Stocks opened in the green, but bled slowly lower as the market waited on the details of President Trump’s afternoon tariff announcement. When reports crossed that the tariffs would include exemptions for Canada and Mexico and would also have some flexibility to be negotiated with other nations, the averages reacted positively and moved back toward their session highs, where they finished following some late day gyrations. ECONOMIC EVENTS: In the U.S., initial jobless claims rose 21,000 to 231,000 in the week ended March 3. President Trump officially signed a proclamation to impose a 25% tariff on imported steel and a 10% tariff on imported aluminum to take effect in 15 days. Mexico and Canada will be exempted from the tariffs “indefinitely” while NAFTA is negotiated and other nations were invited to negotiate their own exemptions. In Asia, Chinese exports were reported to be very strong in February, growing 44.5% compared with analysts’ average forecast for a 13.6% increase. However, there is likely some distortion around the New Year holiday. Imports rose 6.3%, missing the consensus forecast for 9.7% growth. In Europe, the European Central Bank decided that its key interest rates will remain unchanged. In terms of “non-standard monetary policy measures,” the ECB’s governing council confirmed that the net asset purchases, at the current monthly pace of EUR30B, are intended to run until the end of September, but removed the explicit aim to intervene more aggressively in bond markets should growth disappoint from its regular statement. COMPANY NEWS: Cigna (CI) has agreed to buy pharmacy benefits manager Express Scripts (ESRX) in a deal worth approximately $67B of cash, stock and debt. After the announcement, Cigna fell over 11% to $172.00 per share, while Express Script advanced about 8.5% to $79.72… Costco (COST) shares fell about 1% despite the wholesale club operator’s report of better than expected earnings last quarter as concerns linger about brick-and-mortar focused retailers. MAJOR MOVERS: Among the noteworthy gainers was Rent-A-Center (RCII), which jumped 10% after its announcement of a reduction of its corporate headcount and its update on its strategic review process. Also higher after reporting quarterly results was Burlington Stores (BURL), which gained about 6%. Among the notable losers was Zagg (ZAGG), which fell over 22% after it reported lower than expected quarterly results and announced that chief executive officer Randy Hales will retire from the company. Also lower after reporting quarterly results were Kroger (KR) and Hovnanian (HOV), which fell a respective 12% and 4%. INDEXES: The Dow rose 93.85, or 0.38%, to 24,895.21, the Nasdaq gained 31.30, or 0.42%, to 7,427.95, and the S&P 500 advanced 12.17, or 0.45%, to 2,738.97.