S&P, Nasdaq rise as Dow drops after Trump sets tariff start date

July 8 (UPI) — The S&P 500 has outpaced the Dow Jones Industrial Average so far Tuesday despite President Donald Trump’s rejection of exceptions to the Aug. 1 date he set to launch his latest tariffs. Meanwhile, the Nasdaq has had a great day in the green.

As of approximately 12:56 p.m., the S&P was at 6,231.22, up .033%, while at the same time the Dow dipped to 44,280.59, down .28%. By 12:58 p.m., the Nasdaq had recovered from a drop around 11:25 a.m. to 20,386.72 to rise back up near its best point of the day so far to 20,444.80 at 12:58 p.m.

All three measures had slipped to lows for the day around 11 a.m., just after Trump posted to Truth Social Tuesday that “Tariffs will start being paid on August 1, 2025. There has been no change to this date, and there will be no change.”

However, Trump had posted late Monday that the Aug. 1 deadline was not locked in, which was followed by a stock sell-off, and the Dow sank more than 400 points.

According to a Tuesday interview with CNBC, Bill Merz, head of capital markets research at U.S. Bank Wealth Management said traders may be losing fear that Trump tariffs will equal a financial downturn.

“What we’ve seen since April has really been the markets getting past the idea that tariffs would have a particularly detrimental impact on growth, earnings, inflation, etc.,” said Merz. “Investor sentiment has shifted a lot in a very short period of time and become more optimistic, as we can see in equity market pricing and how we’re right around all-time highs across multiple indices.”