U.S. stocks higher at close of trade; Dow Jones Industrial Average up 0.08%

Investing.com -- The S&P 500 snapped a four-week losing streak after eking out a gain Friday, but investors had to continued with another volatile week amid trade policy uncertainty and a Federal Reserve policy update. 

At 4:00 p.m. ET (20:00 GMT), the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 31 points, or 0.1%, the S&P 500 index added 0.04%, and the NASDAQ Composite added 0.5%. 

Trump touts flexibility on reciprocal tariffs 

President Donald Trump on Friday said there will be “flexibility” on his plan to impose reciprocal tariffs, which are set to go into affect on Apr. 2.

The remarks come amid a flurry of back and forth on tariffs on from the Trump administration this month, stoking trade policy uncertainty. 

"There wasn’t a single headline or reason for the intra-day bounce, although Trump remarked about how his reciprocal tariff plan will have some flexibility," Vital Knowledge said in a recent. note.

Fed offers mixed cues

The U.S. central bank gave markets fleeting relief this week, after keeping interest rates unchanged, as widely expected. But Fed policymakers raised their inflation forecast and cut the growth outlook for 2025.

While the Fed did maintain its projections of at least 50 basis points of rate cuts this year, its expectations of higher inflation cast some doubt over this outlook. The central bank expects inflation to trend further above its 2% target this year. 

The central bank said it remained uncertain over just how Trump’s tariffs will impact the U.S. economy, especially on the inflation front. 

A decision by the European Union to delay the imposition of retaliatory tariffs on U.S. whiskey bolstered hopes that talks between Brussels and Washington could avert a damaging trade conflict between the two major trading partners. The EU has said the postponement will help buy time for discussions with the U.S.

FedEx cuts outlook  

In the corporate sector, shares in FedEx (NYSE:FDX) stock slumped more than 6% after the parcel delivery company cut its annual profit and revenue outlook.

In a statement, CFO John Dietrich said the reduction was due to "continued weakness and uncertainty in the U.S. industrial economy" that is weighing on demand for its business.

Nike (NYSE:NKE) stock slipped over 5% after fiscal fourth-quarter revenue estimate came in below analysts’ expectations.

Micron Technology (NASDAQ:MU) stock slumped 8%, reversing earlier gains after the provider of memory and storage solutions forecast third-quarter revenue above Wall Street estimates, signaling strong demand for its high-bandwidth memory chips used in AI models.

Lennar Corporation (NYSE:LEN) stock fell more more than 4% after the housebuilder’s first-quarter profits took a hit as high borrowing costs and shaky consumer confidence weighed heavily on its housing business.

(Peter Nurse, Ambar Warrick contributed to this article.)

Investing.com -- The Bot Company, a robotics startup launched less than a year ago, has secured $150 million in a funding round led by Greenoaks. This has catapulted the firm’s valuation to $2 billion, according to Reuters, citing sources. The company, co-founded by former Cruise CEO Kyle Vogt, Paril Jain, and Luke Holoubek, aims to develop at-home robots to assist with everyday tasks.

This latest funding follows a previous round where the company raised $150 million from investors such as Spark Capital and former GitHub CEO Nat Friedman. This had valued the company at $550 million. The Bot Company is currently developing both the hardware and AI-based software needed to power their robots.

The startup’s high valuation, despite not having released a product or generated any revenue, reflects investor confidence in the potential of AI-powered robotics. These machines are capable of learning new tasks and have garnered significant interest from Silicon Valley.

The rise of large language models (LLMs) is fueling this interest, as these models enable robots to process natural language commands and perform complex tasks. This could make robots more intuitive and adaptable for use in homes or factories. Robotics startups are thus attracting substantial funding and attention, signaling a new era of intelligent and adaptive robots.

The Bot Company’s robots, while the design details remain undisclosed, are reportedly non-humanoid and equipped with a base and grips. Both The Bot Company and Greenoaks have declined to comment on the funding.

The robotics space is also seeing excitement generated by other players like Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) and startups such as Figure, which is currently raising funding at a $40 billion valuation despite little revenue. Another startup, Cobot, founded by Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN) veteran Brad Porter, has raised $146 million for non-humanoid robots focused on industrial automation.

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