Stock Market Live July 9: S&P 500 (VOO) Shakes Off Worries of New Trump Tariffs
This article will be updated throughout the day, so check back often for more daily updates.
President Trump announced tariffs will rise on imports from more than a dozen countries yesterday, then proceeded to widen the tariffs war on a second front. U.S. imports of copper from anywhere will be hit with a 50% tariff, said the President. Additionally, pharmaceutical imports may face up to 200% tariffs, although the President promised to “give people about a year, year and a half” before this latest tariff goes into effect.
The Vanguard S&P 500 ETF (NYSEMKT: VOO), however, seems to be shaking off this inflationary news for the U.S. economy. Pre-market, shares of the ETF are actually trading up about 0.2%.
In other news, utility company and S&P 500 component company AES Corporation (NYSE: AES) is on the rise today. Pre-market the stock is up more than 12% on reports Brookfield Asset Management (NYSE: BAM) and/or BlackRock (NYSE: BLK) may be interested in buying the company.
We also learned this morning that Verona Pharma (Nasdaq: VRNA) will be acquired by S&P 500 component Merck (NYSE: MRK). The $10 billion deal should close before the end of 2025. Verona stock is up more than 20% premarket.
Analyst Calls
With earnings season just around the corner, Oppenheimer analyst Brian Schwartz is upgrading S&P 500 component Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT) stock to outperform with a $600 price target. “Azure’s growth remains strong,” says the analyst, and the stock has “upside potential as this revenue stream continues scaling fast and investors embrace Microsoft as one of the long-term AI winners.”
Meanwhile, Melius analyst Rob Wertheimer is upgrading S&P 500 component Caterpillar (NYSE: CAT) stock to buy with a $500 price target. Crazy as it sounds, the catalyst here, too, is artificial intelligence. “CAT’s role in the power explosion surrounding the AI buildout is bigger than we had thought a few months ago,” says Wertheimer. “CAT’s opportunity includes some baseload power and more value-added solutions in a strained grid.”
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