Fri Aug 01 10:50:00 UTC 2025: **News Article:**

**Stocks Close Lower Amid Tariff Deadline, But Cap Monthly Gains**

**NEW YORK** – U.S. stocks ended Thursday in the red, but managed to close out a month of gains as investors weighed an approaching tariff deadline and awaited further earnings reports from tech giants.

The Nasdaq Composite fell 0.4%, slipping below the flatline after briefly surging earlier in the session. The S&P 500 dropped 0.4%, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average lagged, sliding 0.7%. Despite the daily losses, both the S&P 500 and Nasdaq enjoyed robust monthly gains of 2.3% and 3.7%, respectively, marking the third straight month of gains for the S&P 500 and fourth for the Nasdaq.

Market sentiment was dampened by Friday’s tariff deadline and unease over President Trump’s trade policies.

The day’s economic data also played a role. The Personal Consumption Expenditures (PCE) index, the Federal Reserve’s preferred inflation gauge, showed that price increases accelerated in June, remaining above the Fed’s 2% target. This followed the Fed’s decision on Wednesday to hold interest rates steady, leading to reduced expectations for a September rate cut.

Strong earnings reports from Microsoft and Meta provided some optimism. Microsoft’s stock surged, briefly pushing its market capitalization above $4 trillion. Meta soared after beating earnings expectations and delivering strong guidance, fueled by massive AI spending. CoreWeave, a cloud provider with Microsoft and Meta as their customers, also saw a gain on its stock value of 12%.

Roblox’s stock rocketed 20% higher in premarket trading after reporting record daily users and raising its third quarter forecast for bookings.

However, concerns over the upcoming jobs report on Friday, a key indicator of the US economy’s health, limited the gains. Economists are projecting the economy to add 104,000 jobs in July, which would be the lowest monthly job gain since February.

In other news, Figma surged more than 230% above its IPO price after it began trading just before 2:00 p.m. ET on Thursday. And Reddit shares jumped nearly 5% Thursday morning ahead of the social media’s second quarter earnings report after the bell.

Investors are also awaiting after-hours earnings reports from tech heavyweights Apple and Amazon.

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