Stock Market Today: Dow falls 119 points with China talks in focus
Investors await U.S.-China trade talks, while President Trump says decreasing tariffs on China from 145% to 80% 'seems right'.
Updated at 4:28 PM EST by Rob Lenihan
Stocks finished lower Friday, as investors parsed details of a U.S.-UK trade agreement and looked to weekend talks with China that could potentially lead to a longer-term thaw in relations between the world's two biggest economies.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 119 points, or 0.3%, to end the session at 41,249.38, while the S&P 500 ended slightly lower at 5,659.91 and the tech-heavy Nasdaq ended flat.
President Donald Trump said this morning that decreasing tariffs on China from 145% to 80% "seems right" in a post to Truth Social, adding that any reduction would be "up to" Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent.
Week to date, the S&P 500 is on pace for a 0.5% loss, while the Nasdaq is on track to lose about 0.3%. The Dow is down roughly 0.2%, according to CNBC.
Updated at 11:15 AM EST
Testing levels
Stocks are paring gains into the late morning session, with the S&P 500 effectively unchanged from last night's close and the Nasdaq up just 33 points, or 0.18% on the session.
"Stocks have staged quite a recovery since the April 8 closing low," said Adam Turnquist, chief technical strategist at LPL Financial.
"The S&P 500 has rallied over 13% and is now trading within a few points of the April 2 reciprocal tariff announcement," he added. "While the rally has been impressive, bulls could face a big test at key resistance from the approaching 200-day moving average (5,748 points).
The Q1 earnings season begins to slow next week with about 600 companies set to report, we'll begin to hear from retailers such as $WMT and $DDS. Also watch for: $TCEHY, $BABA, $CSCO, $DTEGY, $SE, $JD, $DT, $SPG, $NU, $EONGY, $AMAT, $DE and many more. #earnings #stockmarket… pic.twitter.com/kRQItwLGM7— Wall Street Horizon (@WallStHorizon) May 9, 2025
Updated at 9:36 AM EST
Solid start
The S&P 500 was marked 22 points, or 0.39% higher in the opening minutes of trading, with the Nasdaq rising 98 points, or 0.54%.
The Dow gained 115 points while the mid-cap Russell 2000 rose 7 points, or 0.35%.
S&P 500 Opening Bell Heatmap (May 09, 2025)$SPY +0.35%
