NEW YORK — Stocks are opening higher on Wall Street as the Trump administration seeks to win more deals with global trading partners. The S&P 500 index was up 0.5% in the first few minutes of trading Wednesday. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 219 points, or 0.5%, and the Nasdaq compsosite rose 0.7%. Treasury yields slipped in the bond market. Crude oil and other energy prices were lower. Copper prices eased after spiking a day earlier after President Donald Trump said he would impose 50% tariffs on imports of the metal. European markets were higher and Asian markets closed mixed.
THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. AP's earlier story follows below.
Wall Street was relatively quiet early Wednesday with major indexes ticking up modestly as the Trump administration seeks to win more favorable deals with global trading partners.
Futures for the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.3% before the bell, while the S&P and Nasdaq each nudged 0.2% higher.
Wednesday was initially set as a deadline by President Donald Trump for countries to make deals with the U.S. or face heavy increases in tariffs. But with just two trade deals announced since April — one with the United Kingdom and one with Vietnam — the window for negotiations has been extended to Aug. 1. The extension has calmed Wall Street for the time being, unlike the tariff rollouts of the spring, which sent markets swinging wildly from day-to-day for weeks.
Outside of trade talks, some corporate news surfaced after a typically quiet early summer stretch.
Pharmaceutical giant Merck is buying Verona Pharma, a U.K. company that focuses on respiratory diseases, in an approximately $10 billion deal. If approved by Verona shareholders and U.K. officials, Merck will get access to Verona's chronic obstructive pulmonary disease medication Ohtuvayre. Verona shares jumped more than 20% on the news, while Merck shares were effectively unchanged.
Delta Air Lines kicks off earnings season on Thursday, with most analysts expecting the airline's second-quarter profit to decline from a year ago. Delta and other major U.S. carriers have trimmed their flight schedules and pulled their forecasts this year as consumers pull back on travel and other nonessential spending due to uncertainty about how Trump's tariffs will affect their budgets.