Connect with us

Finance

Stock market posts third biggest gain in post-WWII history on Trump’s tariff about-face

Published

on

Trader work on the floor at the New York Stock Exchange.

Brendan McDermid | Reuters

Wednesday’s jaw-dropping stock-market rally on President Donald Trump’s surprising tariff reversal is one for the history books.

The S&P 500 skyrocketed 9.52% in a kneejerk reaction to Trump’s announcement to put a 90-day pause on some of the lofty ‘reciprocal’ tariffs. The one-day gain ranks as the third biggest since World War II for the main stock market benchmark, according to FactSet.

The Nasdaq Composite jumped 12.16%, notching its largest one-day jump since January 2001 and second-best day ever. 

“This is the pivotal moment we’ve been waiting for,” said Gina Bolvin, president of Bolvin Wealth Management Group. “The immediate market reaction has been overwhelmingly positive, as investors interpret this as a step toward much-needed clarity.”

The market was a coiled spring after a brutal four-day stretch that briefly pushed the S&P 500 into bear-market territory. Over the course of the previous four trading sessions, the S&P 500 suffered a 12% loss, a decline not seen since the pandemic. The Dow lost more than 4,500 points during the four-day stretch, while the Nasdaq was down more than 13%.

While stocks managed to recoup much of the losses, investors are not completely out of the woods as Trump vows to reorient global trade. The president said more than 75 countries contacted U.S. officials to negotiate after he unveiled his new tariffs last week.

“It’s still too early to signal an all clear,” said Dave Sekera, Morningstar’s chief U.S. market strategist. “Trade negotiations have yet to start and once they do, there will be positive and negative headlines as each party positions itself to extract the maximum amount of concessions possible.”

 

Continue Reading
Click to comment

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Finance

Bank of America (BAC) earnings Q1 2025

Published

on

Brian Moynihan, chief executive officer of Bank of America Corp., during a Bloomberg Television interview in New York, US, on Tuesday, March 19, 2024. 

Jeenah Moon | Bloomberg | Getty Images

Bank of America is scheduled to report first-quarter earnings before the opening bell Tuesday.

Here’s what Wall Street expects:

  • Earnings: 82 cents per share, according to LSEG
  • Revenue: $26.99 billion, according to LSEG
  • Provision for loan losses: $1.58 billion, per StreetAccount
  • Trading Revenue: Fixed income of $3.46 billion, Equities of $2.12 billion

Bank of America shares have sold off in recent weeks on concern that President Donald Trump’s tariff policies could cause a recession.

The company’s stock has fallen more than 16% this year through Monday.

But, if it’s anything like its peers, Bank of America is likely to have benefited from a boost in trading revenue in the quarter, while consumer credit and wealth management held up in the period.

JPMorgan Chase, Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs each exceeded analysts’ estimates on a boom in equities trading revenue as banks took advantage of volatility in the quarter.  

This story is developing. Please check back for updates.

Continue Reading

Finance

Webull stock soars in second trading day after completing SPAC merger

Published

on

Anthony Denier, CEO fo Webull, speaks during an interview on CNBC on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York City, U.S., June 1, 2022. 

Brendan McDermid | Reuters

Shares of Webull soared nearly 375% on Monday, the second day on the market for the stock-trading app, which completed its merger last week with SK Growth Opportunities Corp., a special-purpose acquisition company (SPAC).

The rally gives Webull a market cap of almost $30 billion.

Webull competes with Robinhood, Charles Schwab and E-Trade. The app lets investors buy and sell shares and options in individual securities, exchange-traded funds and cryptocurrencies, and offers charts, watchlists, screening tools and paper trading.

The company says it has over 23 million registered users and operates in 15 regions globally. In addition to charging fees on trades, Webull has a premium tier with real-time data that costs $40 per year.

In an investor presentation last month, the company said it was expecting $390.2 million in 2024 revenue, which would be roughly flat from 2023.

Former Alibaba and Xiaomi manager Wang Anquan founded Webull in 2016, and he remains the company’s global CEO. Investors include Coatue, General Atlantic and Lightspeed. The app gained popularity during the Covid pandemic, as U.S. citizens used stimulus checks to invest, Anthony Denier, the company’s group president and U.S. CEO, told CNBC in 2021. Webull users are “much more intellectual” than Robinhood’s, Denier has said.

In November, the U.S. House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party sent a letter to Denier inquiring about the company’s ties to China. The company didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

The rise of blank-check companies such as SK Growth Opportunities peaked in 2021, with 613 IPOs completed, according to SPAC Insider. The market fell apart the following year as soaring inflation and rising interest rates pushed investors out of risky assets. So far this year there have been 23 SPAC IPOs.

Webull said last year that it was planning for its market debut to take place in the second half of 2024.

WATCH: House Committee slams Webull over alleged ties to Chinese Communist Party

House Committee slams Webull over alleged ties to Chinese Communist Party

Continue Reading

Finance

Zero-day options are fueling the unprecedented volatility on Wall Street amid tariff chaos

Published

on

A trader works on the floor at the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York City, U.S., April 11, 2025. 

Brendan Mcdermid | Reuters

Wild intraday gyrations in stocks since “liberation day” have put investors more on edge than ever, and the popularity of zero-day-to-expiration options is partly to blame.

Zero-day-to-expiration options are contracts that expire the same day that they’re traded. The trading volume of 0DTE options tied to the S&P 500 surged to 8.5 million in April, a 23% jump since the beginning of the year and accounting for roughly 7% of the total volume in U.S. option markets, according to data from JPMorgan.

These securities have become a popular tool for investors, big and small, to make a quick buck or hedge against sudden event-driven moves in the broader market. Many argued that large volumes of these short-lived vehicles can exacerbate price swings in the market as dealers and market makers buy and sell underlying assets to balance their positions. 

“You’re seeing the zero data options market amplify and exaggerate almost up or down. If you go back 10, 20 years, you didn’t have these catalysts,” said Jeff Kilburg, KKM Financial CEO and CIO. “It’s almost like gasoline on a fire when you see a move being exaggerated by the underlying options move.”

Stock Chart IconStock chart icon

hide content

S&P 500

Volatility surged as Trump introduced steep tariffs on U.S. key trading partners and repeatedly reversed and changed his own policy. On Wednesday, the S&P 500 posted its third-biggest gain in post-World War II history, following a four-day rout that briefly pushed it into bear market territory. Last week also saw the Dow Jones Industrial Average fall at least 1,500 points on back-to-back days, the first time in history.

S&P 500’s intraday volatility almost doubled last week to 44%, exceeding the 2020 highs and is now reaching levels last seen during the depth of the 2008 financial crisis, according to data from Cboe Global Markets. This extreme uncertainty fueled the demand for 0DTEs as investors look to hedge risk and take advantage of the volatility.

“We find that 0DTE (+1DTE) have been instrumental in driving more intraday volatility, with this higher intraday activity not necessarily getting captured on a close-to-close basis,” Maxwell Grinacoff, UBS’ head of U.S. equity derivatives research, said in a note.

These options are also made more accessible for retail investors using online broker Robinhood. An option is a contract that gives its owner the right, but not the obligation, to buy or sell a specific amount of an underlying asset at an agreed-upon price, known as the strike price, and on a specific date.

“Options have been an institutional tool for decades now, and the sophistication of retail investors is allowing more and more people to utilize options to hedge or to simply speculate,” Kilburg said.

Continue Reading

Trending