Wall Street futures rose on Monday after the White House exempted smartphones and computers from reciprocal tariffs on China, offering temporary relief to key U.S. tech imports from new levies.
U.S. announced the exemptions on Friday, but Trump has said he would announce tariff rates for imported semiconductors later in the week.
At 7:40 a.m. ET, Dow e-minis were up 406 points, or 1%, S&P 500 E-minis were up 80.75 points, or 1.5%, and Nasdaq 100 E-minis were up 329.25 points, or 1.75%.
Apple gained 5.8% in premarket trading, Dell Technologies was up 6%, Nvidia rose 3%, and Super Micro Computer jumped 5% after the U.S. Customs and Border Protection Agency exempted smartphones, computers, hard drives, memory chips, and other electronics from the latest round of tariffs on U.S. importers. The electronics would be excluded from Trump's 125% tariff on Chinese goods and 10% tax on imports from other trading partners. However, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said the exemptions may be temporary. Appearing on ABC's This Week, Lutnick said Sunday those products were going to be part of the semiconductor sector tariffs, which are going to be announced in the coming week.
Apple, down 21% this year, could be the biggest beneficiary should the new rules remain in place. Apple assembles most of its devices in China, plus India and Vietnam. Estimates say that 80% to 90% of iPhones are made in China.
Intel stock gained 3% in premarket trading. Intel Corp. is nearing an agreement to sell a stake in its programmable chips unit to Silver Lake Management, as the struggling US company begins to spin off non-central businesses and assets.
Goldman Sachs reported a 15% rise in first-quarter profit as market volatility led to record revenue in equities trading and boosted fixed income results. Shares of Goldman Sachs up 2.6% in premarket trading.
Tesla rose 1.2% in premarket trading. It too will benefit from the exemptions, which included flat-screen displays and integrated circuits. The company's electric vehicles all have flat touchscreen displays and come with advanced onboard computers. Tesla is scheduled to report quarterly earnings next week. Tesla shares have declined 38% this year.
Pfizer tumbled 1.1% after saying it would discontinue the development of an experimental drug for weight loss after one patient fell ill. The participant in the Phase 3 clinical trial of danuglipron, a so-called oral glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) receptor agonist, experienced a potential drug-induced liver injury which resolved after discontinuation of the treatment, Pfizer said in a statement.
While shares of other U.S. listed obesity drugmakers rose premarket. Viking Therapeutics up 13%, Novo Nordisk up 3%, Eli Lilly up nearly 2%.
Newmont was down 0.5% in premarket trading after shares of the gold miner rose nearly 8% on Friday and 24% for the week. The stock followed a jump in the the price of gold, which on Friday rose to above $3,200.
Apple took the top spot for global smartphone sales in the first quarter on the back of the iPhone 16e's launch and strong demand in countries such as Japan and India, data from Counterpoint Research showed on Monday.
"As per our current estimates, the tariff announcement did not lead to a major demand increase because of the uncertainty around tariffs and policy. Since Tariffs were announced in April, it did not impact iPhone demand in Q1 2025," said Ankit Malhotra, senior research analyst at Counterpoint.
Facebook parent Meta Platforms faces a high-stakes trial in Washington starting on Monday on claims it built an illegal social media monopoly by spending billions of dollars to acquire Instagram and WhatsApp, in a case where U.S. antitrust enforcers seek to unwind the deals.
The acquisitions more than a decade ago aimed to eliminate nascent competitors who could threaten Facebook's status as the go-to social media platform for users to connect with friends and family, the U.S. Federal Trade Commission claims. It filed the case in 2020 during President Donald Trump's first term.
Italian billionaire Gianluigi Aponte’s family-run business is emerging as the lead investor of a group seeking to buy 43 ports from Hong Kong tycoon Li Ka-shing, people familiar with the matter said, a deal that’s been fiercely opposed by China over US involvement.
The Aponte family’s Geneva-based Terminal Investment Ltd., known as TiL, will be the sole owner of all the ports after the deal is completed except for two in Panama that would be controlled by BlackRock Inc., the people said, asking not to be identified discussing previously unreported details of the deal’s structure.
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