Dow Jones Today: Stock Futures Surge as Trump Says China Tariffs Will Come Down, Fed Chair Powell Won’t Be Fired

Stock futures are pointing to a sharply higher open on Wednesday after comments from President Donald Trump eased investor concerns about tariffs and Federal Reserve independence. 

Futures tied to the S&P 500 and tech-heavy Nasdaq were recently up 2.5% and 3%, respectively, while those linked to the Dow Jones Industrial Average added 1.8%, or more than 700 points. The major indexes are coming off of big gains on Tuesday, when the Dow added more than 1,000 points, as the stock market rebounded from steep declines to start the week amid rising concerns about the impact of tariffs and Trump’s repeated criticisms of Fed Chair Jerome Powell.

Trump, who recently called Powell a “major loser” and said his “termination cannot come soon enough,” late Tuesday said he has “no intention” of firing Powell, though he would like him to cut interest rates soon. The president also reportedly said that tariffs on China will be “substantially” lower than the 145% rate that is currently applied.

Chip stocks, which have been among the hardest hit amid concerns about the trade war, surged in premarket trading. Nvidia (NVDA), Intel (INTC), Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) and Broadcom (AVGO) all rose more than 5%. The VanEck Semiconductor ETF (SMH) was up 4.5%.

Mega-cap technology stocks were up across the board, led by a 7.5% gain for EV maker Tesla (TSLA), which late yesterday reported weaker-than-expected results but got a boost after CEO Elon Musk pledged to spend more time at the company and less working with the Trump administration. Amazon (AMZN) and Meta Platforms (META) both rose more than 5%, while Apple (AAPL), Microsoft (MSFT) and Alphabet (GOOG) each gained about 3%.

Among the other noteworthy movers after reporting earnings, GE Vernova (GEV) was up nearly 9%, while AT&T (T) and Boeing (BA) rose 3% and 5%, respectively.

Bitcoin continued to gain ground—the digital currency was at $93,700, up from an overnight low of around $91,000 and trading near its highest levels since early March—amid an increase in risk appetite. Stocks tied to crypto, including big bitcoin buyer Strategy (MSTR) and crypto exchange Coinbase Global (COIN), were on the rise this morning.

Gold futures, which hit a record high of around $3,500 an ounce early Tuesday, were down 2.4% at $3,340 this morning, while West Texas Intermediate futures, the U.S. crude oil benchmark, slipped 1.4% to $62.75 per barrel.

The U.S. dollar index, which measures the performance of the dollar against a basket of foreign currencies, was up slightly at 99.12. The index on Monday hit 97.92, its lowest level since March 2022, as Trump’s comments about Powell and his demand that the Fed lower interest rates rattled investors.

The yield on the 10-year Treasury, which influences borrowing costs on all sorts of loans, notably mortgages, was at 4.29% down from 4.39% on Tuesday.