Markets Tariff-ied After Canada Threat, S&P Ends Hot Streak After Trump Goes Scorched Earth

Trump to Canada: “Say hello to my little friend”... 

Sometimes you can almost hear the collective groan of Wall Street echoing off the glass tombstones of Midtown whenever Trump finds the tariff button and just can’t resist slapping it like it owes him money. And today was no exception. The Dow coughed up 279 points, while the Nasdaq and S&P 500 both limped (-0.3% and -0.2%) in the red after hitting all time highs yesterday.

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The reason for the faceplant was none other than the fact that Trump, posting on Truth Social, announced a 35% tariff on Canada. Why? Because Fentanyl, apparently. And to “stop the drug” flow, Trump is doing everything possible to make maple syrup and hockey sticks more expensive. Additionally he told NBC he's planning 15-20% blanket tariffs on everyone else, up from the 10% that Wall Street had gotten comfortable with. To be fair though, Donnie Politics did drop this gem upon the gut punch: "If Canada works with me to stop the flow of Fentanyl, we will, perhaps, consider an adjustment to this letter."

On the corporate front, Kraft Heinz, which sources tons of agricultural inputs from Canada, actually gained +2.53% after announcing they might split up. Why is this a big deal? Because the peanut gallery thinks Kraft's grocery biz could be spun into a separate $20 billion antiques roadshow for bored institutional investors. 

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In other news, AMC ripped +11% after getting upgraded from "neutral" to "outperform." The meme stock is having its best week since mid-April, which is like saying your third divorce went better than your second. Oh, and Penn Entertainment got bodied, dropping -7.62% after Iowa and Indiana gaming revenues fell. Iowa specifically cratered 14% while Indiana dropped 3.7%. Ouch. Fewer degenerates at slots apparently means lower profits, which shouldn’t be shocking, but here we are.

As for tech, Amazon and Alphabet both popped +1.5% as Prime Day wrapped up, while Meta and Apple both tripped over a Lego and ended a hair lower (-1.34% and -0.59%). Elsewhere, Levi Stauss actually gained +11% after beating earnings by reporting 22 cents per share versus 13 cents expected. Sometimes good fundamentals still matter, ehh? Speaking of fundamentals, oil bounced 3.1% and had Halliburton mooning +4.15% on the day. 

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Meanwhile, drone stocks had a fever and the only medicine was Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth saying “You gotta pump those numbers up, those are rookie numbers in this racket” when it came to production. Shares of AeroVironment and Kratos melted faces +11.04% and +11.6% as a result. Regarding crypto, Bitcoin hit a new "I can't believe it’s not a bubble” high at $118,900. Naturally, Microstrategy and Mara closed up +3.05% and +0.7%. 

Moral of the story? If you’re holding anything even vaguely “global trade” adjacent, check your wallets for holes because volatility isn’t going anywhere. Short-term, expect choppy waters (think: boat shoes required), especially for anyone touching manufacturing, retail, or anything that gets shipped over a border that rhymes with “Canadia” or ends in “-zuela.” Translation: Own quality and brace for dumb headlines. 

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For now, keep your heads on the swivel and place your bets accordingly. Oh, and try to enjoy the weekend. Until next time, friends… 

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, Stocks.News holds positions in Amazon, Google, Meta, and Apple as mentioned in the article.