Stock Market Update

[BRIEFING.COM] The stock market hit an air pocket in the last half hour in a move that coincided with Commerce Secretary Lutnick's acknowledgment in a CNBC interview that tariff levels on China will not change from here. That equates to 55% for China (10% baseline, 20% fentanyl tariff, and 25% tariff from President Trump's first term).

The Commerce Secretary said, too, that China will approve all applications for rare earth magnets right away and that, after that, the U.S. will remove its countermeasures, but that the U.S. will not give China its best chips.

The market bounced back quickly from the dip, cognizant that President Trump said earlier that China's tariff rate will be 55%, so that number should not have been construed as a real surprise in the context of Mr. Lutnick's interview, although perhaps there was some hope that the 55% tariff rate would be lowered, and in that sense, it is a bit surprising to hear that there isn't an accommodation for that.

The information technology sector (+0.4%) is still out front as a sector leader, with health care (+0.3%) and financials (+0.3%) next in line.