Stocks gain, dollar weakens as court battle over tariffs take center stage

By Chibuike Oguh

NEW YORK (Reuters) -Global stocks rose while the U.S. dollar weakened on Thursday as markets digested an ongoing court battle over President Donald Trump's so-called "Liberation Day" tariffs.

The U.S. Court of International Trade issued a ruling late on Wednesday that Trump overstepped his authority by imposing across-the-board duties on imports from trading partners.

The decision triggered a court battle that would likely weigh on markets, after the Trump administration swiftly appealed the ruling and an appeals court temporarily reinstated the tariffs.

On Wall Street, all three indexes finished higher after losing ground in the previous session, indicating that markets largely view the decision in a positive light. Nvidia ended up 3% after reporting earnings that beat expectations after markets closed on Wednesday.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.28% to 42,215.73, the S&P 500 rose 0.40% to 5,912.17 and the Nasdaq Composite rose 0.39% to 19,175.87

Europe's STOXX 600 index finished down 0.19%, after rising earlier in the session. MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan had closed up 0.77% overnight.

MSCI's gauge of stocks across the globe rose 0.44% to 880.26.

"I think markets are just going to continue to be caught in this pinball machine of court decisions, executive orders and judicial reviews," said Mark Spindel, chief investment officer at Potomac River Capital in Washington.

"This is what happens when you don't follow a more sticky legislative process when developing policy. The result of using executive orders is that you're at the mercy of a court that is ruling on, circumscribing, or endorsing those orders. Markets are caught in the middle of all this, and the result is chaos and uncertainty.”

The U.S. dollar had initially risen against safe-haven currencies following news of the federal court decision late on Wednesday, but it has since pared those gains and was down on the session.

Data showed that labor market conditions continue to ease, as the number of Americans seeking unemployment benefits increased more than expected last week.

The dollar weakened 0.48% to 144.13 against the Japanese yen and was down 0.51% to 0.823 against the Swiss franc. The euro was up 0.64% at $1.1364.

The dollar index, which measures the greenback against a basket of currencies including the yen and the euro, fell 1.03% to 99.36.

U.S. Treasury yields, which have been under pressure with investors unnerved by Trump's hefty tax and spend bill, initially rose on Thursday but retreated.

The yield on benchmark U.S. 10-year notes fell 4.7 basis points to 4.432%. The 30-year bond yield fell 5.2 basis points to 4.9264%.

Oil prices fell, retreating from earlier gains, with markets eyeing possible U.S. sanctions on Russian crude flows.

Brent crude futures settled down 1.2% to $64.15 a barrel. U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude fell 1.5% to $60.94 a barrel.

Gold prices rose in volatile trading partly aided by the softer jobs data. Spot gold rose 0.8% to $3,315.73 an ounce. U.S. gold futures were settled 0.6% higher at $3,343.90.

(Reporting by Chibuike Oguh in New York; Additional reporting by Chuck Mikolajczak and Suzanne McGee in New York; Editing by Gareth Jones and Daniel Wallis)