Traders work on the floor at the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York City, U.S., August 6, 2025.
Jeenah Moon | Reuters
The Nasdaq Composite rose on Thursday, led by gains in Nvidia and Apple, as President Donald Trump unveiled new chip tariffs that include a broad exemption.
The tech-heavy Nasdaq traded higher by 0.4%. However, the S&P 500 traded below the flatline. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 288 points, or 0.7%. The blue-chip index was bogged down by a 2% decline in Caterpillar shares on the heels of the construction and engineering equipment maker warning of the effects of tariffs on its business.
Trump announced late Wednesday that he will impose a 100% tariff on imported semiconductor chips, but not for companies that are “building in the United States.” Nvidia shares rose more than 1%, while Advanced Micro Devices climbed 6%. The VanEck Semiconductor ETF (SMH) likewise popped more than 1%.
Apple also ticked up about 3% after the iPhone maker announced plans to spend an additional $100 billion on U.S. companies and suppliers over the next four years. That’s on top of a $500 billion announcement Apple made in February.
“We’re going to be putting a very large tariff on chips and semiconductors,” Trump said in the Oval Office on Wednesday. “But the good news for companies like Apple is if you’re building in the United States or have committed to build, without question, committed to build in the United States, there will be no charge.”
The market has been shrugging off the Trump administration’s “reciprocal” tariffs, which went into effect Thursday. In a post on Truth Social, the president wrote that “BILLIONS OF DOLLARS IN TARIFFS ARE NOW FLOWING INTO THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA!”
Additionally, recent economic data, including weekly jobless claims, signaled the U.S. economy may still be in solid shape. This comes after July’s weaker-than-expected jobs reading rattled the market last week.
“There’s a lot to digest around tariffs and trade right now, and usually when you see a lot of complication around a macro environment that’s not immediately negative to the economy or profits, the market … puts it to the side, and I think that’s what we’re seeing right now,” Anthony Saglimbene, Ameriprise chief market strategist. “The market is just kind of concentrating on what it can discount right now, which is still a firm economic backdrop and strong earnings.”
S&P 500 earnings are currently on track to grow by 11% in the second quarter versus the same period a year ago, according to FactSet. That’s almost three times the 4% seen at the end of June, per Goldman Sachs.
“It’s kind of going with that until it seeks more evidence of what the impacts of the tariffs will be,” he continued, adding that he expects the impacts from Trump’s tariffs to start showing up in economic data in the fall.
Stocks are coming off of a positive session. Week to date, the S&P 500 has moved up 1.6%, and the Nasdaq has added almost 3%. The 30-stock Dow has advanced nearly 1%. Prior to Wednesday’s modest gains, the S&P 500 had notched five losing sessions over the past six trading days, and the Dow had had six negative days in the past seven.