Live S&P 500 (VOO): Market Rises Despite China Retaliating on Tariffs Again

As the trade war escalates, neither the U.S. or China appear ready to blink. Beijing says it is willing to “fight to the end” while President Trump says China doesn’t hold the cards to draw out the battle for very long.

After Trump hiked tariffs on China to 104%, Beijing retaliated by raising import duties on U.S. goods to 84%. Some are calling for Trump to “squeeze” China even more.

Canadian businessman and star of the TV show “Shark Tank” Kevin O’Leery said “It’s time to squeeze Chinese heads into the wall now!” and called for Trump to hit China with 400% tariffs.

Whether investors think China’s President Xi will break first or not, the stock market is no longer panicking. The Vanguard S&P 500 ETF (NYSEARCA:VOO) is rising 0.7% in early morning trading as its components begin to reverse yesterday’s losses and move strongly higher.

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) is up 3% this morning, Nvidia (NASDAQ:NVDA) is up 4%, and Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) is almost 2% higher.

Stock futures give a head fake

Market futures had been signaling another major selloff would happen today with Dow Jones Industrial Average futures down almost 800 points ahead of the bell. Instead, the index is now up almost 200 points.

Similarly, the S&P 500 was indicating another rout would be in the works today after China’s retaliatory tariffs were announced, but at the opening bell the benchmark index roared out of the gate.

It may not be so surprising VOO was jumping instead of falling. Data from ETF.com shows investors were piling into ETFs as market volatility spiked. VOO saw $4.1 billion in inflows as it wasn’t retail investors running scared. According to JPMorgan Chase, as the Dow tumbled more than 1,500 points on two consecutive days last week, retail investors bought $2.8 billion worth of stock, the second-highest level on record.

Hedge funds, however, were running around with their hair on fire, dumping stocks at the fastest rate in over a decade. Money managers also scaled back their exposure to U.S. equities to levels last seen in 2023.

Small investors saw it as a buy-the-dip opportunity, and with their favorite stocks sporting a discount that hasn’t been seen in a while, they have been scooping them up by the handful.