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Indexes choppy as Trump comments on China tariffs

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Ulta Beauty ( ULTA ) gains after raising annual profit forecast

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Indexes: Dow up 0.01%, S&P 500 down 0.3%, Nasdaq down 0.8%

(Updates to afternoon trading)

By Caroline Valetkevitch

NEW YORK May 30 (Reuters) -

The S&P 500 and Nasdaq eased on Friday as U.S.-China trade

worries kept investors on edge, but sharp gains this month put

the S&P 500 on track to post its biggest monthly increase since

November 2023.

The White House deputy chief of staff for policy

said

the Trump administration is preparing other actions to

target China. U.S. President Donald Trump earlier posted that

Beijing had "violated" its trade agreement with Washington.

Bloomberg reported that the Trump administration is

planning to expand restrictions on China's tech sector to

include subsidiaries of companies under U.S. curbs.

The Nasdaq led losses on Wall Street and technology

was down the most among S&P 500 sectors.

Trump's post on his Truth Social platform said China had

breached an agreement with the U.S. to mutually roll back

tariffs and trade restrictions for critical minerals, and issued

a new veiled threat to get tougher with Beijing. He did not

specify how China had violated the agreement.

Stocks pared losses as Trump said later on Friday he

will speak to China's President Xi Jinping and hopefully work

out their differences on trade and tariffs.

Tim Ghriskey, senior portfolio strategist at Ingalls &

Snyder in New York, said tariffs remain an issue for the market.

"The U.S-China trade talks supposedly have stalled

again, and yet they have a meeting coming up as well," he said.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 3.66

points, or 0.01%, to 42,220.94, the S&P 500 fell 17.43

points, or 0.29%, to 5,894.57 and the Nasdaq Composite

fell 146.39 points, or 0.75%, to 19,031.27.

Despite the losses, both the Nasdaq and S&P 500

were on track for their biggest monthly gain since

November 2023.

Data showed U.S. consumer spending increased 2.1%

year-on-year in April after advancing 2.3% in March. The Federal

Reserve tracks the PCE price measures for its 2% inflation

target.

Traders maintained bets that the U.S. central bank would cut

its target for short-term borrowing costs in September.

May has been a volatile month for stocks as Trump's

on-and-off trade policies kept investors on edge, but his

softening tariff stance, along with upbeat earnings and tame

inflation data, had helped the S&P 500 rebound from its April

lows.

U.S. equities initially rallied on Thursday, after the Court

of International Trade ruled late on Wednesday to effectively

block most levies imposed since January, without addressing some

industry-specific tariffs.

However, a federal appeals court on Thursday temporarily

reinstated most of the tariffs and ordered the plaintiffs in the

cases to respond by June 5 and the administration by June 9.

Among other big movers on the day, Ulta Beauty ( ULTA )

jumped after the cosmetics retailer raised its annual profit

forecast after beating quarterly results.

(Additional reporting by Shashwat Chauhan and Kanchana

Chakravarty in Bengaluru; Additional reporting by Ragini Mathur;

Editing by Maju Samuel and Devika Syamnath and Richard Chang)