Futures on Wall Street soar after China and US agree to pause most of their sharp tariff increases

HONG KONG AP U S futures surged Monday after the U S and China disclosed they were suspending for days majority of the sharp tariff hikes each has imposed since U S President Donald Trump began escalating his business war A joint report on Monday mentioned that for a -day period the U S will cut tariffs on Chinese goods to from as high as China stated its tariffs on U S goods will fall to from The agreement to allow time for more talks followed weekend negotiations in Geneva Switzerland that the U S side explained had made substantial progress Wall Street cheered the advance with futures for the S P jumping while futures for the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose Futures for the Nasdaq home to the biggest U S tool companies soared American microchip companies which source much of the material needed for their semiconductors from China were among the biggest gainers early Monday ON Semiconductor Micron and Broadcom all soared between and Nvidia rose Advance companies also enjoyed big gains with American Delta and United Airlines all up around Major cruise lines rose similarly Retailers who get much of their inventory from China also benefited from the informed tariff pause Amazon was up and Best Buy jumped early Pharmaceutical companies were among the scarce losers Monday after Trump disclosed he planned to signed an executive order Monday that if implemented could bring down the costs of various medications The order Trump is promising will direct the Department of Wellness and Human Services to tie what Medicare pays for medications administered in a medical professional s office to the lowest price paid by other countries A big pharma agreement group criticized the plan and Johnson Johnson Merck and Pfizer all tumbled around Also Monday Texas power company NRG Vigor mentioned it will essentially double its generation maximum through a billion cash and stock acquisition of natural gas facilities in the Northeast and Texas from LS Power Equity Advisors an force focused funding manager Shares of NRG rose more than early Monday The full impact on the complicated tariffs and other agreement penalties enacted by Washington and Beijing remains unclear And much depends on whether they will find means to bridge long-standing differences during the -day suspension But as business envoys from the world s two biggest economies blinked finding avenues to pull back from potentially massive disruptions to world pact and their own markets investors rejoiced Oil prices also rallied with U S benchmark crude oil gaining more than to per barrel Brent crude the international standard added to per barrel The U S dollar surged against the Japanese yen trading at Japanese yen up from yen The euro fell to from In other stock trading Tokyo s realm closed before the joint announcement was issued gaining less than to But Hong Kong s which closes later jumped to In Europe at midday Germany s DAX gained and the CAC in Paris added Britain s FTSE was higher Investors were also watching for developments in other flashpoints including clashes between India and Pakistan the war in Ukraine and conflict in the Middle East The Sensex in Mumbai shot up after India and Pakistan agreed to a truce after talks to defuse their preponderance serious military confrontation in decades The two armies have exchanged gunfire artillery strikes missiles and drones that killed dozens of people Pakistan s KSE surged more than and trading was halted for one hour following a spike driven by the ceasefire and an International Monetary Fund decision Friday to disburse about billion of a bailout package for its battered business sector The Shanghai Composite Index picked up to Chinese EV battery maker CATL or Contemporary Amperex Machinery Co Ltd declared in a prospectus filed with the Hong Kong Stock Exchange that it plans to raise nearly billion in a share listing Elsewhere in Asia the Kospi in Seoul gained to Australia s S P ASX climbed less than to Taiwan s Taiex gained AP Business Writer Matt Ott contributed