However, equities pared back their earlier gains, as traders noted that the White House’s tariff retreats will not fully eliminate massive trade headwinds facing the U.S. economy, analysts at Rocky Mountains said.

Stocks have fluctuated throughout the week, with a steep decline on Monday followed by two consecutive days of strong gains, as investors pay close attention to often erratic policy moves by the White House.

In individual names, shares in Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) advanced after CEO Elon Musk told analysts that he plans to significantly reduce his time spent working with the Trump administration and re-focus on managing his many companies. The remark helped to offset a steep fall in the electric carmaker’s group-wide quarterly net profit.

2. Trump calls for "fair" trade deal with China

Speaking to reporters on Wednesday, Trump said he wants to secure a "fair deal" with China over trade, although he did not lay out any specifics around possible negotiations with Beijing.

Trump has made China one of the central targets of his aggressive tariffs, pushing levies on imports coming from the country up to at least 145%. This has sparked a retaliatory response from China, who has lifted tariffs on U.S. products to 125%.

Bessent, the U.S. Treasury Secretary, said that these elevated tariff levels would need to be lowered before talks can proceed -- but he stressed that Trump would not make such a move on his own.

"Neither side believes that these are sustainable levels," Bessent said.

The comments come after the Wall Street Journal reported that the White House was considering bringing its punishing tariffs on China down to as low as 50% to help facilitate negotiations. However, Trump officials will not do so unilaterally, Reuters reported, citing a person familiar with the matter.

3. Alphabet earnings ahead

Google-parent Alphabet is due to unveil its quarterly results after the bell on Thursday, becoming the latest member of the crucial "Magnificent Seven" group of mega-cap tech companies to report.

Investors will be keen to see how the search giant sees advertising spending evolving in the coming quarters, with concerns rising that uncertainty around Trump’s on-and-off tariffs will lead many clients to rein in spending on marketing. Businesses have already flagged that the murky trade outlook has made investment decisions more complicated.

Artificial intelligence stands to play a major role in the returns as well. Like many of its tech industry peers, Alphabet has been spending heavily to harness AI, but questions have swirled around the eventual return on these expenditures after the emergence of a competitive, low-cost model from Chinese start-up DeepSeek earlier this year.

Google also faces rising regulatory challenges, particularly after a judge ruled last week that the company illegally dominates two markets for online advertising technology. The ruling may present a path for U.S. antitrust prosecutors to seek a break-up of Google’s advertising offerings.

4. American Airlines to report

Prior to the opening bell on Wall Street, investors will have the chance to sift through a fresh batch of other corporate earnings.

Among these will be results from American Airlines, who could provide more insight into how the trade tensions could impact the travel industry.

Late on Wednesday, Southwest Airlines (NYSE:LUV) became the latest U.S. carrier to scrap much of its financial guidance, as the sector grapples with a lack of clarity around the consumer response to the economic headwinds posed by the tariffs. Often a discretionary expenditure, travel is exposed to would-be customers possibly paring back spending on trips.

"Amid the current macroeconomic uncertainty, it is difficult to forecast given recent and short-lived booking trends," Southwest said in a statement, adding that it is not reiterating its full-year 2025 or 2026 core earnings forecasts.

Shares in Southwest were lower in extended hours trading.

Elsewhere, Alaska Air (NYSE:ALK) Group also withdrew its guidance on Wednesday due to wider economic uncertainty, following similar moves by Delta Air Lines (NYSE:DAL) and Frontier (NASDAQ:ULCC). United Airlines (NASDAQ:UAL) also flagged last week that it was impossible to predict economic changes over the rest of the year.

5. Gold gains

Gold prices climbed on Thursday, rebounding from recent losses as doubts over a de-escalation in the U.S.-China trade war persisted.

Bullion had fallen from record highs this week after Trump raised the prospect of eventually reducing steep trade duties on China. But lingering uncertainty around Trump’s future tariff plans made the yellow metal’s fall short-lived.

Meanwhile, oil prices steadied after dropping in the previous session on reports of increased supply from the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries.

Both the Brent and West Texas Intermediate crude contracts settled around 2% lower on Wednesday after Reuters reported that several oil producing nations in the OPEC producer group are pushing to accelerate output hikes in June, extending May’s surprise boost. OPEC and allies like Russia -- a group known as OPEC+ -- are set to meet next month to finalize the June plan.