(Reuters) – The future of the US stock index ticked Monday, restoring some losses after the last session, with steelmakers leading the earnings after US President Donald Trump said he would impose additional tariffs on steel imports and aluminum.
Trump's latest trade exacerbated on Sunday, when he said he would introduce new 25% tariffs on all steel and aluminum imports to the United States, on top of the existing duties on the metals.
US steel increased 9.7% in pre -market trading after Japan's Chief Cabinet Secretary said Nippon Steel was considering proposing a bold change in its plan to buy the company.
Shares of other steelmakers also rose, with Cleveland cliffs jumping more than 12%, while Nucor added close to 10%. The Alcoa Aluminum Producer was up 6.2%.
Trump also said he would announce bilateral tariffs on all countries on Tuesday or Wednesday, almost immediately, matching the tariffs raised by each country.
“Dangerous assets are slightly desensitized to the Trump tariff announcement,” jefferies economists said in a note.
“(The tariffs) will cause volatility, a discussion tool and eventually there will be no bad as fear.”
At 04:36 am ET, Dow's e-minis was up 122 points, or 0.27%, S&P 500 E-Minis was up 21.5 points, or 0.36%, and NASDAQ 100 E-Minis was up 116 points, or 0.54 %.
Most megacap and growth stocks were also higher, with Microsoft and Meta up platforms up about 0.6% each.
Gains from the Dow McDonald's component are scheduled later in the day.
Coca-Cola, Doordash, health insurer CVS health and manufacturer of Cisco Computer Networking Equipment are some of the prominent companies that are expected to report results later this week.
The three large indexes had fallen by about 1% each in the last session, nursing weekly losses after Trump said he was planning to announce bilateral tariffs on many countries.
Meanwhile, the Chairman of the US Federal Fund Jerome Powell is due to witness before Congress on Tuesday and Wednesday. The January Consumer Price Index reading is expected to be released in the early hours of Wednesday, before Powell's evidence the same day.
Expectations for Fed Rate cuts were confirmed in March after the US mixed employment report on Friday, with a 4.0%unemployment rate, which will probably give insurance to the central bank to catch interest rates away at least until June.
Fed officials said Friday that the U.S. job market was robust and identified the lack of clarity on how Trump's policies would still affect economic growth and inflation.