Wall Street Calm After SCOTUS Move     02/20 15:35

   Wall Street kept calm Friday after the Supreme Court struck down President 
Donald Trump's sweeping tariffs, which had triggered panic in financial markets 
when announced last year, and stocks ticked higher.

   NEW YORK (AP) -- Wall Street kept calm Friday after the Supreme Court struck 
down President Donald Trump's sweeping tariffs, which had triggered panic in 
financial markets when announced last year, and stocks ticked higher.

   The S&P 500 rose 0.7%. It had been flipping between small gains and losses 
before the court's ruling, following discouraging reports showing slowing 
growth for the U.S. economy and faster inflation.

   The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 230 points, or 0.5%, and the Nasdaq 
composite rose 0.9%.

   Many on Wall Street were likely expecting such a ruling from the Supreme 
Court, according to Brian Jacobsen, chief economic strategist at Annex Wealth 
Management. That likely led to the relatively muted reactions across financial 
markets, and trading remained tentative as investors tried to suss out the 
long-term effects.

   Tariffs also aren't going away, even with the Supreme Court's ruling. Trump 
in the afternoon said he would use other avenues to put taxes on imports from 
other countries after calling the court's decision terrible.

   "Just so you understand, we have tariffs, we just have them in a different 
way," Trump told reporters in an afternoon briefing. He said he would sign an 
executive order to impose a 10% global tariff under a law that could limit it 
to 150 days. The president also said he's exploring other tariffs through other 
avenues, ones that would require an investigation through the Commerce 
Department.

   "During that period of about five months, we are doing the various 
investigations necessary to put fair tariffs -- or tariffs, period -- on other 
countries," Trump said.

   Earlier in his comments, Trump said that the Supreme Court's ruling had 
other countries "dancing in the streets, but they won't be dancing for long."

   Among the tentative moves across markets, Treasury yields edged a bit higher 
in the bond market.

   If investors thought the tariff ruling would improve inflation 
significantly, it could have sent yields lower. On the other hand, if investors 
were worried about the U.S. government's debt rising faster in the future 
because of the loss of revenue from tariffs, long-term yields could have 
jumped. For now, at least, yields broadly held relatively steady.

   The stock price of Ralph Lauren, meanwhile, rushed from an early loss to a 
gain of 3.3% after investors learned of the Supreme Court's ruling. But it 
quickly flipped back to a loss before finishing with a rise of 2.2%. During 
April last year, the stock had dropped nearly 23% in four days after Trump 
announced his tariffs because of worries about how they would hurt its profits.

   In other markets, gold's price slumped briefly after the ruling and then 
erased the loss. Stock indexes in Europe added some to their gains from earlier 
in the day, while the U.S. dollar's value edged down against other currencies.

   Heading into the day, the main event for markets had seemed to be 
discouraging reports showing slowing U.S. economic growth and accelerating 
inflation. They found a relatively muted response from investors.

   While the reports underscore the tricky situation the Federal Reserve faces 
as it sets interest rates, they did not change traders' expectations much for 
what the Fed will ultimately do. Traders are still betting that the Fed will 
lower rates at least twice this year, according to data from CME Group. Some 
shifted bets for the timing of when the cuts could begin to slightly later in 
the summer.

   Lower interest rates would give the economy and investment prices a boost, 
but they also risk worsening inflation. Fed officials said at their last 
meeting that they want to see inflation fall further before they would support 
cutting rates further.

   The yield on the 10-year Treasury remained at 4.08%, where it was late 
Thursday. The two-year yield, which more closely tracks expectations for Fed 
action, inched up to 3.48% from 3.47%.

   On Wall Street, Akamai Technologies dropped 14.1% for one of the market's 
sharpest losses. The cybersecurity and cloud computing company reported 
stronger results for the end of 2025 than analysts expected, but it gave a 
profit forecast for the upcoming year that fell short of estimates.

   Akamai plans to spend a bigger percentage of its revenue this upcoming year 
on equipment and other investments. It's the latest potential indicator of how 
shortages of computer memory created by the AI boom are affecting customers 
throughout the economy.

   On the winning side of the market was Comfort Systems, which rose 6.5% after 
the provider of heating, ventilation, air conditioning and electrical services 
reported a stronger profit for the latest quarter than analysts expected. CEO 
Brian Lane said his company is seeing "unprecedented demand."

   Al told, the S&P 500 rose 47.62 points to 6,909.51. The Dow Jones Industrial 
Average added 230.81 to 49,625.97, and the Nasdaq composite rose 203.34 to 
22,886.07.

   In stock markets abroad, indexes rose in Europe following a more mixed 
finish in Asia.

   The Hang Seng fell 1.1%, but South Korea's Kospi jumped 2.3% to a record, 
led by major defense contractors like Hanwha Aerospace. The company is one of 
many benefiting from a ramp up in military spending in many countries.