🧠 Tariff-ic start to MDW: Trump calls for 50% on EU , 25% on iPhones not made in the US

📊 US Markets

• S&P 500 $SPY ( ▲ 0.4% ) 📊 Wall St falls after Trump threatens steep tariffs on EU, Apple – Reuters: The market’s main indices slumped Friday morning after President Trump recommended 50% tariffs on the EU, while Apple tumbled on a warning it would have to pay tariffs on iPhones not manufactured in the US.

• Europe Tariffs 🏰 Trump suggests 50% tariff on EU goods starting in June – euronews: President Trump complained that negotiations with the European Union were not going well and Brussels was “difficult to deal with”.

• Credit Rating 🏦 Moody’s Downgrades Top Banks as Retail Investors Rally with Record Stock Buying – Insider Monkey via Yahoo! Finance: Moody’s downgraded the long-term deposit ratings of major US banks – including Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase, and Wells Fargo – to Aa2, its third-highest rating tier, citing downgrades of the US credit rating and a reduced-capacity of the US government to support these institutions.

• Treasuries 🗽 30-year Treasury yield is above 5% again - that’s usually a bad sign for stocks – MarketWatch: Continued worries about the U.S. fiscal outlook triggered another selloff in long-dated U.S. government debt on Wednesday, pushing the yield on the 30-year bond back above 5% for the second time this week in what turned out to be a problematic development for stocks.

• Single-Family Housing 🏡 April home sales dropped to the slowest pace for that month since 2009 – CNBC: Consumers faced high home prices and growing concern over the economy and employment: “Home sales have been at 75% of normal or pre-pandemic activity for the past three years, even with 7M jobs added to the economy,” said Lawrence Yun, NAR’s chief economist.

• 🧠 Upgrade your PortfolioGPT account for unlimited portfolios generations powered by OpenAI GPT 4.1 mini.

💱 Cryptocurrencies

• US Stablecoin 🏦 Major US banks in early talks for joint stablecoin venture: WSJ reports – The Block: Companies co-owned by JPMorgan, Bank of America, Citigroup, and other major U.S. banks are in early discussions to form a consortium to launch a stablecoin.

• ETFs $IBIT ( ▼ 1.84% )  🏛️ Bitcoin hits new price high as crypto industry scores US legislation win  – The Block: Bitcoin and Ethereum ETFs notch highest-combined daily inflows since January, attracting over $1B amid price surge, fueled by optimism that the US Congress will soon pass the GENIUS Act stablecoin bill, which is set to be the first regulatory framework under the Trump Administration.

🚀 Magnificent 7

• Consumer Tech $AAPL ( ▲ 0.21% ) 🍎 Trump says a 25% tariff ‘must be paid by Apple’ on iPhones not made in the U.S. – CNBC: The latest jab from President Trump, who has pressured ceo Tim Cook to increase domestic manufacturing. Wall Street analysts have estimated that moving iPhone production to the US would raise the price by at least 25%.

• Technology $GOOG ( ▼ 1.02% )  🔍 Google launches VIP-level $250/mo AI subscription service – CNBC: Announced at its annual developer conference Google I/O, the “Google AI Ultra” premium subscription tier gives access to Google’s latest AI products available, as the company seeks to further monetize its AI products.

  • TechCrunch: Google shows off Android XR-based glasses, announces Warby Parker team-up

• Technology $MSFT ( ▲ 1.32% ) 👩‍💻 FTC drops case over Microsoft's $69B Activision Blizzard deal – Rueters: The US Federal Trade Commission dropped a case, saying that pursuing the long-closed deal was not in the public interest.

• 🧠 Upgrade your PortfolioGPT account Support our newsletters and app development with unlimited, ad-free portfolio generations!

🌐 Technology

• FinTech $INTU ( ▲ 0.19% )💳 Intuit boosts forecast after big tax season and AI advances, as shares rally – Rueters: The company is also taking more steps to win over ‘mid-market’ customers, or those with $2.5M to $100M in annual sales.

• HR Tech $WDAY ( ▼ 0.27% )  💼 Workday tumbles as firm's subscription revenue outlook underwhelms – Yahoo! Finance: The HR software maker reported better-than-expected Q1 profit and sales but kept its full-year subscription revenue guidance steady as the company said it faced an "uncertain environment”, sending shares sinking.

• Communications $ZM ( ▼ 0.96% )💻 Zoom stock reacts to Q1 earnings beat, full-year guidance raise – Dive: The telecommunication technology firm topped Q1 earnings estimates and raised its full-year earnings forecast.

• Networking $PANW ( ▲ 1.69% ) 🌐 Palo Alto Networks beats on earnings and revenue, misses on gross margin –CNBC: The network hardware vendor reported better-than-expected Q1 earnings and revenue but missed on gross margin.

• Data Analytics $SNOW ( ▲ 1.28% ) 💾 Snowflake gains momentum with solid earnings and revenue beats – SiliconAngle: Cloud data warehouse firm reported better than expected earnings that beat expectations, driven by $943.3M revenues, up 28% from customers’ consumption of compute, storage and data transfer bandwidth.

• Semiconductors $NVDA ( ▲ 1.52% ) 🧇 Jensen Huang says US chip restrictions have cut Nvidia’s China market share nearly in half – CNBC: At the Computex AI trade show in Taiwan, CEO Jensen Huang said US chip export control policies are a “failure”, cutting the AI chip leader’s China market share from 95% to 50%, warning if the US doesn’t rethink its approach, it could lose the Chinese market and its edge in the global AI race.

• Data Centers : Sovereign AI 🏢 Taiwan's Foxconn says AI data centre with Nvidia to have 100 MW of power – CNBC: The world's largest contract electronics maker said an AI data center it announced with Nvidia  will be built in phases and is targeted to have 100 megawatts of power.

  • CNBC: Stargate UAE: OpenAI, Oracle to Help UAE Develop Massive Data Center

• Quantum Computing $QBTS ( ▼ 3.93% ) ⚡ D-Wave Quantum shares soar 26% as company releases latest computing system – CNBC: D-Wave Quantum shares popped 26% after announcing the debut of its most advance quantum computing system, known as Advantage2, its sixth iteration.

• Language Models 🤖 OpenAI buying iPhone designer Jony Ive’s AI devices startup for $6.4B – TechCrunch: OpenAI’s largest acquisition to date and comes just weeks after the company agreed to buy AI-assisted coding tool Windsurf for $3B.

• Language Models 🤖 Amazon-backed Anthropic launches Claude 4, its most powerful AI model yet with multi-step reasoning – TechCrunch: Anthropic said Claude Opus 4 is the “best coding model in the world” and could autonomously work for nearly a full corporate workday: seven hours.

• Venture Capital 🦄 New report shows the staggering AI cash surge — and the rise of the ‘zombiecorn’ – CNBC: Silicon Valley Bank published a report that 40% of the money raised by startups last year came from funds focused on AI, creating an increase in the number of “zombiecorns,” or companies “with poor revenue growth and unit economics” that are struggling to raise money.

• 📧 Subscribe to Unprompted Coming soon!

🛍 Staples & Discretionary

• Retail $WMT ( ▼ 1.01% )  🛒 Trump tells Walmart to 'eat the tariffs' instead of raising prices – Reuters: President Trump said the world's largest retailer should "eat the tariffs" instead of blaming duties imposed by his administration on imported goods.

  • Retail Dive: Walmart cuts 1,500 jobs in US retail, global tech teams

• Retail $TGT ( ▲ 1.2% )  🎯 Target cuts sales outlook as retailer blames tariff uncertainty and backlash to DEI rollback – CNBC: Target missed Q1 earnings and revenue estimates and cut its FY sales outlook amid weak consumer sentiment, tariff uncertainty, and backlash to its DEI rollback as it struggles to revive growth and rebuild brand reputation.

• Retail $HD ( ▲ 0.75% ) 🔨 Home Depot CFO says retailer doesn’t plan to raise prices due to tariffs – CNBC: The home improvement retailer missed Q1 earnings estimates but stuck by its full-year guidance. Richard McPhail said Home Depot has diversified where it sources its merchandise and doesn’t plan to raise prices because of higher tariffs.

• Retail : Discount $TJX ( ▼ 0.06% )  👚 Off-price retailer TJX beats sales estimate as tariff uncertainty looms large – Rueters: TJX beat Q1 earnings and revenue estimates on resilient demand for off-price goods, though the retailer flagged pressure from US tariffs in its Q2 and FY forecasts.

• Apparel $NKE ( ▼ 0.49% ) 🎽 Nike will raise prices on a wide range of products as soon as this week – CNBC: The footwear giant said it regularly evaluates pricing, and did not say the changes were related to tariffs. The hikes will hit a range of adult merchandise, but not Air Force 1 shoes or children’s products.

  • The Verge: Nike returns to Amazon after a six-year hiatus

• Apparel $GOOS ( ▼ 1.21% )  🧥 Canada Goose shares soar nearly 20% as company beats estimates, pulls full-year guidance – CNBC: The luxury retailer’s revenue was up 7.4% from the same period last year but said it will not be providing a financial outlook for fiscal 2026 due to “ongoing macroeconomic uncertainty and dynamic consumer spending patterns brought on by the unpredictable global trade environment.”

• Autos $GM ( ▼ 1.22% )🚘 GM to stop exporting vehicles from U.S. to China – CNBC: GM imported vehicles to China from the United States through its Durant Guild premium import business, which represented less than 0.1% of the volume it sells in China.

🩺 Healthcare & Media

• Health Care $UNH ( ▲ 2.56% ) 🩺 UnitedHealth falls on report it secretly paid nursing homes to reduce hospital transfers – Reuters: The UK's Guardian newspaper reported the company made secret cost-cutting payments to nursing homes to reduce hospital transfers and may have risked residents' health.

• Health Care Tech $HNGE ( ▼ 0.4% )📟 Hinge Health pops 17%, but joins growing ranks of down-round IPOs – TechCrunch: Even with the NYSE IPO $3B pop, Hinge Health, a digital physical therapy company, public valuation is significantly less than its last $6.2B private market October 2021 Series E funding round.

• Advertising $MNTN ( ▼ 0.3% ) 🎯 Adtech MNTN and investors raise $187M in IPO – Rueters: Founded in 2009 by Mark Douglas, marketing tech firm MNTN offers performance marketing and creative solutions via on-demand television content. It launched its performance TV marketing (PTV) in 2018.

• Student Loans 🏫 Some student loan borrowers see credit scores plummet by over 100 points – CNBC Make It: Most federal student loan borrowers have been required to make monthly payments since those payments resumed in October 2023, following the nearly four-year pandemic pause. But borrowers who couldn’t or didn’t over that period were still shielded from some of the potential consequences, like having their delinquency reported to credit bureaus or defaulted loans sent to collections.

• Child Tax Credit 🏛️ House Republican budget bill boosts maximum child tax credit to $2,500 — here’s who qualifies – CNBC: If enacted, the bill would make permanent the maximum $2,000 credit passed via Trump’s 2017 tax cuts, and raise the highest value to $2,500 from 2025 through 2028. But policy experts say these changes wouldn’t provide relief to the lowest-earning families.

• 📧 Subscribe to Great Wealth Xfer Coming soon!

Taking a break next weekend but will be back the first weekend in June to recap the week’s financial news.

Thanks to RocketMoney for sponsoring.

✨ Happy Unprompting,

Rawee
[email protected]

_{Stack Media may earn commission or revenue from the affiliate links in this newsletter.}