Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange during morning trading on April 14, 2025.
Adam Gray | Getty Images
Stocks experienced another choppy session on Monday as a rally in tech names following a surprise U.S. tariff exemption from President Donald Trump faded.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 421 points, or 1%. The Nasdaq Composite rose 1%, while the S&P 500 added 1.1%.
The three major indexes trade both above and below their flatlines over the course of the volatile day. The Dow rallied more than 500 points at session highs, while the Nasdaq at one point climbed 2.5%.
Investors cheered Trump’s exemption of smartphones and computers, as well as other devices and components like semiconductors, from his new “reciprocal” tariffs, according to new U.S. Customs and Border Protection guidance issued late Friday.
But Trump and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick then suggested Sunday that the exemptions aren’t permanent, stirring up more tariff uncertainty. Trump said in a Truth Social post that these products are still “subject to the existing 20% Fentanyl Tariffs, and they are just moving to a different Tariff ‘bucket.'”
Still, Apple shares gained about 3.5% on the news, while Dell jumped more than 4%. Yet the Technology Select Sector SPDR Fund (XLK) traded less than 1% higher, weighed down by slides in Meta and Nvidia.
“The market believes that the administration is probably in some sort of retreat from their most-extreme tariff proposal,” said Jed Ellerbroek, portfolio manager at Argent Capital Management. “That’s incremental good news.”
The developments come as the “Magnificent Seven” and broader market have come under pressure in the wake of the president’s “liberation day” tariff announcement earlier this month.
Last week marked one of the most volatile trading weeks on record for the Street. The CBOE Volatility Index spiked above 50 on Thursday, with stocks giving up some of their historic gains seen a day earlier. On Wednesday, the market soared after Trump announced a 90-day reprieve for a number of his new tariff rates, seeing its third-biggest one-day gain since World War II.
Despite last week’s rally, all three major averages are still down sharply since the so-called reciprocal tariffs were announced. The S&P 500 has dropped 3.8%, while the Nasdaq and Dow have fallen about 4.4% and 4.1%, respectively.
“The question a lot of investors are asking, ‘Is this it – is the bottom in?'” said Dave Sekera, chief U.S. market strategist at Morningstar. “It’s certainly possible, but I don’t think so.”