Wall Street Set for Higher Open on Tariff Report

Wall Street was set for a higher open on Tuesday, though a renewed rise in Treasury yields damped the sentiment boost offered earlier by the prospect of gradually imposed US trade tariffs.

Contracts on the Nasdaq 100 and the S&P 500 were up 0.2%, off their highs for the session. Futures had earlier climbed as much as 0.8% after Bloomberg News reported that the incoming Donald Trump administration is considering tariff hikes of about 2% to 5% a month, rather than aggressive one-time increases.

That strategy, said to be aimed at averting inflation spikes, knocked the dollar as much as 0.4% lower, snapping a five-day rising streak. Treasuries, however, gave up earlier gains, with yields up 1.5 basis points and near the October 2023 highs hit Monday. In Britain, the government paid the most in decades to sell 30-year inflation-linked debt.

Michael Brown, a strategist at Pepperstone Group Ltd., described the mood as cautiously optimistic, given that “a slower and steadier tariff approach would perhaps remove a degree of upside inflation risk and a degree of downside growth risk.”