Wall Street today: US stocks pare gains amid worries over escalating US-China trade war

US stocks pared gains on Monday amid worries over escalating trade war between the US and China.

Tech-heavy Nasdaq, after rallying over 2% in the morning session on the Trump administration’s move to exempt smartphones and computers from the sweeping tariffs, turned negative for a brief timeperiod.

As of 1:20 PM EDT, the S&P 500 was 0.51% higher, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 0.47%, and the Nasdaq Composite rose 0.27%.

As of 11:19 AM EDT, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 0.87%, the S&P 500 rose 1.10%, and the Nasdaq Composite gained 1.13%.

At the opening bell, the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 333.4 points, or 0.83%, to 40,546.15. The S&P 500 rose 78.6 points, or 1.47%, to 5,441.96​, while the Nasdaq Composite rose 396.0 points, or 2.37%, to 17,120.442.

Among tech stocks, Apple rose 2.69%, Nvidia fell 0.81%, Dell Technologies gained 3.77%, Microsoft lost 0.49%, and Meta Platforms slipped 1.84%. 

Tariff Exemption for Electronics

A statement by the US Customs and Border Protection office late Friday said smartphones, laptops, memory chips and other products would be excluded from the global levies President Trump had imposed a week ago.

The exemption of 20 product types accounting for 23% of US imports from China was a boon for manufacturers.

On Sunday, Trump had said he would be announcing the tariff rate on imported semiconductors over the next week, keeping market participants on the edge.

He had also said that the exemptions had been misconstrued and that no country would get "off the hook".

In the bond market,the yield on 10-year Treasuries declined 9 basis points to 4.40%.

The US dollar declined against the yen, down 0.15% to 143.74. The euro fell slightly to $1.132, from near a three-year high of $1.1474 hit last week.

Bullion

Gold prices fell more than 1% on Monday, retreating from a record high hit earlier in the session.

Spot gold was down 1.2% at $3,199.09 an ounce, as of 09:24 AM ET (1324 GMT), after hitting an all-time high of $3,245.42. US gold futures fell 0.9% to $3,215.70.

Spot silver slipped 1.1% to $31.91 an ounce, while platinum gained 0.5% to $947.05. Palladium rose 3.4% to $946.36.

Crude oil

Oil prices gained on Monday on reducing risk of an end to Iran's exports.

US crude rose 0.86% to $62.03 a barrel and Brent rose to $65.34 per barrel, up 0.9%.