Merchants work on the ground on the New York Inventory Trade in New York Metropolis, U.S., April 30, 2025.
Brendan McDermid | Reuters
The S&P 500 posted slender features Wednesday in a bout of risky buying and selling after information confirmed that the U.S. economic system contracted within the first quarter and traders’ recession fears ramped up.
The broad market index superior 0.15% to shut at 5,569.06, whereas the Nasdaq Composite slipped 0.09% to finish at 17,446.34. The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 141.74 factors, or 0.35%, settling at 40,669.36.
Whereas the S&P 500 and the Dow in the end notched their seventh consecutive successful day, traders endured a rocky session. At their lows, the S&P 500 was down almost 2.3%, whereas the Dow slid greater than 780 factors.
S&P 500 over the day
First quarter gross home product declined at a 0.3% rate, the Commerce Division mentioned on Wednesday, a speedy reversal from a 2.4% improve within the fourth quarter. Some merchants famous that the figures had been skewed by a 41% surge in imports within the final quarter as corporations seemed to get forward of President Donald Trump’s tariffs. The report additionally confirmed a giant slowdown in shopper spending and a decline in authorities expenditures amid Elon Musk’s DOGE cuts.
Different information pointed to an economic system that was nonetheless hanging in there. Client spending within the first quarter grew at its slowest quarterly pace since 2023. A separate report confirmed that spending was up 0.7% in March, topping the 0.5% economists anticipated.
A rocky April
In a post on Truth Social, Trump blamed a “Biden ‘Overhang'” following the weak GDP numbers, telling individuals to “BE PATIENT!!!” and that his insurance policies “will take some time” to take impact.
“The continuous sequence of coverage reversals has led to very excessive ranges of uncertainty for companies and traders,” mentioned Scott Helfstein, head of funding technique at International X ETFs. “This report needs to be a canary within the coal mine for the brand new administration, however maybe their willingness to inflict financial ache in pursuit of the long-term objectives was underestimated.”
Merchants managed to look previous the bitter information and get again right into a shopping for temper late Wednesday, capping a exceptional comeback in shares for April.
Trump’s sweeping “reciprocal” tariff announcement on April 2 despatched the inventory market right into a tailspin, with the S&P 500 down greater than 11% at one level for the month and off by almost 20% from its February document. A rebound ensued as Trump walked again the stiffer duties.
Finally, the S&P 500 ended April with a roughly 0.8% loss, whereas the Dow was down 3.2% for the interval. It was the third straight shedding month for each. The Nasdaq posted a virtually 0.9% advance for the month.
