Wall Street Rallies as Ceasefire Boosts Sentiment; Tech and Airlines Lead Market Surge
The Nasdaq surged 281.56 points (1.4%) to 19,912.53, the Dow jumped 507.24 points (1.2%) to 43,089.02 and the S&P 500 shot up 67.01 points (1.1%) to 6,092.18.
Wall Street extended its gains following President Trump's announcement of a ceasefire between Israel and Iran, easing investor concerns over geopolitical tensions. Despite accusations of violations from both sides, market sentiment remained optimistic. Traders also brushed off Fed Chair Jerome Powells remarks about holding interest rates steady, despite pressure from Trump.
The Conference Board released a report showing an unexpected deterioration by consumer confidence in the month of June. Its consumer confidence index fell to 93.0 in June from a revised 98.4 in May.
Semiconductor stocks turned in some of the market's best performances, , with the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index soaring by 3.8%. Airline stocks are substantially strong, as reflected by the 3.6% surge by the NYSE Arca Airline Index. Computer hardware, networking and biotechnology stocks too were strong while gold and oil producer stocks bucked the uptrend.
Asia-Pacific stocks moved sharply higher. Japan's Nikkei 225 Index shot up by 1.1%, while Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index surged by 2.1%. Most European stocks moved upwards. Germany's DAX Index jumped by 1.6% and France's CAC 40 Index advanced by 1.0%, although the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index closed only slightly above the unchanged line.
In the bond market, treasuries moved higher over the course of the session. Subsequently, the yield on the benchmark ten-year note, which moves opposite of its price, fell 2.7 bps at 4.29%.
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Mint
an hour ago
- Mint
Nvidias resumption of AI chips to China is part of rare earths talks, says US
By Jarrett Renshaw and Karen Freifeld WASHINGTON/BEIJING/HONG KONG -Nvidia's planned resumption of sales of its H20 AI chips to China is part of U.S. negotiations on rare earths, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said on Tuesday, and comes days after its CEO met President Donald Trump. "We put that in the trade deal with the magnets," Lutnick told Reuters, referring to an agreement Trump made to restart rare earth shipments to U.S. manufacturers. He did not provide additional detail. Nvidia said late on Monday that it is filing applications with the U.S. government to resume sales to China of its H20 graphics processing unit, and has been assured by the U.S. it will get the licences soon. The planned resumption is a reversal of an export restriction imposed in April that is designed to keep the most advanced AI chips out of Chinese hands over national security concerns, an issue that has found rare bipartisan support. It drew swift questions and criticism from U.S. legislators on Tuesday. The decision "would not only hand our foreign adversaries our most advanced technologies, but is also dangerously inconsistent with this Administration's previously-stated position on export controls for China," Democratic Representative Raja Krishnamoorthi, ranking member of the House of Representatives Select Committee on China, said in a statement. Republican John Moolenaar, chair of that committee, said in a statement he would seek "clarification" from the Commerce Department. "The H20 is a powerful chip that, according to our bipartisan investigation, played a significant role in the rise of PRC AI companies like DeepSeek," Moolenaar said, referring to a Chinese startup that claims to have built AI models at a fraction of the cost paid by U.S. firms such as OpenAI. "It is crucial that the U.S. maintain its lead and keep advanced AI out of the hands of the CCP." Shares of Nvidia, the world's most valuable firm, closed up 4% and were nearly unchanged in after-market trading. Nvidia had estimated that the curbs would cut its revenue by $15 billion. Nvidia's plan to resume sales has set off a scramble at Chinese firms to buy H20 chips, two sources told Reuters. The chips that Nvidia will resume selling are the best it can legally offer in China but lack much of the computing power of the versions for sale outside of China because of previous restrictions put in place by Trump's first administration and then President Joe Biden's administration. But critically, H20 chips work with Nvidia's software tools, which have become a de facto standard in the global AI industry. CEO Jensen Huang, who is visiting Beijing and set to speak at an event on Wednesday, has argued that Nvidia's leadership position could slip away if the company cannot sell to Chinese developers being courted by Huawei Technologies with chips produced in China. The significance of the shift depends on the volume of H20 chips that the U.S. allows to be shipped to China, said Divyansh Kaushik, an AI expert at Beacon Global Strategies, a Washington-based advisory firm. "If China is able to get a million H20 chips, it could significantly narrow, if not overtake, the U.S. lead in AI," he said. "The Chinese market is massive, dynamic, and highly innovative, and it's also home to many AI researchers," Huang told Chinese state broadcaster CCTV on Tuesday. China generated $17 billion in revenue for Nvidia in the fiscal year ending January 26, or 13% of total sales, based on its latest annual report. Internet giants ByteDance and Tencent are also in the process of submitting applications for H20 chips, the sources familiar with the matter said. Central to the process is an approved list put together by Nvidia for Chinese companies to register for potential purchases, one of the sources said. ByteDance and Tencent did not respond to a request for comment. Nvidia declined to comment on the approved list system. Asked at a regular foreign ministry briefing in Beijing about Nvidia's plans to resume AI chip sales, a spokesperson said: "China is opposed to the politicisation, instrumentalisation and weaponisation of science, technology and economic and trade issues to maliciously blockade and suppress China." China halted exports of rare earths in March following a trade spat with Trump that has showed some signs of easing. It dominates the market for rare earths, a group of 17 metals used in cellphones, weapons, electric vehicles, and more. Huang's visit is being closely watched in both China and the United States, where a bipartisan pair of senators last week sent the CEO a letter asking him to abstain from meeting companies working with military or intelligence bodies. The senators also asked Huang to refrain from meeting with entities named on the United States' restricted export list. Rival AI chipmaker AMD also said the Department of Commerce would review its licence applications to export its MI308 chips to China; it plans to resume those shipments when licences are approved, it said. Its shares gained 7% in trading on Tuesday. This article was generated from an automated news agency feed without modifications to text.
The Hindu
an hour ago
- The Hindu
NATO chief says India, Brazil, and China could be slammed by sanctions
NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte warned on Wednesday (July 16, 2025) that countries such as Brazil, China and India could be hit very hard by secondary sanctions if they continued to do business with Russia. Mr. Rutte made the comment while meeting with senators in the U.S. Congress the day after President Donald Trump announced new weapons for Ukraine and threatened "biting" secondary tariffs of 100% on the buyers of Russian exports unless there is a peace deal in 50 days. "My encouragement to these three countries, particularly is, if you live now in Beijing, or in Delhi, or you are the President of Brazil, you might want to take a look into this, because this might hit you very hard," Mr. Rutte told reporters, who met with Mr. Trump on Monday and agreed the new steps. "So please make the phone call to Vladimir Putin and tell him that he has to get serious about peace talks, because otherwise this will slam back on Brazil, on India and on China in a massive way," Mr. Rutte added. Republican U.S. Senator Thom Tillis praised Mr. Trump for announcing the steps, but said the 50-day delay "worries" him. He said he was concerned that "Putin would try to use the 50 days to win the war, or to be better positioned to negotiate a peace agreement after having murdered and potentially collected more ground as a basis for negotiation. "So we should look at the current state of Ukraine today and say, no matter what you do over the next 50 days, any of your gains are off the table," he added. Mr. Rutte said Europe would find the money to ensure Ukraine was in the best possible position in peace talks. He said that under the agreement with Trump, the U.S. would now "massively" supply Ukraine with weapons "not just air defense, also missiles, also ammunition paid for by the Europeans." Asked if long-range missiles for Ukraine were under discussion, Rutte said: "It is both defensive and offensive. So there's all kinds of weapons, but we have not discussed in detail yesterday with the president. This is really being worked through now by the Pentagon, by the Supreme Allied Commander in Europe, together with the Ukrainians."
NDTV
an hour ago
- NDTV
Trump Says Ukraine Should Not Target Moscow
Washington: US President Donald Trump said Tuesday that Ukraine should not target Moscow, after the Kremlin charged that a new US plan to supply weapons to Kyiv along with sanctions threats against Russia would delay peace efforts. Trump on Monday gave Russia 50 days to strike a peace deal with Ukraine, voicing exasperation with Moscow, and announcing that NATO members would supply Kyiv with new military aid. In what would be an even more extraordinary shift, the Financial Times reported that Trump spoke to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky about providing US missiles to hit Moscow. But asked by reporters at the White House if Zelensky should look at striking the Russian capital, Trump replied: "No, he shouldn't target Moscow." Trump had taken office vowing to end the conflict swiftly and to stop the flow of billions of dollars of US weapons to Ukraine. The Republican put heavy pressure on Zelensky and initially touted his relationship with Russian President Vladimir Putin. Under pressure from Trump, Moscow and Kyiv opened talks on the conflict, which has ground on for more than three years, but the only concrete result has been prisoner exchanges. Russia has rejected calls for a ceasefire and launched a record number of drones and missiles at Ukraine in recent months. Moscow said it needed more time to respond fully to Trump's Monday announcement, but suggested it was not conducive to diplomacy. "It seems that such a decision made in Washington and in NATO countries and directly in Brussels will be perceived by Kyiv not as a signal for peace but for the continuation of the war," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters. "President Trump's statement is very serious. We certainly need time to analyze what was said in Washington," he told reporters in Moscow's first reaction to the comments. Trump warned that if no deal was concluded, he would slap severe tariffs on Russia's remaining trade partners in a bid to impede Moscow's ability to finance its military offensive. Pumped up by huge state spending on soldiers and weapons, as well as by redirecting vital energy exports to the likes of China and India, Russia's economy has so far defied US and EU attempts to push it into a deep recession through sanctions. - Burden on Europe? - Most European allies have cheered the return of a hard US line, although Slovakia, led by Moscow-friendly populist Robert Fico, has resisted new EU sanctions on Russia. But EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas also called for the United States to help fund the new weapons. "We welcome President Trump's announcement to send more weapons to Ukraine, although we would like to see US share the burden," Kallas said after a meeting of EU foreign ministers in Brussels. "If you promise to give the weapons, but say that it's somebody else who is going to pay for it, it is not really given by you." Trump has been pushing allies to step up defense spending -- and to buy from US manufacturers -- and has long said the United States shoulders too much of NATO's burden. Denmark, the Netherlands and Sweden -- which joined NATO after Russia sent troops into Ukraine in 2022 -- all said they wanted to participate in Trump's plan. Sweden's Defense Minister Pal Jonson in a statement to AFP said his country "would contribute" and said Ukraine was in "great need of more air defense," given Russia's "constant bombings and attacks." - 'Game of chess' - Tens of thousands have been killed since Russia launched its offensive, with millions forced to flee their homes in eastern and southern Ukraine, which has been decimated by aerial attacks and ground assaults. In Moscow, residents dismissed Trump's statement as little more than politics. "It's a game of chess," Svetlana, an aviation engineer said. Trump "gave 50 days, and then there will be more... We are waiting for the next move of our president," the 47-year-old said. Ukrainian soldiers fighting in the east were hopeful but cautious about Trump's position. "I don't believe him. There have been too many promises that haven't been kept," said one soldier with the call sign "Shah." Others were worried it might be too little, too late. "Of course it's good, but at the same time, time has been lost. Those Patriots could have been sent sooner and could have helped a lot," another fighter called "Master" told AFP. Ruslan, a 29-year-old soldier, said: "If there is even the slightest chance to improve the situation for us and worsen it for them, then that's already positive." (Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
