BENGALURU (March 24): Technology stocks led Wall Street's surge on Monday after signs the Trump administration is taking a measured approach on tariffs against its trading partners.

US President Donald Trump's administration is likely to exclude a set of sector-specific tariffs that are on track to be imposed on April 2, according to media reports over the weekend.

The three main US indexes rose to two-week highs, with investors scooping up battered technology shares. Nvidia rose about 2%, Meta Platforms jumped 4% and Amazon.com rose 2.8%.

Tesla jumped 7.3%, adding to Friday's 5.3% rise.

"The market seems to be reacting in sync with those up-to-the-minute changes in tariffs," said Peter Andersen, founder of Andersen Capital Management in Boston.

"The default position for today's investor is to be very worried about changes that the administration has proposed — whether or not there are tariffs imposed or if he repeals them, or if he delays them, it just causes extreme volatility in the market."

Financial markets have whipsawed over the past several weeks as traders have been confronted by fears of a sharp US economic slowdown after Trump announced a series of tariffs last month on some of its main trading partners including China, Mexico and Canada.

Several companies have also cited tariff uncertainty as they lowered their forecasts for the upcoming quarters. Data compiled by LSEG as of Friday showed, earnings of companies included in the S&P 500 are expected to grow by 10.5% in 2025, down by 3.5 percentage points since the beginning of the year.

However, US stocks appear to have found a floor after weeks-long selloff that pushed the benchmark S&P 500 and the tech-heavy Nasdaq down by 10% from their record highs — commonly known as correction.

At 9.59am, the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 497.35 points, or 1.19%, to 42,483.81, the S&P 500 rose 83.12 points, or 1.47%, to 5,750.68 and the Nasdaq Composite rose 331.02 points, or 1.87%, to 18,115.90.

Data showed US business activity picked up in March, but growing fears over import tariffs and deep government spending cuts continued to weigh on sentiment.

S&P Global's flash US Composite PMI Output Index, which tracks the manufacturing and services sectors, increased to 53.5 this month from 51.6 in February. However, a business confidence measure dropped to the second lowest reading since 2022.

Investors are now awaiting a slew of data through the week including the personal consumption expenditure price index — the Federal Reserve's preferred inflation gauge.

Among other single stocks, Dun & Bradstreet rose 3% after the data and analytics provider entered an agreement to be acquired by private equity firm Clearlake Capital in a US$7.7 billion (RM34.14 billion) deal.

Lockheed Martin fell 2.1% as BofA Global Research downgraded the weapons maker to "neutral" from "buy".

Crypto stocks such as Strategy advanced 5.8%, Coinbase gained 3.9% and Mara Holdings climbed 7.3%, tracking a 3% rise in bitcoin prices.

On the Nasdaq, 2,783 stocks rose and 1,030 fell as advancing issues outnumbered decliners by about a 2.7-to-1 ratio There were 35 new highs and 37 new lows.

On the NYSE, advancing issues outnumbered declining ones by a 4.4-to-1 ratio. There were 20 new highs and 14 new lows.

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