Trump slows down: Dow turns negative, Super Micro turns up

Donald Trump prevented a better day on Wall Street. The US president has once again unsettled investors with his announcement of import tariffs. The leading index Dow Jones, which had initially gained, turned negative and fell by 0.43 percent to 43,433.12 points at the end of trading. Investors avoided risk and instead bought US government bonds, which were considered safe. The price of ten-year bonds reached its highest level since mid-December.

Trump has promised tariffs of 25 percent on imports from the European Union. "We have made a decision. We will announce it very soon," Trump said during a cabinet meeting. "It will be 25 percent, generally speaking, on cars and all other things."

The S&P 500 closed virtually unchanged at 5,956.06 points. It had fallen below the 6,000 point mark on Monday. The recently weak Nasdaq 100 closed 0.22 percent higher at 21,132.92 points.

In addition, interest on the US stock exchanges is primarily focused on Nvidia's quarterly results and forecasts. The figures are likely to be decisive in determining whether artificial intelligence can regain its status as a driver on the US stock exchanges. With the exception of Meta, the so-called Magnificent Seven, stock heavyweights from the tech world, have all suffered price losses this year. Nvidia recovered somewhat from the recent price slide on Wednesday, rising 3.7 percent.

The AI ​​champion's figures and outlook have the potential to "set the entire market in turmoil," wrote the experts at Index Radar. This is not least due to the high weighting of the stock in the indices. "The formerly unshakable tech giants are sending fatigue signals," they continued, also with a view to Tesla shares, which have recently slid particularly sharply. They slipped by four percent on Wednesday to their lowest level since the beginning of November.

In addition to Nvidia, some technology stocks attracted positive attention. Shares in cloud software specialist Workday rose by 6.2 percent after strong quarterly figures. This also applied to data software provider Zoominfo, whose share price even shot up by 23 percent. Shares in software developer Intuit rose by 12.6 percent after good figures.

Super Micro's share price jumped 12.2 percent. The company was first celebrated as an AI winner in 2024, but then faced allegations regarding its management. It was now said that the required financial reports were submitted to the SEC on time. This was a relief on the market, as an impending exclusion from the Nasdaq stock exchange may be avoided.

Away from the tech stocks, General Motors shares gained 3.8 percent. The carmaker plans to expand its share buybacks and at the same time increase its dividend. The company wants to keep investors happy

Contains material from dpa-AFX