The broader market was little changed on Thursday, with losses staved off by tech gains, as investors were encouraged the exemptions for chipmakers manufacturing in the United States from President Donald Trump's new semiconductor tariffs, but concerns over the health of the economy remained.
The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite (NASDAQ: QQQ) rose nearly 0.4% to settle at 21,242.70 on Thursday, thanks to the boost from chipmakers, while the S&P 500 Index (NYSE: SPY) dipped slightly to close at 6,340.00. The Dow Jones Industrial Average (NYSE: DIA), meanwhile, dropped over 200 points to end at 43,968.64.
Trump announced late Wednesday that he will impose a 100% tariff on imported microchips from all companies except for those "building in the United States." The new duty comes as Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) unveiled plans to invest an additional $100 billion into U.S. companies and suppliers over the next four years, building on its $500 billion announced made back in February.
The iPhone maker said the investment will also encourage companies to buy more American-made hardware under Apple's led American Manufacturing Program announced Wednesday. The program includes Amkor (NASDAQ: AMKR), Applied Materials (NASDAQ: AMAT), Broadcom (NASDAQ: AVGO), Coherent (NYSE: COHR), Corning (NYSE: GLW), GlobalFoundries (NASDAQ: GFS), GlobalWafers, Samsung and Texas Instruments (NASDAQ: TXN).
"We're going to be putting a very large tariff on chips and semiconductors," Trump said at a press event held at the Oval Office on Wednesday. "But the good news for companies like Apple is if you're building in the United States or have committed to build, without question, committed to build in the United States, there will be no charge."
Other large chipmakers such as Taiwan Semiconductor (NYSE: TSM) and Nvidia (NASDAQ: NVDA) have also previously announced billion dollar investments into U.S. manufacturing.
Separately, Intel (NASDAQ: INTC) shares fell on Thursday after Trump wrote in a post on his social media platform Truth Social that CEO Lip-Bu Tan is "highly CONFLICTED and must resign, immediately" adding that "there is no other solution to this problem." Tan took the lead role at the chipmaker back in March after Pat Gelsinger stepped down following pressure from declining sales in the wake of the explosive artificial intelligence industry.
Trump's new tariff rates for dozens of countries also went into effect on Thursday, with new duties ranging from 10% to 41% -- an update that seemed to pass unnoticed on Wall Street.
Elsewhere, Eli Lilly (NYSE: LLY) shares fell on Thursday after the results from the pharmaceutical giant's study of its weight loss pill helped patients lost almost 12% of their body weight, coming in below the 15% rate expected for the oral GLP-1. The results appeared to be comparable to the weight loss seen from rival Novo Nordisk's (NYSE: NVO) GLP-1 injectable Wegovy.
"Injectables have set a high bar, but this study reinforces the potential for an oral GLP-1 to be transformative in obesity care, particularly for patients who are hesitant to start of maintain injectable therapies," said Dr. Jaime Almandoz, medical director of the Weight Wellness Program at UT Southwestern Medical Center, quoted by CNBC.
Looking ahead, Piper Sandler chief market technician Craig Johnson wrote in a Thursday note that the firm expects the second half of the year to bring even more strength to Wall Street, maintaining his year-end S&P 500 target at 6,600.
"While historically, the summer doldrums often lead to modest pullbacks in August and September, investors who have doubted this rally are now forced to 'buy the dips...and not sell the rips' to play catch-up," Johnson wrote. "Based on the weight of the bullish technical evidence, we suspect our price objective will be achieved by mid-October."