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