The Globe and Mail reports in its Thursday edition that U.S. and Canadian stock indexes finished higher after a choppy trading session on Wednesday as investors made last-minute bets to position themselves ahead of U.S. President Donald Trump's sweeping tariff announcements. A Reuters dispatch to The Globe says Mr. Trump began speaking after Wall Street closed, and both S&P 500 futures and Nasdaq futures reversed gains as investors blanched at his tariff plans. S&P 500 futures were 1.6 per cent lower as he spoke, with Nasdaq futures down 2.4 per cent. This suggested investors expect deep losses when Wall Street opens on Thursday. Mr. Trump's sweeping orders included imposing a 10-per-cent baseline tariff on imports to the U.S. and higher duties on some of the country's biggest trading partners. But the U.S. will exempt some elements of North American trade from the 10-per-cent baseline tariff that was set to take effect Wednesday night. "Markets were anticipating a good, bad or an ugly scenario on tariffs and this reciprocal tariff is leaning more into the ugly scenario, meaning that the total amount of tariff when you average out is slightly higher than what was anticipated," said Brian Mulberry at Zacks.