The pause heard ’round the world of investing.

The S&P 500 (^GSPC) exploded 9.5% on Wednesday as President Trump announced a 90-day pause on reciprocal tariffs for most countries. He cranked up the pressure on China, however, taking tariffs up to 125%. The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite (^IXIC) surged 12% for its second-best day on record. The Dow Jones Industrial Average (^DJI) shot up 7.8%, or about 3,000 points.

SNP – Free Realtime Quote USD

As of 1:08:29 PM EDT. Market Open.

^GSPC ^DJI ^IXIC

Only nine stocks in the S&P 500 closed the session in the red, led by slight drops in consumer plays Dollar General (DG), of 1.9%, and Kroger (KR), 0.8%. Popular momentum stocks such as Tesla (TSLA) and Nvidia (NVDA) roared back to life with respective gains of 22% and 18%.

Markets are likely to remain volatile as a 10% baseline tariff is still in place. Trump could reverse his stance anytime, and companies like Delta (DAL) and Walmart (WMT) continue to warn about the negative effects of the 2025 trade war.

To that end, all three major stock indexes were down about 2% each in premarket trading on Thursday.

The tariffs sparked a wave of activity among the Wall Street strategist community, which has spent the past week warning about deep recessions and slashing price targets.

Read more: How to protect your money during economic turmoil, stock market volatility

Earlier on Wednesday, Goldman Sachs chief economist Jan Hatzius said a US recession was now his base case after lifting his recession probability forecast on Monday to 45%.

By the close of trading, with markets in tariff pause rally mode, Hatzius reversed his stance and said a recession was no longer the base case.

“Certainly investor confidence and the predictability of policy in the US has gone down, maybe not permanently, but certainly for the short term. So we’re not going back to where we were a week or even three months ago,” Gabelli Funds co-chief investment officer of value Chris Marangi said on Yahoo Finance’s Market Domination.

TOPSHOT - A trader works on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) during afternoon trading on April 9, 2025 in New York. Wall Street stocks rocketed to close solidly higher Wednesday, with dramatic advances on all three major indexes as US President Donald Trump delayed steep new tariffs hours after they took effect. The Dow Jones Industrial Average surged 7.9 percent to 40,608.45, the broad-based S&P 500 Index rallied 9.5 percent to 5,456.90, and the tech-focused Nasdaq Composite Index jumped more than 12.2 percent to 17,124.97. (Photo by ANGELA WEISS / AFP) (Photo by ANGELA WEISS/AFP via Getty Images)
A trader works on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) during afternoon trading on April 9, 2025, in New York. (ANGELA WEISS/AFP via Getty Images) · ANGELA WEISS via Getty Images

Here is what Wall Street is saying about the Trump tariff 90-day pause.

“We believe the impact on the US remains significant, and that the Fed will cut meaningfully this year (with a first cut in June, but with a degree of uncertainty). Inflation is likely to rise toward 4%, the unemployment rate toward 5%, and the chance of a recession remains around 50%.”

“In our view, the news offers some relief to negative tariff sentiment on retail stocks, but China at 125% is still a significant problem for product cost inflation, price increases required to offset, and negative earnings impact for several retailers.”