U.S. stock index futures moved little on Tuesday evening after President Donald Trump’s State of the Union address offered no big surprises, with focus turning to upcoming earnings from AI bellwether Nvidia.
Futures steadied after a positive session on Wall Street, as tech rebounded from recent losses amid easing concerns over just how great an impact artificial intelligence will have on the software industry.
Trump’s imposition of a smaller-than-feared, 10% import tariff helped spur some relief over his trade agenda, after the Supreme Court struck down a bulk of his tariffs last week.
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S&P 500 Futures rose slightly to 6,908.50 points by 23:50 ET (04:50 GMT). Nasdaq 100 Futures rose 0.1% to 25,060.0 points, while Dow Jones Futures were little changed at 49,247.0 points.
Among major aftermarket movers, HP Inc (NYSE:HPQ) fell 6.1% after it presented an underwhelming outlook for 2026 amid headwinds from U.S. trade regulations and surging memory chip prices.
Workday Inc (NASDAQ:WDAY) fell 8% after its fiscal 2027 subscription revenue missed estimates.
Trump doubles down on tariffs in State of the Union speech Trump, when delivering the longest ever State of the Union address in U.S. history, largely doubled down on his tariff agenda.
The president called the Supreme Court’s ruling against his tariffs "unfortunate," but claimed that he was proceeding with his tariff agenda under a different framework that will not require Congress’ approval.
While Trump did impose new tariffs under Section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act, they were at a smaller, 10% level than the 15% levies he had threatened last week.
It was also not immediately clear what legal framework the president was referring to, given that Section 232 severely limits his ability to impose tariffs without Congressional approval.
Beyond tariffs, Trump spoke on a wide range of topics, from his administration’s attempts to curb inflation to ongoing peace negotiations with Iran.
The president is grappling with increasing voter dissatisfaction over his handling of the economy, especially in curbing the high cost of living. A Washington Post-ABC News-Ipsos poll released on Sunday found only 39% of respondents approved his job as president so far, while 58% disapproved his handling of immigration.
Wall Street rises as tech rebounds ahead of Nvidia Wall Street indexes rose on Tuesday, aided by a recovery in technology stocks as a recent AI-fueled selldown in software stocks appeared overdone.
Chipmakers also rose, led by a near 9% rally in AMD (NASDAQ:AMD) after it announced a major supply deal with Meta.
The S&P 500 rose 0.8% to 6,890.11 points, while the NASDAQ Composite rose nearly 1.1% to 22,863.68 points. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.8% to 49,174.81 points.
Focus is now squarely on upcoming quarterly earnings from NVIDIA Corporation (NASDAQ:NVDA) which are due after the close on Wednesday. The print is largely expected to act as a bellwether for the AI industry and chip demand.
