Stocks waver as investors ponder what to make of rising economic uncertainty

For President Trump, the barrage of tariffs the U.S. is ready to unleash on the country's largest trading partners on April 2 amounts to "Liberation Day," as he described the trade measures Thursday on social media. To the Federal Reserve, as Chair Jerome Powell relayed on Wednesday, tariffs are a broadside on economic growth.

Where does that leave investors? In morning trade, scratching their heads. Stocks slipped shortly after markets opened Thursday, only to rebound following the release of jobless claims data showing the labor market holding steady. As of 10:15 a.m. EST, the S&P 500 was up 15 points, or 0.3%, to 5,690; the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.2% and the Nasdaq Composite added 0.4%.

That extended the stock market's modest bounce yesterday after the Fed announced it was standing pat on interest rates, as Wall Street had expected. Indeed, investors may not have learned much from the central bank and Powell's remarks given that economists have already begun forecasting weaker growth and higher inflation as the U.S. moves to deploy tariffs against Canada, China, Europe, Mexico and other countries.