Published by Global Banking & Finance Review®
Posted on May 29, 2025
2 min readLast updated: January 23, 2026
Add as preferred source on GoogleA US appeals court reinstated Trump's tariffs, causing market confusion. Wall Street showed mixed reactions amid ongoing trade policy changes.
By Stephen Culp, Rocky Swift and Ankur Banerjee
NEW YORK (Reuters) -A U.S. appeals court reinstated President Donald Trump's sweeping tariffs on Thursday, leaving Wall Street with no clear direction a day after most of the tariffs were blocked by a trade court, a move that had given markets a brief boost.
Chaotic U.S. trade policy has sent global markets on a roller coaster in recent months. Equity markets were rattled by Trump's April 2 "Liberation Day" tariff announcements, which have since been repeatedly delayed and adjusted.
Following a market revolt after the April 2 tariff shock, Trump paused most import duties for 90 days and vowed to hammer out bilateral deals with trade partners.
Markets have swung wildly through Trump's on-and-off tariff changes. The S&P 500 index is up 4.1% since duties were announced while European stocks have gained 2.0%.
Gold is up 5.9% from April 2, and the U.S. dollar index is down 4.4%. Ten-year Treasury yields have climbed 23 basis points to around 4.4%.
But U.S. stocks showed little reaction to the appeals court decision, having already pulled back from the rally sparked by Wednesday's trade court ruling.
Markets have grown accustomed to the president announcing steep tariffs only to postpone them soon afterward, giving rise to the acronym TACO (Trump Always Chickens Out), coined by the Financial Times.
Asked on Wednesday by a reporter for his response to the term TACO, Trump said the question was "nasty" and in his defense of tariff changes, said: "It's called negotiation."
"Trump has already rolled back most of these tariffs anyway, so these court rulings are just headlines," said Adam Sarhan, chief executive of 50 Park Investments in New York.
"As far as I'm concerned, as long as the market doesn't tank on the news, it's just a secondary byproduct," Sarhan added.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 117.03 points, or 0.28%, to 42,215.73, the S&P 500 gained 23.62 points, or 0.40%, to 5,912.17, and the Nasdaq Composite gained 74.93 points, or 0.40%, to 19,175.87.
(Reporting by the Asia markets team; additional reporting by Stephen Culp and Caroline Valetkevitch in New York and Dhara Ranasinghe in London; Writing by Rocky Swift. Editing by Sam Holmes, Ros Russell and Nia Williams)
The US appeals court reinstated President Donald Trump's sweeping tariffs, leaving Wall Street uncertain about market direction.
Markets have experienced significant volatility due to Trump's on-and-off tariff changes, with the S&P 500 index up 4.1% since the tariffs were announced.
The acronym TACO stands for 'Trump Always Chickens Out,' reflecting the market's expectation that Trump may postpone tariffs after announcing them.
U.S. stocks showed little reaction to the appeals court decision, as they had already pulled back from the rally sparked by a previous trade court ruling.
Gold prices have increased by 5.9% since April 2, while the U.S. dollar index has decreased by 4.4%, indicating mixed reactions in the financial markets.
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