Dow Jones rallies 300 points on signs of trade deal, but closes worst presidential start since Nixon era
The S&P 500 fell a cumulative 7.3% since January 20, Inauguration Day. The Dow Jones lost 6.8% in the same period.
A reference image from the New York Stock Exchange
Stocks continued their ascent on Tuesday, in the face of the Trump administration's promise that a trade deal with an unidentified country is very close to being signed.
According to The Wall Street Journal, investors are showing some optimism that the recent turmoil in trade and equity markets over tariffs will not affect earnings or the economy as severely as previously feared.
On Tuesday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 300 points, or 0.7%, while the S&P 500 advanced 0.6%, marking its sixth consecutive day of gains.
Meanwhile, the Nasdaq Composite closed with an increase of 0.5% after an extended day full of oscillations.
At the same time, Treasury bond yields and gold prices fell, a reaction to the decrease in demand for so-called "safe-haven assets."
The stock rise came after U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent publicly affirmed that Washington is close to reaching trade agreements with several countries.
"I have a deal done, done, done, done, done," Lutnick said in an interview with CNBC. “But I need to wait for their prime minister and their parliament to give its approval, which I expect shortly."
Earlier, Bessent asserted that the U.S. is moving forward on trade deals with India, South Korea and Japan.
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The Dow and S&P's worst performance since Nixon
Despite these rises, both the Dow Jones and the S&P 500 experienced their worst presidential start, meaning their cumulative performance in the first 100 days in office, since Richard Nixon's second term in 1973.
During Nixon's second term, in the midst of the Watergate scandal, the S&P 500 had a -9.7% return, two points worse than the current performance of this index, which has accumulated a -7.3% return in the first 100 days of Trump, marked by the tariff war.
The Dow Jones, for its part, is not far behind. In the current period, the index lost 6.8%, the worst start since Nixon's second term, according to Dow Jones Market Data. While no specific record of the Dow's performance during the first 100 days of 1973 is available, analysts agree that the start of that year marked one of the index's steepest declines and was greater than the drop in this period.
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