U.S. stocks closed higher on Wednesday (July 9th) as the Federal Reserve released the minutes of its meeting
All three major U.S. stock indexes closed higher on Wednesday, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average up 0.49%, the Nasdaq Composite Index up 0.94%, and the S&P 500 Index up 0.61%. Large-cap technology stocks rose collectively. Nvidia closed up 1.8%, and its total market value once exceeded 4 trillion US dollars during the trading session.
Most popular Chinese concept stocks declined, with the Nasdaq China Golden Dragon Index closing down 1.11%. Alibaba, Bilibili and JD.com all dropped by more than 3%, NetEase fell by more than 2%, and Baidu declined by over 1%.
The latest released minutes of the Federal Reserve’s June meeting show that policymakers believe there is “considerable uncertainty” regarding the potential inflationary impact of tariffs in terms of timing, scale and duration. They do not have a unified answer on how much impact tariffs have on inflation, which depends on how tariffs are passed on to the economy and the progress of trade negotiations. Since the June meeting, Federal Reserve governors Christopher Waller and Michelle Bowman have proposed the possibility of cutting interest rates this month based on moderate inflation data. The minutes show that a few officials indicated their willingness to consider cutting interest rates at the meeting on July 29-30.
Most officials believe that it might be appropriate to “moderately lower” the policy interest rate this year. However, most officials still insist that the stable economic performance of the United States gives them room to be patient in adjusting interest rates. The decision-makers’ assessment of economic growth in the minutes was “prudent”, and they believed that the unemployment rate was at a low level. Participants believed that although the uncertainty of inflation and the economic outlook has declined, the adjustment of monetary policy should still adhere to the principle of prudence.
Early this morning, US President Trump posted a letter to Brazil on the social media platform “Real Social” regarding the imposition of tariffs, stating that the United States will impose a 50% tariff on all Brazilian products starting from August 1, 2025. The Brazilian real’s decline against the US dollar widened to 2%.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said on Wednesday that the EU is working closely with the Trump administration to reach a trade deal, but Brussels is also preparing for various scenarios.
Media reports on Wednesday said that EU negotiators are close to reaching a trade deal with Trump, which sets a higher tariff level than that obtained by the UK.
