NASDAQ futures surge 4% as Trump curtails China tariffs for 90 days

Trump administration agrees to 90-day pause on higher tariff levels with China.
Both nations will lower current tariff rate by 115 percentage points.
NASDAQ 100 Futures spike above 4.1% in the premarket.
US Treasury Secretary says Trump administration aims for "strategic decoupling" with China.

Clay Webster FXStreet

US stocks on Monday are thrilling to the Trump administration's tariff pause with China over the weekend. US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent walked away from talks in Switzerland with an agreement by the US and China to each reduce their bilateral tariffs by 115 percentage points.

This will move US tariffs on Chinese goods from 145% to 30% and Chinese tariffs on US goods from 125% to 10% for a period of 90 days while trade talks continue. The US' 30% tariff is made up of a 10% tariff similar to what the Trump administration has placed on other trading partners, alongside the earlier 20% "fentanyl" tariff that is staying put.

In remarks on Bloomberg Television on Monday morning before the bell, Bessent said that the US was aiming for a "strategic decoupling" between the US and Chinese economies rather than a "general decoupling". Bessent said a final agreement would involve China consuming more US goods and the US reshoring more factory production.

NASDAQ 100 futures have shot up 4.1% an hour before the market open, while the Dow Jones futures gain 2.7%. The S&P 500 futures spiked 3.2%.

Walmart (WMT), set to unveil quarterly earnings on Thursday, advanced 2.25%. Nike (NKE) shares, which source production and raw materials extensively from China and Vietnam, surged 6.6%.

Tech is leading the charge in the premarket. Apple (AAPL) stock jumped 6.6% as the company said it would raise iPhone prices with the claim that hike was due to new features and not tariffs. Amazon (AMZN) stock surged 8.5%, while Nvidia (NVDA) advanced 4.6%.

NASDAQ futures chart

NASDAQ 100 E-mini futures broke well above the 200-day Simple Moving Average on Monday after overcoming the 50-day SMA on April 30. Already above 20,900, the market dynamic demonstrates a strong rally that may see NASDAQ futures run back toward resistance from February and last December in the region north of 22,300.

The Relative Strength Index (RSI) at 65 allows for further animal spirits to play out, and the clear bias is upward until sentiment shifts.

Gold has sold off 2.85% in the premarket, and Treasury yields jump between 1% and 2.5% across the curve as investors sell safe-haven assets to reinvest in US equities.

NASDAQ 100 E-mini Futures

Author

Clay Webster

FXStreet

Clay Webster grew up in the US outside Buffalo, New York and Lancaster, Pennsylvania. He began investing after college following the 2008 financial crisis.

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