 3.5%. The Nasdaq has jumped close to 10%. Some analysts are pointing to those moves as a sign of strength going into the summer.
Ryan Detrick, who is chief market strategist at Carson Group, said that when the S&P 500 sees gains over 5% in May, it’s a strong signal for the next 12 months.
“Then the next 12 months have never been lower and [are] up 20% on average,” he said in a post on X. As of Thursday afternoon, the S&P 500 was holding close to that 6% level. Traders are watching Friday—the final session of May—very closely.
In another headline, on Thursday, Trump met with Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell at the White House. The Fed later said in a statement that Powell told the president that central bank policy decisions would stay rooted in “non-political analysis.” The Fed made clear that Powell didn’t talk about where interest rates are going next.
“Chair Powell did not discuss his expectations for monetary policy, except once, to stress that the path of policy will depend entirely on incoming economic information and what that means for the outlook,” the statement said.
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