US S&P500 Index

So far, Investors have shaken off concerns around tariffs, which began on Monday after President Donald Trump announced a 10% levy on Chinese imports over the weekend and focused back on good old fashioned company earnings. We’re more than halfway through the US earnings season and things remain encouraging with almost 78% of companies beating expectations and YoY earnings growth from those that have faced the music up +17%. However, about two-thirds of the S&P 500 companies that reported through Wednesday morning also lowered their first-quarter earnings forecast by an average of 4% which suggests its going to be hard for US stocks to emulate 2024 this year unless Trump can deliver his much anticipated bump to the economy and market.

• We can see the S&P 500 following European indices to fresh highs but from a risk/reward perspective its not a move we would advocate chasing.