After congress gave Trump a big win last week with his fiscal package, the Republican’s aggressive trade posture has returned with a vengeance this week.

Yesterday, he added threatened levies on copper and pharmaceuticals to a laundry list of countries warned of higher tariffs.

But stocks pushed higher nonetheless, with Nvidia jumping 2.5% to top US$4 trillion in market capitalisation on investor bullishness over artificial intelligence (AI) growth.

About 30 minutes into trading, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 0.5% at 44,477.06.

The broad-based S&P 500 advanced 0.7% to 6,266.23, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index rose 1.1% to 20,586.42.

Briefing.com analyst Patrick O’Hare said investors are not “overly concerned” about Trump’s latest tariff threats.

“The assumption, it seems, is that better terms with trading partners of economic consequence will get worked out and that the tariffs won’t be as onerous as advertised from a growth or inflation standpoint,” O’Hare wrote in a note.

Among individual companies, Merck rose 2.5% after announcing it reached a deal to acquire Verona Pharma, a biopharmaceutical company focused on respiratory diseases for about US$10 billion.

Verona jumped 20.7%.

Later today, markets will digest minutes from the most recent Federal Reserve meeting, at which central bankers kept interest rates unchanged.