This morning started off suspiciously perfect… but not the kind of perfect where you relax. More like the kind of perfect in The Godfather right before someone gets two in the chest over veal parmesan (yes, I just watched the movie). Seriously, you could just feel something was about to go sideways.

Word began circulating that Trump had struck a rare earth deal with China… the kind of thing that would usually be followed by an asterisk, a clarification, and an awkward walk-back from Beijing. And let’s keep it 100: when Trump says he “closed the deal,” that could mean anything from a legitimate trade agreement to someone complimenting his backswing at Mar-a-Lago, or maybe even gifting him a Superman NFT with his face on it (which, in his words, would be a “really classy NIFTY”).

But then came the shocker… China actually confirmed it. There was no spin. No awkward silence. Just a diplomatic green light, and for a moment, markets actually believed peace on Earth (and cheaper EV magnets) might be real. In response, The S&P 500 jumped 0.4%, hitting a fresh all-time high. The Nasdaq rose 0.5%. Traders were already pricing in a new era of “rare earth” harmony (pun absolutely intended). Wall Street was feeling good. Dare I say, stable.

Then, right on cue… Trump fired up Truth Social. He posted a rant accusing Canada of “taking advantage” of the U.S. in ongoing trade negotiations. But this time, it wasn’t the usual suspects… aluminum, dairy, or (ironically) rare earths. It was over Canada’s new 3% digital services tax, set to hit U.S. tech giants like Amazon and Google starting Monday. Trump called it “egregious,” abruptly killed trade talks “effective immediately,” and warned that tariffs would be announced “within the next seven day period.” Just the kind of vague threat that makes markets flinch… not because they believe it’ll happen, but because they know it might.

And flinch they did. The S&P gave back all gains, and the Nasdaq slipped 0.3%. Bond yields fell too (10-year Treasury dropped from 4.33% to 4.29%) as investors did their usual “uh oh” flight to safety.

Meanwhile, Nvidia tacked on 2.7%, logging another record high as AI chip sales continue to skyrocket. Microsoft rose 1.4%, thanks to continued Copilot hype and solid cloud growth. Palantir, however, dropped 5.2% after Trump declared the Middle East conflict was “over” (narrator: it wasn’t), which isn’t great news for a company that makes money when the world’s launching missiles at each other. Bonus points for protestors camping outside their HQ.

And somehow, Nike jumped 15%, even after reporting a brutal 86% drop in net income and a 2% year-over-year revenue decline. Oh, and to top it off, Bill Ackman dumped his entire stake and exited out the back door. But none of that seemed to matter, because CEO John Donahoe delivered a turnaround pitch so convincing, it rivaled the Wolf of Wall Street’s motivation skills.

To wrap it all up, after a good little run, crypto reminded everyone that gravity still works. Robinhood slipped 1%, eToro fell 2%, Galaxy dropped 1%, and Circle (after skyrocketing 500% in three weeks) gave back 11%, just for fun. There were no headlines or scandals.

If you read all of this, congrats for having a 10 second attention span (better than me). As always, here’s our heatmap for today.

At the time of publishing this article, Stocks.News holds positions in Amazon, Robinhood, and Google as mentioned in the article.