S&P 500 Gains and Losses Today: Steelmakers Rise, Automakers Fall as Trump Pushes Steel Tariff Hike

Major U.S. equity indices edged higher as June trading kicked off.

The modest gains came despite reheating trade tensions between the world’s largest economies as Chinese trade officials rejected President Donald Trump’s claims that the Asian nation had violated a trade agreement announced last month.

After wavering for much of Monday’s session, the S&P 500 rallied in the afternoon to close with a gain of 0.4%. The Nasdaq was up 0.7%, while the Dow eked out an uptick of 0.1%.

Shares of several U.S. steelmakers surged after President Trump announced a plan that would double steel tariffs to 50%. The president said the higher duties on steel imports would protect U.S. workers in the industry and encourage more companies to source the material from U.S. steelmakers. Steel Dynamics (STLD) shares soared 10.3%, marking Monday’s top performance in the S&P 500, while Nucor (NUE) shares surged 10.1%.

Gold futures prices jumped more than 2% on Monday, boosted by heightening geopolitical tensions and a weakening U.S. dollar. The uptick in the price of the precious metal helped lift gold-related stocks, including shares of Newmont (NEM), the world’s largest gold producer, which added 5.4% on Monday.

According to a Wall Street Journal report, Facebook and Instagram parent Meta Platforms (META) intends to launch a service by the end of next year that will allow advertisers to create and target campaigns entirely through artificial intelligence (AI) technology. Meta shares gained 3.6%.

Renewable energy stocks remained under pressure following last week’s announcement that the Department of Energy would terminate more than $3.7 billion in grants for clean energy and climate-related projects. The funding cuts exacerbated concerns about the proposed elimination of some renewable energy incentives under the House’s reconciliation bill. First Solar (FSLR) stock tumbled 5.3%, declining the most of any S&P 500 stock on Monday.

Shares of defense technology specialist Leidos Holdings (LDOS) dropped 4.6%. Last week, Leidos announced that it had acquired Kudu Dynamics, a firm known for developing offensive cyber capabilities enabled by artificial intelligence (AI), in line with a new company strategy that pegs cyber as a key growth area. However, Baird analysts downgraded Leidos stock last week to “neutral” from “outperform,” citing a challenging booking environment and an uncertain outlook for government contracting.

Shares of U.S. automakers lost ground following Trump’s comments on steel tariffs. Higher import taxes threaten to raise vehicle manufacturing costs. Both General Motors (GM) and Ford Motor (F) saw their share prices drop 3.9%, while shares of Chrysler and Jeep parent Stellantis (STLA) lost 3.6%.