Stock Futures Rise as Trump’s Second Term Starts: Live Updates

Stock futures were higher Monday evening after President Donald Trump was sworn in for his second term and promised a new “golden age” for the United States and issued a series of executive orders.

Most notably, the new orders did not yet include tariffs, which investors viewed as a positive.

Futures contracts linked to the S&P 500 gained 0.5%, while futures on the Nasdaq 100 rose 0.6%. Dow Jones Industrial Average futures advanced 221 points, or 0.5%. Stock futures rose during a shortened trading session Monday as regular trading was closed for the Martin Luther King holiday.

Trump began his second term aggressively with a series of executive orders related to U.S. trade and energy policy. Trump declares a national energy emergency to increase fossil fuel production. The president called his return to the White House the start of a period of growth and success for the country, while largely condemning the Biden administration in his inaugural address.

Wall Street will focus on whether Trump follows through on the pro-business proclamations he made throughout his campaign, including his calls for looser regulations that helped lift bank stocks after his November election victory . Other components of the so-called Trump trade, including small caps, oil stocks and Bitcoin, will be hypersensitive to where his administration goes from here.

“Asset prices in 2025 will be strongly determined by the direction of Trump’s policies. Uncertainty is likely to persist and be a feature of the Trump presidency,” said Robert Sockin, senior global economist at Citi, in a note.

“Trump appears to thrive in a world of ambiguity in which his political opponents and international counterparts are unclear what his next move will be. Investors who remain nimble but also remain focused on strong underlying economic fundamentals are likely to “reap the benefits,” he continued.

Investors are also looking forward to what Trump will actually do on tariffs on imports, which has raised concerns that such a move could reignite inflation and cause the Federal Reserve to intervene by raising interest rates . However, Trump’s executive orders Monday stopped short of imposing new duties on global trading partners.

The stock market has just had its best week since the period following Trump’s election. The S&P 500 gained 2.9% last week, its best week since the period ended November 8. The Dow jumped 3.7% and the Nasdaq Composite gained 2.5% last week, respectively.