A wild, historic day for markets sees S&P 500 notch best day since 2008 financial crisis

From Seeking Alpha:

It was nothing short of a historic day for markets, as U.S. President Donald Trump's pause on reciprocal tariffs against most countries except China sent Wall Street to its best day since the financial crisis of 2008.

The benchmark S&P 500 (SP500) rocketed +9.52% to end at 5,456.90 points, its best intraday gain since October 2008. The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite (COMP:IND) exploded +12.16% to settle at 17,124.97 points, while the blue-chip Dow (DJI) surged +7.87% to conclude at 40,608.45 points.

Trump said he would issue a 90-day pause on reciprocal tariffs for more than 75 countries who had reached out to the U.S. for trade negotiations.

He also upped the tariff rate against China to 125%. The Asian nation had earlier in the day raised its tariff rate on imports from the U.S. to 84%, while calling the American trade barriers "a mistake on top of a mistake."

"Just as it appeared that markets were about to take another leg lower because of the trade war started by the U.S., and retaliatory tariffs by other countries, especially China, the picture changed," Daniel Jones, investing group leader of Crude Value Insights, told Seeking Alpha.

"The market views the general scaling back as a net positive and likely as evidence that the trade war issue can largely be resolved, excluding China, over the next three months," he said.

"Personally, I sold very little during this downturn. This is because I am a long-term investor. However, as we approach that 90 day mark, if things don't look better, I likely will begin selling some of my stock or I will at least buy some put options," Jones added.

Wall Street had been gripped by the volatility that had become the norm over this week before Trump's announcement.

Over in the fixed-income markets, a bruising bond selloff eased up after the announcement. A strong $39B 10-year notes by the U.S. Treasury department also helped sentiment.

The 10-year yield (US10Y) was last up 7 basis points to 4.37%. The shorter-end more rate-sensitive 2-year yield (US2Y) was up 20 basis points to 3.94%.

For more, see how Treasury yields have done across the curve on the Seeking Alpha bond page.