US stocks are floating near all-time highs as Wall Street maintains cautious optimism that Washington might ink more trade deals, avoiding a worst-case scenario of extraordinarily high tariffs and enabling the resilient economy to continue chugging along.

President Donald Trump said on Wednesday that "we'll have a straight, simple tariff of anywhere between 15% and 50%." Hiking the baseline reciprocal tariff rate to 15 percent means a 50 percent higher tax on American manufacturers and consumers than Trump originally promised.

Trump said the U.S. may send out tariff rebate checks, though lowering the national debt would take precedence.

The Japanese government, not companies, is poised to back U.S. infrastructure projects of the president’s choosing.

Trump’s so-called reciprocal tariffs are scheduled to go into effect on August 1 after a 90-day delay—just as American families begin back-to-school shopping—and could hike up the cost of consumer goods imported from other countries.