US stock futures trod water on Wednesday as Wall Street largely shrugged off tariff risks even as President Trump doubled duties on steel and aluminum imports.
Futures attached to the Dow Jones Industrial Average (YM=F) , the S&P 500 (ES=F) , and the tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 (NQ=F) wavered along the flat line.
First thing on Wednesday morning, an order that Trump signed on Tuesday evening came into effect, hiking tariffs on steel and aluminum imports from 25% to 50%. The UK is the only trading partner exempt from the increase. The president's latest tariff move comes amid escalating tensions between the US and key trading partners China and the EU.
Read more: The latest on Trump's tariffs
But hopes for a US-China trade pact dimmed after Trump called President Xi "extremely hard to make a deal with" in a post to social media. The Geneva tariff truce between the two has appeared increasingly fragile amid clashes over issues such as chip exports, rare earth supplies, Taiwan and visas.
US stocks booked a second win in a row on Tuesday after an unexpectedly upbeat JOLTS job openings report lifted investor optimism that the economy can weather the impact of Trump's trade policy.
Wall Street will get another pulse check on the labor market with the release of ADP employment data on Wednesday. The main event lands on Friday with the closely watched May jobs report .
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