The Final Tally: Trump Teases Tariff Truce with China… Elon’s Latest Cry-Wolf Rally Works (Again)

I genuinely can’t remember the last time we had two back-to-back green days without immediately getting smacked by a recession headline or a rogue Fed comment. The only time it felt this peaceful was in a dream I had the other night… SPY was up 20% for the year, everyone was high-fiving, and I was checking my brokerage account on a beach in Antigua while sipping something that definitely wasn’t water. Then I woke up sweating and realized it was just a fever and I still had seven tabs open on inflation data. But hey, for the next few seconds at least, it looks like things might actually be settling down.

No you weren’t dreaming… stocks rallied today after President Trump assured everyone he in fact, doesn’t plan to fire Fed Chair Jerome Powell… just days after calling him a “major loser” (iconic). The Dow gained 346 points, the S&P rose 1.4%, and the Nasdaq leapt 2.3%... though it cooled off from a 4% heater earlier in the day.

Of course, the market didn’t jump just because Trump said he wouldn’t replace Jerome with Don Jr. as the Fed Chairman. It exploded because Trump also hinted that tariffs on China (currently at 145%) could “come down substantially.” I guess he and Xi Jingping have both decided to at least start talking about meeting in the middle… rather than just making threats.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent did his best killjoy impression, warning there’s been “no unilateral offer” to cut a deal… but by then, Wall Street was halfway to happy hour.

As far as some of the biggest non-tariff news of the day… Elon Musk must’ve finally logged off X long enough to mention on Tesla’s earnings call that he’ll be “significantly” reducing time spent at Trump’s imaginary Department of Government Efficiency. The stock jumped 7%, even though earnings missed expectations (Elon always finds a way to pump his stock, and everyone falls for it time and time and again).

Tech giants like Nvidia, Meta, and Amazon also jumped 3–4%, while China-exposed chipmakers AMD and Intel surged 6% and 8% on the tariff news.

So what’s the actual takeaway here? Trump’s suddenly paying attention to the market again… likely because someone important texted him a screenshot of their 401(k). Powell’s safe (for now), the tariff war may be thawing, and for once, the Nasdaq isn’t crying in the corner. If I were you, I would be preparing for a huge red day tomorrow (if recent history has shown us anything).

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.