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A risk-on wave enveloped Wall Street on Thursday, with stocks up and bonds down as Donald Trump announced a trade deal with the UK while noting that if China talks go well, tariffs could be lowered. Equities also gained

after the president said investors should buy shares now.

For a market hoping for an easing of tensions between the US and its top commercial partners, that was enough to drive a rally of about 1.5% for the S&P 500. Almost every major corner of the stock market advanced, with gains led by companies that are more sensitive to economic performance. Small caps jumped alongside Bitcoin, which topped $100,000. As the bid for safety ebbed, Treasuries, gold and haven currencies lost steam.

US Treasuries sank as President Donald Trump a rally in the stock market and unveiled a trade framework with the UK.

The move pushed two- to seven-year yields higher by at least 10 basis points on the day after Trump urged people to buy stocks based on the latest trade developments. Though details have yet to be negotiated, Trump said it was a “breakthrough” that would expand market access for American imports.

Short-term Treasury yields were already rising as traders pared bets on interest-rate cuts from the Federal Reserve after Chair Jerome Powell said Wednesday he won’t be rushed into lowering borrowing costs.

Also, Trump in earlier comments touted what he described as a comprehensive trade agreement with the UK, marking the first of his promised deals with countries around the world.

Under relentless attack from President Donald Trump, Jerome Powell needs all the allies he can get — and he has plenty in Congress, including among Republicans who show little appetite for ditching the Federal Reserve chief.

Collectively, GOP lawmakers have endorsed almost every other economic idea that second-term Trump has put forward. But in interviews, several of them — including some who criticise aspects of Powell’s track record — expressed backing for his overall performance and for the wider principle that central bankers should be shielded from political interference.

SolGold Plc, an Ecuador-focused firm backed by some of the biggest names in mining, is working on options to start production at its flagship project three or four years ahead of previous plans.

The company’s Cascabel project has long been heralded for its potential of being a major copper-gold mine, drawing investments from BHP Group and Newmont Corp. SolGold’s newest chief executive officer, Dan Vujcic, said Cascabel could be in production as soon as 2028 by starting with open-pit operations instead of just underground.

Wall Street’s risk-on mode prevailed on Thursday, with stocks up and bonds down after President Donald Trump announced a trade deal with the UK while saying that if China talks go well, tariffs could be lowered.

The S&P 500 traded near session highs, rising almost 1%. As the bid for safety ebbed, Treasuries, gold and haven currencies lost steam.

US President Donald Trump said Thursday that he will pull his controversial nomination of Ed Martin to be the top federal prosecutor for the District of Columbia. Trump’s move came as Martin faced the strong likelihood of the Senate not confirming him.

Bitcoin crossed the $100,000 threshold for the first time since February, fueled by expectations of easing trade tensions after US President Donald Trump announced a trade agreement with the UK.

The largest digital asset climbed as much as 3.4% on Thursday, as most other major tokens climbed higher. Bitcoin rose to a record of around $109,000 on Jan. 20, the day Trump was inaugurated for a second time.

Trump said full details of the pact would still be negotiated over the coming weeks. But under the agreement, the UK would fast-track American goods through their customs process and reduce barriers on agricultural, chemical, energy and industrial exports.

US President Donald Trump announced a trade framework with the UK, hailing it as a “breakthrough” that will bring down barriers and expand market access for American imports.

“I’m thrilled to announce that we’ve reached a breakthrough trade deal with the United Kingdom,” Trump said Thursday in the Oval Office.

Trump said full details of the pact would still be negotiated over the coming weeks. But under the agreement, the UK would fast-track American goods through their customs process and reduce barriers on agricultural, chemical, energy and industrial exports.

De Beers is closing down its lab-grown diamond business, cementing an earlier decision to stop selling the stones as jewelry as it commits to traditional gems.

The diamond miner announced last year that it would cease selling its own man-made gems, but was unsure what it would do with the Lightbox business that made them. On Thursday, it said it’s discussing the sale of some assets — including inventory — with potential buyers.

While having the technology to make synthetic gems, the company had long refused to sell them as jewelry, fearing they would undercut the allure of natural stones. Yet as man-made gems gained traction and started competing directly with natural diamonds, De Beers started its own jewelry brand in 2018.

A sense of cautious optimism prevailed on Wall Street, with stocks up and bonds down as investors hoped that a US-UK tariff pact could help ease tensions and serve as a blueprint for how President Donald Trump’s negotiations with other countries are evolving.

Just a day after the Federal Reserve signaled it doesn’t need to come to the rescue with rate cuts as the economy remains solid, traders refocused on what’s essentially driving the market these days – expectations that America’s trade war will de-escalate. The S&P 500 rose for a second straight day, but traded off session highs. As the bid for safety ebbed, Treasuries, gold and haven currencies lost steam.

Coinbase Global Inc. agreed to acquire Deribit, the world’s largest exchange for Bitcoin and Ether options, for $2.9 billion as the biggest US crypto exchange makes a push into the derivatives market.

Coinbase announced the purchase in posts on the X social-media platform and blog, calling it a “major step in our global expansion strategy.” The transaction will be comprised of $700 million in cash and 11 million shares of Coinbase stock, subject to customary purchase price adjustments, the company said. Luuk Strijers, chief executive officer at Deribit, confirmed the agreement.

From Apple Inc. to General Motors Co., corporate America is bracing for tens of billions of dollars in damages from Trump’s trade war — and that’s before most affected goods have landed.

Among US companies that have disclosed financial projections so far, GM sees a $5 billion hit this year, while Apple expects $900 million in higher costs in the current quarter. Nvidia is taking a $5.5 billion charge to account for new export controls.

President Donald Trump’s administration imposed across-the-board tariffs on most imports and targeted some countries and industries for additional levies. Duties are as high as 145% on many Chinese imports, and Beijing retaliated with import taxes of 125% on American goods. Foreign-made steel and aluminum also face a 25% US tariff.

Coinbase Global Inc. said it is acquiring Deribit, the world’s largest exchange for Bitcoin and Ether options, for $2.9 billion as the biggest US crypto exchange makes a push into the derivatives market.

Coinbase announced the purchase in posts on the X social-media platform and blog, calling it a “major step in our global expansion strategy.” The deal will be comprised of $700 million in cash and 11 million shares of Coinbase stock, subject to customary purchase price adjustments, the company said.

Stocks were higher Thursday after President Donald Trump announced that a trade deal between the U.S. and United Kingdom had been struck.

“The agreement with the United Kingdom is a full and comprehensive one that will cement the relationship between the United States and the United Kingdom for many years to come,” Trump said in a Truth Social post after teasing the announcement in previous posts.

OpenAI is hiring the head of Instacart into a new role as chief executive officer of applications, reshaping leadership at the artificial-intelligence pioneer under CEO Sam Altman.

Fidji Simo, 39, will take on many of the operational duties currently held by Altman, including finance and product development. She will report to Altman, allowing him to focus on broader strategy, he announced on Wednesday.

OpenAI has gone through a tumultuous stretch as it seeks to develop a business model to support technological breakthroughs like ChatGPT. Altman also had to scale back plans to convert the startup to a for-profit entity after public pushback from former employees, academics and rivals, including Elon Musk. The company’s restructuring effort still has not received the blessing of Microsoft Corp., one of its largest stakeholders.

Applications for US unemployment benefits fell last week after a short-term spike coinciding with spring recess and the Easter holiday at the end of April.

Initial claims decreased by 13,000 to 228,000 in the week ended May 3. That was roughly in line with the median forecast in a Bloomberg survey of economists.

Continuing claims, a proxy for the number of people receiving benefits, also fell, to 1.88 million, in the previous week, according to Labor Department data released Thursday.

Jobless claims have remained largely subdued, indicating low levels of layoffs despite increased economic uncertainty amid tariffs and the ripple effects from the Trump administration’s actions to shrink the federal government.

White men no longer make up the majority of board seats at the largest US companies, a historic shift reflecting decades of pressure to diversify the upper ranks of corporate leadership.

For the first time, women and non-White men hold just over half, or 50.2%, of the more than 5,500 board seats at S&P 500 companies, according to data compiled for Bloomberg by ISS-Corporate. That compares with five years ago when White men accounted for almost 60% of the directorships.

The question now is whether the shift is a short-term blip or becomes an embedded adjustment in the makeup of the people who oversee companies. The milestone also comes as political and legal attacks on diversity, equity and inclusion efforts are intensifying.

US labor productivity fell in the first quarter for the first time in nearly three years as economic output declined, snapping a streak of efficiency gains that have helped temper the inflationary impact from employment costs.

Productivity, or nonfarm employee output per hour, decreased at a 0.8% annualised rate after a revised 1.7% increase in the fourth quarter, data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics showed Thursday.

Unit labor costs — what businesses pay employees to produce one unit of output, adjusted for productivity — jumped 5.7% in the first quarter, the most in a year.

Warner Bros. Discovery Inc., the parent of HBO and CNN, reported first-quarter results that fell below analysts’ expectations even as the media company added 5.3 million new streaming customers.

The New York-based company reported revenue of $8.98 billion, missing Wall Street’s estimates of $9.61 billion. The adjusted loss per share totaled 18 cents a share, missing analysts’ expectations of a loss of 11 cents.

As customers continue to abandon the traditional pay-TV world in favor of new online options, Warner Bros. recently completed a restructuring of its overall business into two divisions: one focused on streaming and studios and the other on cable television networks.

President Donald Trump said he will raise the case of ex-media mogul Jimmy Lai as part of US trade talks with China, a move likely to antagonize Beijing just days before the two sides meet.

“I think talking about Jimmy Lai is a very good idea,” Trump said in a May 7 radio interview with Hugh Hewitt. “We’ll put it down, and we’ll put it down as part of the negotiation.”

The European Union’s executive arm on Thursday said it would launch a dispute with the World Trade Organization over the US’s “reciprocal” tariff policy.

The European Commission also said it had launched a public consultation on a list of U.S. imports potentially subject to countermeasures.

“It is the unequivocal view of the EU that these [U.S.] tariffs blatantly violate fundamental WTO rules,” the European Commission said in a statement.

“The EU’s objective is thus to reaffirm that internationally agreed rules matter, and these cannot be unilaterally disregarded by any WTO member, including the US.”

Peloton Interactive Inc. shares dropped in premarket trading after reporting that revenue sank 13% last quarter, marking the third straight year-over-year decline in sales.

Revenue totaled $624 million in the fiscal third quarter, which ended March 31. That beat Wall Street estimates of about $619 million, but it wasn’t enough to convince investors that Peloton’s new chief executive officer’s bid to turn around the company has fully taken root.

CEO Peter Stern has been trying to whip the company into shape since taking over in January. Revenue has continued to decline, with sales from hardware such as its bikes and treadmills sliding 27% last quarter and revenue from app subscriptions dropping 4%. Peloton thrived during pandemic lockdowns but became mired in a deep sales slump post-lockdowns.

Bitcoin approached the $100,000 mark for the first time since February, with US President Donald Trump expected to announce a trade agreement with the UK.

The largest digital asset rose as much as 3.2% to $99,894 on Thursday, as most major tokens climbed higher. Ether — the second-largest token — soared as much as 9.4% to $1,968.

Molson Coors Beverage Co. lowered its full-year guidance as the challenging consumer environment in the US drives shoppers away from the company’s products.

The Coors Light and Miller Lite manufacturer now expects 2025 underlying diluted earnings per share to increase in the low single digits. It previously said profit would rise in the high single digits. It also projected a low single-digit decline in sales, lowering its previous guidance of a low single-digit increase.

The company blamed macroeconomic pressure and weaker consumer demand. It also took a hit from the loss of its Pabst Brewing contract, and this time, international beer sales didn’t save the company the way they did last quarter. The beer maker also disclosed that CEO Gavin Hattersley plans to retire by the end of the year.

US Treasury yields rose on Thursday as traders pared bets on interest-rate cuts from the Federal Reserve after Chair Jerome Powell said he won’t be rushed into lowering borrowing costs.

The policy-sensitive two-year rate climbed four basis points to 3.82%, narrowing the gap to its 10-year peer to 48 basis points, near the smallest level in a month. Powell said on Wednesday that the central bank needs more certainty on the direction of trade policy before making a move.

Treasuries initially gained after the Fed decision, as investors focused on the risk mentioned by policymakers that trade-related uncertainty could lead to stagflation. But on Thursday, attention turned to Powell’s message that the US central bank will wait and see how things evolve.

The Bank of England cut interest rates on Thursday in a move likely to bring relief to borrowers, businesses and hard-pressed consumers across the country.

The central bank reduced its key interest rate from 4.5% to 4.25% at its latest monetary policy meeting amid a backdrop of lacklustre economic growth and uncertainty around President Donald Trump’s trade tariffs.

The cut had been widely expected. Five of the central bank’s nine policymakers voted for the cut, with two members wanting a larger 50 basis-point reduction, and two wanting to keep rates on hold.

The US and the U.K. have agreed to sign a trade deal, making the UK the first country to do so after the US announced tariffs in April. The White House will hold a press conference at 7.30 pm IST to announce the deal, which aims to strengthen the relationship between the two countries.

European stocks traded in positive territory on Thursday, amid a swathe of earnings reports and reports of an imminent UK-US trade deal.

The pan-European Stoxx 600 was 0.5% higher at 10:08 a.m. in London, with most sectors and all major bourses seeing gains.

The UK’s FTSE 100 added 0.2%, while France’s CAC 40 and Germany’s DAX were higher by 0.8% and 1%, respectively.

Siemens Energy AG shrugged off the US tariff chaos that’s hit other German manufacturers, saying that the effect of import duties on its bottom line will be small.

Tariffs’ impact on profit is expected to be as much as a high double-digit million euro amount for the second half of the fiscal year, the maker of gas turbines and grid equipment said Thursday. It’s planning to hike prices on new orders and boost local production to soften the blow.

“The situation isn’t good, we are not immune to US tariffs,” Chief Executive Officer Christian Bruch said in a call with reporters. The levies are “annoying, but manageable,” he added.

Malaysia kept interest rates unchanged on Thursday, saving its policy ammunition amid looming risks to growth from US President Donald Trump’s tariffs.

Bank Negara Malaysia left the overnight policy rate at a post-pandemic high of 3%, as predicted by 20 of 25 economists in a Bloomberg survey. The rest expected a 25-basis point cut — the first time easing bets have come into play since the Monetary Policy Committee adjusted the key rate to its current level in May 2023.

“At the current OPR level, the monetary policy stance is consistent with the current assessment of inflation and growth prospects,” BNM said in a statement. “Recognising that there are downside risks in the economic environment, the MPC remains vigilant to ongoing developments to inform the assessment on the domestic inflation and growth outlook.”NewsLive TVMarketPopular CategoriesCalculatorsTrending NowLet's Connect with CNBCTV 18Network 18 Group :©TV18 Broadcast Limited. All rights reserved.