Wall Street Indexes Set to Scale New Highs as Investors Ignore Tariff Impacts

Barry Adams
08 Aug, 2025
New York City

Stocks on Wall Street advanced on Friday and extended weekly gains, but market sentiment remained cautious after the start of sky-high Trump tariffs. 

The S&P 500 index edged up 0.3%, and the Nasdaq Composite advanced 0.4%, as investors attempted to understand the impact of high import tax on the U.S. and global economy, supply chains, and corporate investment plans. 

For now, high tariffs are not showing in inflation and jobless numbers, but as import tax collection accelerates from today, businesses will begin to pass higher prices to consumers. 

In addition, hundreds of thousands of small importers and retailers are likely to fold, limiting the choice to consumers.

Higher goods prices are set to fuel inflationary forces, contribute to services inflation, and lift building costs of new homes, keeping the overall inflation higher for longer. 

Donald Trump campaigned on the promise of lowering prices and ending the Russia-Ukraine war on the first day; instead, consumers are facing a sharp increase in prices at retail stores. 

The U.S. economy will have to adjust to the largest increase in import tax since the Great Depression, about a century ago. 

Trump, with the help of the Republican Party, has unleashed the largest increase in import tax in a century on American families and businesses, as average tariffs now hover over 17% compared to less than 3% a year ago. 

The import tax is likely to jump close to 25% in the months ahead, as generic drugs from India face close to 50% tariffs, goods from China incur over 52% tariffs, and the European and Japanese automobiles face between 15% and 25% duties.

 

U.S. Stock Movers 

Under Armour Inc. dropped 15.6% to $5.60 after the specialty apparel retailer reported weaker-than-expected fiscal first-quarter results and issued a downbeat second-quarter estimate. 

The retailer confirmed that escalating Trump tariffs are impacting its costs, and the demand is likely to shift downward amid a higher price environment.

The sportswear retailer reported revenue of $1.01 billion and adjusted earnings per share of 2 cents, and the company guided revenue to fall between 6% and 7% and adjusted earnings per share to range between 1 cent and 2 cents. 

Pinterest Inc. dropped 12% to $34.49 after the digital content platform operator reported weaker-than-expected second-quarter earnings per share of 33 cents.