By STAN CHOE Associated Press Business Writer

NEW YORK (AP) — Stocks worldwide are rising on Thursday after a U.S. court blocked many of President Donald Trump’s sweeping tariffs, though the gains got less strong as trading progressed from Asia to New York.

The S&P 500 was 0.7% higher in early trading, and it pulled within 3.5% of its all-time high set earlier this year. It had dropped roughly 20% below the mark last month, when fears were at their worst about whether Trump’s trade war would drive the economy into a recession.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 60 points, or 0.1%, as of 9:35 a.m. Eastern time, and the Nasdaq composite was 1.3% higher.

The gains were even bigger in Asia, where markets had the first chance to react to the ruling issued late on Wednesday by the U.S. Court of International Trade in New York. It said that the 1977 International Emergency Economic Powers Act that Trump cited for ordering massive increases in taxes on imports worldwide does not authorize the use of tariffs.

The White House immediately appealed, and the long-term outcome of legal disputes over tariffs remains uncertain. The court’s ruling also affects only some of Trump’s tariffs, not those on foreign steel, aluminum and autos, which were invoked under a different law.

Related Articles

Judge considers whether Florida’s attorney general should be held in contempt over immigration law

Hit by Trump trade wars, U.S. economy falls 0.2% in first quarter, an upgrade from initial estimate

Harvard holds commencement while facing pressure from Trump administration

More Americans file for jobless aid but layoffs remain low despite economic uncertainty over tariffs

CEO pay rose nearly 10% in 2024 as stock prices and profits soared

Trump “is still able to impose significant and wide-ranging tariffs over the longer-term through other means,” according to Ulrike Hoffmann-Burchardi, chief investment officer of global equities at UBS Global Wealth Management.

That uncertainty helped dampen the excitement in financial markets as trading headed through Europe into the United States, where the gains were more modest. The U.S. court’s move was nevertheless seen as a positive overall for financial markets.

“The bar is raised for President Trump to resurrect his tariffs,” said Brian Jacobsen, chief economist at Annex Wealth Management.

“Markets are pricing that this is a better type of uncertainty than what we’ve had since Liberation Day,” which is when Trump announced his worldwide set of sweeping tariffs.

On Wall Street, tech stocks led the way after Nvidia once again topped analysts’ expectations for profit and revenue in the latest quarter.

The chip company has grown into one of the U.S. stock market’s largest and most influential stocks because of the frenzy around artificial-intelligence technology, and its 5.9% rise was the strongest force by far moving the S&P 500 upward.

C3ai, an AI application software company, jumped 25.6% after it reported stronger profit than analysts expected for its latest quarter, while also saying the U.S. Air Force increased the top end of the range for how much its contract could be worth by $350 million to $450 million. Its total revenue grew to $108.7 million last quarter.

E.l.f. Beauty was another big winner and rose 31.1% after the cosmetics company delivered a stronger profit for the latest quarter than analysts expected. It also said it agreed to buy Hailey Bieber’s Rhode skincare brand in a $1 billion deal. Rhode had $212 million in net sales in the 12 months through March.

Bieber, a model and the wife of singer Justin Bieber, will be Rhode’s chief creative officer and head of innovation and also a strategic advisor to the combined companies.

They helped offset a drop for Best Buy, which fell even 6.3% though it reported a stronger profit than expected. Its revenue fell short of analysts’ forecasts.

The electronics retailer also cut its forecasted ranges for revenue and profit over the full year on the assumption that “tariffs stay at the current levels for the rest of the year, and there is no material change in consumer behavior from the trends we have seen in recent quarters,” Chief Financial Officer Matt Bilunas said.

In the bond market, Treasury yields were holding relatively steady following some mixed reports on the economy. One said that the U.S. economy likely shrunk by less in the first three months of the year than earlier estimated. Another said slightly more U.S. workers applied for unemployment benefits last week than economists expected.

The yield on the 10-year Treasury eased to 4.45% from 4.47% late Wednesday. The two-year Treasury yield, which moves more closely with expectations for where the Federal Reserve will take overnight interest rates, was holding at 3.96%, where it was late Wednesday.

In stock markets abroad, Japan’s Nikkei 225 jumped 1.9% to help lead Asian markets higher. In South Korea, which like Japan relies heavily on exports to the United States, the Kospi also rallied 1.9%. Its market also got a boost from the Bank of Korea, which cut its key interest rate to ease pressure on the economy.

The moves in Europe were more muted. France’s CAC 40 rose 0.3%, and Germany’s DAX was close to flat.

AP Business Writers Matt Ott and Elaine Kurtenbach contributed.

By DAVID FISCHER and MIKE SCHNEIDER, Associated Press

MIAMI (AP) — A federal judge was considering Thursday whether Florida’s attorney general disobeyed her order prohibiting the enforcement of a new state law making it a misdemeanor for people in the U.S. illegally to enter Florida, and whether he should be held in contempt and sanctioned.

U.S. District Judge Kathleen Williams specified in her ruling last month that her temporary restraining order against enforcing the Florida law applied to all of the state’s local law enforcement agencies. The Miami judge later noted that there was a substantial likelihood that the Florida law would be found unconstitutional.

But Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier sent out an April 23 letter to Florida’s law enforcement agencies saying that he couldn’t prevent law enforcement officers from enforcing the law “where there remains no judicial order that properly restrains you from doing so.”

“As set forth in the brief my office filed today, it is my view that no lawful, legitimate order currently impedes your agencies from continuing to enforce Florida’s new illegal entry and reentry laws,” Florida’s attorney general said in the letter.

Dozens of people, including a U.S. citizen, have been arrested under the law. Uthmeier has appealed the judge’s order to the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta.

In court papers, Uthmeier said that he was merely notifying local law enforcement agencies in the April 23 letter that he had filed a court brief that held a legal view disagreeing with the judge’s order. He had obeyed the judge’s order by notifying local law enforcement agencies in an April 18 letter that they couldn’t enforce the law while the court case proceeded, according to Uthmeier’s court filings.

Related Articles

Stocks climb after a court blocks many of Trump’s tariffs, as Nvidia leads tech stocks higher again

Hit by Trump trade wars, U.S. economy falls 0.2% in first quarter, an upgrade from initial estimate

Harvard holds commencement while facing pressure from Trump administration

More Americans file for jobless aid but layoffs remain low despite economic uncertainty over tariffs

CEO pay rose nearly 10% in 2024 as stock prices and profits soared

“There is no basis for contempt or sanctions,” Uthmeier said. “Interpreting an order to prohibit a state attorney general from disagreeing with a federal order — while following it — would also be an extraordinary, first-of-its-kind assertion of federal judicial power, implicating grave constitutional concerns.”

But attorneys for an immigrants rights groups that challenged the Florida law said it was unacceptable that the Florida attorney general’s April 23 letter “encouraged arrests that he fully understood were specifically prohibited.”

Even if Uthmeier’s arguments are taken at face value, that he was merely stating his legal position, he has done nothing to clear up the confusion despite given ample opportunities, said lawyers for the Florida Immigrant Coalition. They said the options the judge could consider include financial sanctions and referring Uthmeier’s conduct to the Florida Bar for disciplinary proceedings or to federal authorities for prosecution.

“Considered objectively and in the context of the earlier letter, the Attorney General’s second letter plainly undermined the notice he was directed to provide, and invited arrests which he knew would be violations of this court’s order,” the immigrants rights’ lawyers said in court papers. “That is quintessential contempt of court.”

By PAUL WISEMAN, Associated Press Economics Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. economy shrank at a 0.2% annual pace from January through March, the first drop in three years, as President Donald Trump’s trade wars disrupted business, the government said Thursday in a slight upgrade of its initial estimate.

First-quarter growth was brought down by a surge in imports as companies in the United States hurried to bring in foreign goods before the president imposed massive import taxes.

The January-March drop in gross domestic product — the nation’s output of goods and services — reversed a 2.4% gain in the fourth quarter of 2024. Imports grew at a 42.6% pace, fastest since third-quarter 2020, and shaved more than 5 percentage points off GDP growth. Consumer spending also slowed sharply.

And federal government spending fell at a 4.6% annual pace, the biggest drop in three years.

Trade deficits reduce GDP. But that’s mainly a matter of mathematics. GDP is supposed to count only what’s produced domestically. So imports — which the government counts as consumer spending in the GDP report when you buy, say, Costa Rican coffee — have to be subtracted out to keep them from artificially inflating domestic production.

Related Articles

Stocks climb after a court blocks many of Trump’s tariffs, as Nvidia leads tech stocks higher again

Judge considers whether Florida’s attorney general should be held in contempt over immigration law

Harvard holds commencement while facing pressure from Trump administration

More Americans file for jobless aid but layoffs remain low despite economic uncertainty over tariffs

CEO pay rose nearly 10% in 2024 as stock prices and profits soared

The first-quarter import surge likely won’t be repeated in the April-June quarter and therefore shouldn’t weigh on GDP.

From January through March, business investment surged 24.4%. An increase in inventories — as businesses stocked up ahead of the tariffs — added more than 2.6 percentage points to first-quarter GDP growth.

A category within the GDP data that measures the economy’s underlying strength rose at a 2.5% annual rate from January through March, down from 2.9% in the fourth quarter of 2024 but still solid. This category includes consumer spending and private investment but excludes volatile items like exports, inventories and government spending.

Trump’s tariffs have added considerable uncertainty to the economic outlook. He has imposed 10% tariffs on almost every country on earth in addition to levies on steel, aluminum and autos. A federal court on Wednesday blocked the 10% tariffs as well as specific taxes on Canadian, Mexican and Chinese imports, saying the president had overstepped his authority.

Thursday’s report was the second of three Commerce Department estimates of first-quarter GDP. The final version arrives June 26.

By MICHAEL CASEY and LEAH WILLINGHAM, Associated Press

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. (AP) — Harvard University is holding its commencement Thursday at a pivotal moment, when its place as one of the world’s leading higher education institutions is under what increasingly seems like existential threats from the Trump administration.

Other schools face the loss of federal funding and their ability to enroll international students if they don’t agree to the Trump administration’s shifting demands. But Harvard, which was founded in 1636, a century and a half before the nation itself, is taking the lead on defying the White House in federal court — and paying a significant price.

The Trump administration’s latest salvos include asking federal agencies to cancel about $100 million in contracts with the Ivy League school. The government already canceled more than $2.6 billion in federal research grants, moved to cut off Harvard’s enrollment of international students and threatened its tax-exempt status.

Harvard University graduating senior Victor Flores claps while listening to a fellow student speak at a protest against President Donald Trump’s recent sanctions against Harvard in front of Science Center Plaza on Tuesday, May 27, 2025, in Cambridge, Mass. (AP Photo/Leah Willingham)

Visa interviews for international students admitted to schools nationwide were halted on Tuesday, and Trump said Wednesday that Harvard should reduce its international enrollment from 25% to about 15%.

Sustained by a $53 billion endowment, the nation’s oldest and wealthiest university is testing whether it can be a bulwark against Trump’s efforts to limit what it calls antisemitic activism on campus, which Harvard sees as an affront to the freedom to teach and learn nationwide.

The Trump administration has demanded Harvard enact broad government and leadership reforms and changes to its admissions policies. It also demanded the university audit views of diversity on campus and stop recognizing some student clubs.

Dr. Abraham Verghese, the bestselling author and Stanford expert on infectious diseases, will be the principal speaker at the university’s 374th commencement. On Wednesday, NBA Hall of Famer and activist Kareem Abdul-Jabbar was the “Class Day” speaker, and journalist Christiane Amanpour addressed graduates of Harvard’s Kennedy School.

Both praised Harvard for standing up to the Trump administration, with Abdul-Jabbar specifically calling out the actions of Harvard President Alan Garber.

“When a tyrannical administration tried to bully and threaten Harvard, to revoke their academic freedom and to destroy free speech, Dr. Alan Garber rejected the illegal and immoral pressures,” Abdul-Jabbar said to wide applause as he compared Garber’s response to Rosa Parks’ stand against racist segregation.

Ryan Enos, a government professor at Harvard University, speaks at a protest against President Donald Trump’s recent sanctions against Harvard in front of Science Center Plaza on Tuesday, May 27, 2025, in Cambridge, Mass. (AP Photo/Leah Willingham)

“After seeing so many cowering billionaires, media moguls, law firms, politicians and other universities bend their knee to an administration that is systematically strip-mining the U.S. Constitution, it is inspiring to me to see Harvard University take a stand for freedom,” he continued.

In response to the administration’s threats, Harvard has sued to block the funding freeze and persuaded a federal judge to temporarily halt the enrollment ban. It is going to court in Boston on Thursday just as the commencement is wrapping up, hoping for a ruling that allows it to continue enrolling international students.

“We believe that the government overreach and devastating attacks on scientific and medical research are unwarranted and unlawful, and so we have taken legal action to defend the institution,” Garber said in an interview with a university publication.

“We should all be concerned that colleges and universities have increasingly come under attack. But we should not dismiss the criticisms even when they are based on distortions or inaccuracies — we need to look for the underlying concerns that can be embedded in them,” said Garber, who commissioned internal reports last year on antisemitism and anti-Arab prejudice at the Ivy League campus.

Related Articles

CEO pay rose nearly 10% in 2024 as stock prices and profits soared

Today in History: May 29, Hillary and Norgay first to summit Mount Everest

Trump commutes federal life sentence of founding Gangster Disciples kingpin Larry Hoover

Stylist says Cassie confided that Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs pressured her into sex marathons

Judge says US effort to deport Mahmoud Khalil on foreign policy grounds is likely unconstitutional

The Trump administration has said it wants “to protect American students and faculty from antisemitic violence and harassment.” It cites campus protests against Israel. Like many college students around the country, Harvard students set up tents called on the university to divest from companies supporting Israel’s military, which has leveled Gaza in response to attacks by Hamas.

Last year, hundreds of graduating students walked out of commencement chanting “Free, free Palestine” after weeks of campus protests. Harvard also said some protesters would not receive diplomas alongside their classmates, although it eventually allowed most to get them.

This year, the anti-war demonstrations have largely faded from view, but protesters plan a silent vigil before Thursday’s ceremony.

“As a graduate of Harvard, I am horrified by Israel’s mass murder of Palestinians (including by deliberate starvation), its total leveling of Gaza, its targeting of hospitals, its assaults on Palestinian educational and cultural institutions, and its relentless killings of journalists,” Harvard graduate Victor Wallis explained in a statement.