Stocks rose on Tuesday after White House trade advisor Peter Navarro clarified that the U.S.-China trade deal is not over.
Apple was among the best-performing stocks in the premarket, gaining 1.7%. That advance put the tech giant on pace to hit a fresh record high at the open.
Bank stocks rose broadly. JPMorgan Chase, Citigroup, Wells Fargo and Bank of America all gained more than 2%. Retailers such as Gap, Kohl’s and Nordstrom — which are directly linked to the economy reopening — were all up at least 2%. MGM and Wynn Resorts gained more than 2% each.
“My comments have been taken wildly out of context,” Navarro said in a statement. “They had nothing at all to do with the Phase I trade deal, which continues in place.”
President Donald Trump also tweeted that the existing trade deal remains in place.
Dow futures had dropped about 400 points overnight after Navarro’s Monday interview on Fox News’ “The Story.”
Fox’s Martha MacCallum asked, “Do you think that the president sort of … I mean, he obviously really wanted to hang onto this trade deal as much as possible. And he wanted them to make good on the promises because there had been progress made on that trade deal, but given everything that’s happened and all the things you just listed, is that over?”
“It’s over. Yes,” Navarro responded.
In his subsequent statement, Navarro said, ” I was simply speaking to the lack of trust we now have of the Chinese Communist Party after they lied about the origins of the China virus and foisted a pandemic upon the world.”
In his interview with Fox, Navarro said “the turning point” came when the U.S. heard about the coronavirus outbreak in China. Navarro claimed that the administration only heard about the virus after the trade deal between Washington and Beijing was signed on Jan. 15.
Stocks were coming off solid gains as shares of major tech companies led the major averages higher on Monday. Those gains came despite a rising number of newly confirmed coronavirus cases in the U.S.
“The message today may be that the virus and the bull market can coexist,” Jim Paulsen, chief investment strategist at the Leuthold Group, told CNBC. “Despite back to back days of Covid19 cases above 30,000 over the weekend and ongoing reports of hot spots, the stock market managed to post a strong gain. Market action seems to suggests that investors expect the economy to continue improving in the months ahead even though the country is likely to experience spotty or temporary spikes in the virus.”
The major U.S. stock averages are coming off their fourth weekly gain in five weeks.
The number of newly confirmed coronavirus cases at home and abroad continues to increase, raising questions about economic recovery from the virus. The largest single-day increase in global coronavirus cases was recorded on Sunday, according to the World Health Organization, after more than 183,000 new cases were reported worldwide.
The U.S. saw more than 36,000 new cases reported on Sunday after more than 30,000 new cases were reported on both Friday and Saturday, data compiled by Johns Hopkins University showed. Widespread testing is contributing to the uptick in reported cases.
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Correction: Due to an editing error, this story was updated to reflect the correct spelling of Martha MacCallum’s name.