US Stock Market Close: Escalation of Trade War Fails to Halt Rally, All Three Major Indexes Close Higher

On Monday, US Eastern Time, despite renewed trade tensions, the market continued to rise, with all three major indices closing higher. The Nasdaq led the gains among major indices, thanks to the rise in tech stocks led by Meta.

(Minute-by-minute charts of the three major indices, source: TradingView)

By the close, the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.08% to 42,305.48 points, the S&P 500 rose 0.41% to 5,935.94 points, and the Nasdaq Composite rose 0.67% to 19,242.61 points.

The US stock market had just experienced a robust performance in May. Strong gains in the technology sector, encouraging inflation data, and easing concerns over Trump's tariff policies drove a broad-based rally in stocks during the month. The S&P 500 rose more than 6% in May, marking its largest monthly gain since November 2023.

However, US President Trump escalated the trade war again last week, announcing that he would raise tariffs on imported steel and aluminum from 25% to 50%, effective this Wednesday.

The news weighed on auto stocks, with shares of Ford and General Motors both falling 3.9% on Monday.

However, steel stocks surged on the tariff hike. Cleveland-Cliffs soared 23%, while Steel Dynamics and Nucor both rose 10%.

"Investors are not entirely sure how these tariffs will play out next, or what the White House's next strategic move will be," said Anthony Saglimbene, chief market strategist at Ameriprise.

Performance of Popular Stocks

Most major tech stocks rose, with Apple up 0.42%, Microsoft up 0.35%, Nvidia up 1.67%, Google down 1.58%, Amazon up 0.80%, Meta up 3.62%, and Tesla down 1.09%.

Most popular Chinese ADRs rose, with the Nasdaq Golden Dragon China Index up 0.53%. Alibaba rose 0.80%, JD.com rose 1.39%, Pinduoduo fell 0.07%, NIO fell 0.56%, XPeng Motors fell 0.26%, Li Auto fell 1.83%, Bilibili rose 0.87%, Baidu rose 1.42%, NetEase rose 1.18%, and Tencent Music rose 3.09%.

Company News

[BioNTech Surges 18%]

Multinational pharmaceutical giant Bristol Myers Squibb announced on Monday that it had reached a licensing agreement with German biotech company BioNTech for the next-generation cancer drug BNT327, with milestone payments under the agreement potentially reaching up to $11.1 billion. If the new drug is successfully launched, the two companies will split global profits equally.

According to information, BNT327 is a bispecific antibody drug targeting PD-L1 and VEGF-A. Currently, the drug is undergoing clinical trials for various solid tumors, including small cell lung cancer, non-small cell lung cancer, triple-negative breast cancer, hepatocellular carcinoma, neuroendocrine tumors, and mesothelioma.

Influenced by this news, BioNTech's stock price rose by 18.05% at the close of US stock market trading on Monday.

[Musk's xAI Reportedly Initiates $300 Million Share Sale, Valuation Reaches $113 Billion]

According to media reports citing sources, xAI, the artificial intelligence (AI) company owned by the world's richest man, Elon Musk, is conducting a share sale transaction valued at $300 million, which sets the company's overall valuation at $113 billion.

Sources familiar with the matter revealed that this transaction will allow xAI employees to sell shares to new investors and confirms the valuation agreed upon during xAI's previous acquisition of Musk's social media platform X.

In March this year, Musk merged xAI and X Corporation, with the merged company's valuation set at $113 billion, including an $80 billion valuation for xAI and a $33 billion valuation for X.

It is reported that this share sale is being conducted on the secondary market through a "tender offer," and it is expected that a larger round of financing will follow, during which xAI will issue new shares to external investors.

[US Judge Cancels Scheduled Trial for Boeing 737 MAX Crashes]

A federal judge in the US canceled the trial scheduled to begin on June 23 for the two air crashes involving Boeing 737 MAX aircraft operated by US-based Boeing. In October 2018 and March 2019, a Boeing 737 MAX aircraft operated by Indonesia's Lion Air and another operated by Ethiopia's Ethiopian Airlines crashed, resulting in 346 fatalities. Investigations found that the crashes were related to safety design flaws in the new software system of the aircraft model. During the process of obtaining airworthiness certification, Boeing intentionally concealed this risk from the US Federal Aviation Administration and failed to enhance pilot training for the software system.

[Dimon: It Will Take "A Few More Years" to Retire from JPMorgan Chase]

Jamie Dimon stated that it will take "a few more years" before he steps down from the top position at JPMorgan Chase, but the decision rests with the bank's board of directors. "It depends on God and the board," said Dimon, the 69-year-old CEO of JPMorgan Chase, in an interview. "I love my job," he said. Questions about when Dimon will retire and who will succeed him have been a focus of attention for years. Dimon used to joke that, whenever asked, the answer was always that he would retire in five years. However, recently he has stopped responding in this manner. In 2024, Jamie Dimon's compensation increased to $39 million, as the largest bank in the US broke its own record for the highest annual profit in the history of the US banking industry that year.