(Reuters) – U.S. stock index futures rose Wednesday, stabilizing after volatility in the previous session as investors assessed the impact of President Donald Trump’s protectionist tariffs on foundation metal imports and looked at key inflation reports.
He said Trump’s 25% obligation to all steel and aluminum imports, which he announced last month, has come into effect, and that the European Commission will retaliate with a rebuttal starting next month, and will become the latest US trading partner in Loggerheads with the administration.
Companies such as Ford, General Motors, Howmet and Honeywell used steel and aluminum in their supply chains, but little has changed in pre-market transactions.
Financial markets are in turmoil and analysts are warning of capital flights from Wall Street as concerns that Trump’s shaky tariff policies could blow out inflation and possibly cause a recession.
Uncertainty has led companies to refrain from investing and lower forecasts, making Delta, Cole and Walmart the latest.
The tech-heavy NASDAQ confirmed the revision last week, but the benchmark S&P 500 has come close to seeing a 10% drop from its February high in the previous session.
Goldman Sachs became the first broker to reduce its benchmark index’s 2025 end target from 6,500 to 6,200, but JPMorgan sees a recession risk of about 40% from a 30% chance at the start of the year.
At 5:39am, the Dow E Minis rose 196 points, up 0.47%, the S&P 500 E-Minis 36 points (0.65%) and the Nasdaq 100 E-Minis 149.25 points (0.77%).
The radar also shows the February consumer price index figures, expected at 8:30am ET. Economists hope that the data will point to cooling inflation from the previous month, but the blow from tariffs could be reflected in future reports.
Interest rate futures point to the US Federal Reserve, which has not changed its borrowing costs until June at its meeting next week. However, traders expect signs of economic debilitation could force central banks to offer interest reductions worth at least 75 basis points by December.
In the top move, Intel jumped 8.2% in pre-market trading after TSMC said it had pitched chip designers Nvidia, Advanced Micro Devices and Broadcom for taking stakes in chip designer Nvidia, advanced micro devices and joint ventures to operate the factory of US chip companies.
Nvidia rose 1.6%, while Advanced Micro Devices and Broadcom each added 0.9%.
Walmart fell 0.7%. According to national media, Chinese authorities met with representatives this week to discuss media coverage and discussed media reports that they asked Chinese suppliers to cut prices to offset US tariffs.
