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S&P March flash Composite PMI at 53.5 vs 51.6 in Feb

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(Updates to mid-session trading)

By Sruthi Shankar and Johann M Cherian

March 24 (Reuters) -

Wall Street's three main indexes touched two-week highs on Monday, boosted by technology stocks on signs that the Trump administration is taking a measured approach on tariffs against its trading partners.

U.S. President Donald Trump's administration is likely to exclude a set of sector-specific tariffs that are on track to be imposed on April 2, according to media reports over the weekend.

Investors scooped up battered technology shares, with Nvidia ( NVDA ) up 3.3% and Advanced Micro Devices ( AMD ) adding 6.2%, which sent the broader chip index higher by 3.1%. Other megacaps such as Meta Platforms ( META ) jumped 3.2% and Amazon.com ( AMZN ) rose 2.8%.

The S&P 500 consumer discretionary index led sectoral gains with a 3.3% advance, aided by Tesla's 9.4% surge.

Speaking on the repercussions of Trump's fluctuating trade policies, Chris Zaccarelli, chief investment officer for Northlight Asset Management, said "we think the biggest impact is that the uncertainty has at least slowed down or potentially frozen a lot of the business activity."

"And there's a concern that future earnings (a few) quarters from now will be lower because of this chilling effect."

Financial markets have whipsawed over the past several weeks as traders have been confronted by fears of a sharp U.S. economic slowdown after Trump announced a series of tariffs last month on some of its main trading partners including China, Mexico and Canada.

Several companies have also cited tariff uncertainty as they lowered their forecasts for the upcoming quarters. Data compiled by LSEG as of Friday showed, earnings of companies included in the S&P 500 are expected to grow by 10.5% in 2025, down by 3.5 percentage points since the beginning of the year.

However, U.S. stocks appear to have found a floor after weeks-long selloff that pushed the benchmark S&P 500 and the tech-heavy Nasdaq down by 10% from their record highs - commonly known as correction.

At 11:55 a.m. ET the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 566.80 points, or 1.35%, to 42,552.38, the S&P 500 gained 93.71 points, or 1.65%, to 5,761.27 and the Nasdaq Composite gained 363.10 points, or 2.04%, to 18,146.78.

The domestically focused Russell 2000 index added 2.2% to hit a two-week high, while the CBOE Volatility Index , also known as Wall Street's fear gauge, dropped 1.13 points to a three-week low.

A survey

showed

U.S. business activity picked up in March, but growing fears over import tariffs and deep government spending cuts continued to weigh on sentiment.

Investors are now awaiting a slew of data through the week including the Personal Consumption Expenditure (PCE) price index - the Federal Reserve's preferred inflation gauge.

Among other single stocks, Dun & Bradstreet ( DNB ) rose 2.9% after the data and analytics provider entered an agreement to be acquired by private equity firm Clearlake Capital in a $7.7 billion deal.

Lockheed Martin ( LMT ) fell 1.3% as BofA Global Research downgraded the weapons maker to "neutral" from "buy".

Crypto stocks such as Strategy advanced 6.7%, Coinbase added gained 5.2% and Mara Holdings ( MARA ) climbed 14.2%, tracking a 3.5% rise in bitcoin prices.

Advancing issues outnumbered decliners by a 3.54-to-1 ratio on the NYSE and by a 2.23-to-1 ratio on the Nasdaq.

The S&P 500 posted four new 52-week highs and no new lows, while the Nasdaq Composite recorded 39 new highs and 65 new lows. (Reporting by Sruthi Shankar and Johann M Cherian in Bengaluru; Editing by Maju Samuel)