Stocks hit a record for the first time since February. A new twist in the trade war didn't hurt

US stocks ended trading on June 27 at a record high, with the S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite indices hitting new highs for the first time since February. The former rose to an all-time record during trading Friday and was on its way to closing, until it received a blow from Donald Trump: he suddenly announced the immediate termination of trade negotiations with Canada. After that, U.S. stocks lost all their gains and briefly went into negative territory, but quickly returned to growth.

- The broad market index S&P 500 added 0.5% on June 27 and closed at 6173.07 points, hitting an all-time high. During the session, the index rose 0.76% to 6187.68 points.

- The Nasdaq Composite index of technology stocks also gained 0.5% and also reached a new all-time high of 20,273.46 points. Technology giants were the leaders of growth: the capitalization of Nvidia approached $4 trillion, and the securities of Alphabet rose by almost 3%.

- The blue-chip index Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 1% to 43,819.27 points.

- The Russell 2000 index of small-cap stocks added a symbolic 0.02% to close at 2172.53 points.

During the trading session on Friday, the S&P 500 index set a new all-time high of 6187.7 points, but declined at the end of the day after the publication of US President Donald Trump in the social network Truth Social that at his request all trade negotiations with Canada are terminated. According to the US president, the reason was Ottawa's decision to introduce a tax on digital services for American technology companies.

«Due to this egregious tax, we are immediately terminating all trade negotiations with Canada,» he said. - Within the next seven days, Canada will be notified of the amount of duty it will have to pay to do business with the United States.»

After Trump's publication, the S&P 500 lost all of its gains for the day and even went into a small minus. But investors quickly dismissed their concerns, and stocks returned to growth. Friday's fluctuations were another attempt by Wall Street to navigate the ever-changing global trading landscape, CNBC noted.

The S&P 500 Index is up more than 20% from its low in April - when Wall Street fears about duties were at their peak - and has added more than 4% since the start of the year. All the while, investors continued to buy stocks despite a jump in oil prices due to the conflict between Israel and Iran, as well as rising bond yields amid concerns about the budget deficit. 

«U.S. stocks continue to rebound from the declines caused by the tariff shock in March and April,» explained to Bloomberg David Lefkowitz of UBS's investment arm. - In our view, this recovery is justified because most large-cap companies will be able to weather the imposed duties relatively painlessly.»

The market's rise was helped by a new surge in interest in artificial intelligence-related stocks, led by Nvidia and Microsoft, CNBC noted. Stocks were also boosted on Friday by Trump's announcement Trump said the U.S. had reached trade agreements with «four or five different countries,» including China and the United Kingdom. The announcement that he had ended talks with Canada came as a surprise.

«Negative headlines on trade haven't been on the market's agenda in months, so the current decline is more of a reminder of how unpredictable and capricious duty negotiations can be,» commented the S&P 500 s short fall, Jamie Cox, managing partner at Harris Financial Group, as quoted by CNBC.

«I understand where the risks are hidden here: if all the progress in trade talks is just PR from the White House and there are no real agreements, the market will turn down,» accounts Thierry Wiseman, currency and rates strategist at Macquarie Group. - Ultimately it all comes down to U.S. economic growth and corporate profits again.»

«The deadline is approaching for the current reciprocal tariff truce to expire. Unless it is extended, or some more concrete agreement emerges, a new wave of trade tensions could await us,» warned Fawad Razaqzada of City Index and Forex.com.

Some on Wall Street believe the U.S. market could go even higher in the second half of the year: among them, for example, BlackRock's global fixed income investment director Rick Reeder, wrote CNBC. The AI revolution could reduce inflation and thus lift the market, Reeder suggested Wednesday.

July has been a positive month for the S&P 500 for the past 10 consecutive years and is the best month for the index in the past 20 years, Ryan Detrick, senior market strategist at Carson Group, noted in a statement to CNBC. July is also the best month for stocks in the year after the presidential election, he added. The S&P rally could continue over the next few weeks and peak by the end of July, predicted Rob Ginsberg, an analyst at Wolfe Research.

That said, Bank of America senior market strategist Michael Hartnett thinks now may be the time to lock in profits due to «greedy inflows» of capital into stocks and high-yield bonds, wrote CNBC.

«To be honest, I'm feeling uneasy about this rally. There are some warning signs that are not affecting investor sentiment yet, and I don't understand, frankly, why they're not on people's radar in the near-term,» cited Citigroup's new chief investment officer Kate Moore in an interview with Bloomberg.

This article was AI-translated and verified by a human editor