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NEW YORK (AP) — Wall Street closed its winning week and month with a quiet Friday following a mixed set of profit reports from Gap, Ulta Beauty and other companies navigating the challenges created by President Donald Trump’s on-and-off tariffs.
The S&P 500 finished the day nearly unchanged after edging down by less than 0.1%. The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 54 points, or 0.1%, and the Nasdaq composite slipped 0.3%.
Gap weighed on the market even though the retailer reported stronger profit and revenue for the latest quarter than analysts expected.
The company behind Banana Republic and Old Navy fell 20.2% after saying tariffs on imports from China and other countries could add up to $300 million to its costs this fiscal year. It has strategies set to mitigate up to half of that before it hits its profits.
This week and month on Wall Street have been dominated by questions about what will happen with Trump’s tariffs, which investors worry could grind the economy into a recession, slash companies’ profits and layer even more challenges on households already sick of inflation.
Hopes had largely been rising that the worst of such worries had passed, which in turn sent stocks rallying, after Trump paused his tariffs on both China and the European Union. A U.S. court then on Wednesday blocked many of Trump’s sweeping tariffs. It all sent the S&P 500 in May to its first winning month in four and its best since November.
But the tariffs remain in place for now while the White House appeals the ruling by the U.S. Court of International Trade, and the ultimate outcome is still uncertain.
Trump also briefly shook markets shortly before Wall Street opened for trading Friday, when he accused China of not living up to its end of the agreement that paused their tariffs against each other.
“So much for being Mr. NICE GUY!” Trump said on his Truth Social platform.
The impact was limited though, and futures for U.S. stock indexes quickly pared their losses. Since Wednesday’s ruling, analysts and investors have been saying Trump and his administration would likely look for new avenues to impose tariffs on trading partners.
Trump has said he’s using tariffs to bring manufacturing jobs back to the United States and that U.S. households and businesses may feel some pain in the process.
Friday’s most influential losses came from several Big Tech stocks. Nvidia fell 2.9% to give back some of its gain from earlier in the week after it topped analysts’ expectations for profit in the latest quarter. It was the single heaviest weight by far on the S&P 500.