US: Stocks shrug off economic jitters to close higher

[NEW YORK] Wall Street stocks closed higher on Friday (Mar 21) after fluctuations, shaking off ongoing economic uncertainty including those triggered by US President Donald Trump’s tariff plans – following his comments that these will contain some flexibility.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 0.1 per cent to 41,985.35, and the broad-based S&P 500 edged up 0.1 per cent as well to 5,667.56.

The tech-focused Nasdaq Composite Index jumped 0.5 per cent to 17,784.05.

“There is certainly some hesitation, as we still have a lot of the trade uncertainties ahead of us with the Apr 2 reciprocal tariff announcements,” said Angelo Kourkafas of Edward Jones.

On Apr 2, Trump has promised reciprocal levies tailored to each US trading partner, to remedy practices deemed unfair by Washington.

But the president told reporters on Friday that “there’ll be flexibility” in his plans, and markets appeared to react with some relief at day-end.

Kourkafas cautioned however that “we don’t know what’s going to happen necessarily, how long it’s going to last, which could keep volatility elevated.”

Among individual companies, shares in package delivery firm FedEx closed 6.5 per cent down after it lowered forecasts for this year, noting weakness and uncertainty in the US industrial economy.

Athletic footwear and apparel giant Nike saw its shares fall by 5.5 per cent after earlier reporting a decline in quarterly revenues. AFP

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