U.S. Close Mostly Higher After Supreme Court Strikes Down Trump's Tariffs

(RTTNews) - After recovering from an initial move to the downside, stocks fluctuated over the course of the trading session on Friday but largely maintained a positive bias before eventually finishing the day mostly higher.

The major averages all closed in positive territory, with the tech-heavy Nasdaq posting a notable gain. The Nasdaq advanced 203.34 points or 0.9 percent to 22,886.07, the S&P 500 climbed 47.62 points or 0.7 percent to 6,909.51 and the Dow rose 230.81 points or 0.5 percent to 49,625.97.

For the holiday-shortened week, the Nasdaq shot up by 1.5 percent, the S&P 500 jumped by 1.1 percent and the Dow increased by 0.3 percent.

The higher close on Wall Street came after the U.S. Supreme Court struck down most of President Donald Trump's sweeping global tariffs, delivering a major blow to the president's signature economic policy.

The nation's highest court ruled in a 6-3 decision that the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, or IEEPA, does not authorize the president to impose tariffs.

However, the court's decision does not address whether the more than $130 billion in tariffs that has already been collected should be refunded, with Justice Brett Kavanaugh predicting "that process is likely to be a 'mess.'"

Trump slammed the "deeply disappointing" decision in a lengthy post on Truth Social and announced plans to sign an executive order imposing a new 10 percent "global tariff."

Early in the session, stocks moved lower following the release of a Commerce Department report showing U.S. economic growth slowed by much more than anticipated in the fourth quarter of 2025.

The report said gross domestic product climbed by 1.4 percent in the fourth quarter after surging by 4.4 percent in the third quarter. Economists had expected GDP to jump by 2.8 percent.

A separate Commerce Department report showed an unexpected uptick in the annual rate of consumer price growth, reinforcing expectations the Federal Reserve is likely to keep interest rates on hold in the near future.

Sector News

Transportation stocks showed a strong move to the upside on the day, driving the Dow Jones Transportation Average up by 1.8 percent.

Notable strength was also visible among networking stocks, as reflected by the 1.5 percent gain posted by the NYSE Arca Networking Index.

Gold, retail and semiconductor stocks also turned in strong performances, while pharmaceutical and software stocks moved to the downside.

Other Markets

In overseas trading, stock markets across the Asia-Pacific region moved mostly lower on Friday. Japan's Nikkei 225 Index and Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index both slumped by 1.1 percent, but South Korea's Kospi bucked the downtrend and surged by 2.3 percent to a record high.

Meanwhile, the major European markets have moved to the upside on the day. While the French CAC 40 Index is up by 1.4 percent, the German DAX Index is up by 0.9 percent and the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index is up by 0.8 percent.

In the bond market, treasuries saw modest weakness after ending the previous session roughly flat. Subsequently, the yield on the benchmark ten-yea note, which moves opposite of its price, crept up 1.1 basis points to 4.086 percent.

Looking Ahead

Following a busy week on the U.S. economic front, the economic calendar for next week is relatively quiet, although reports on consumer confidence and producer prices may still attract some attention.