Stocks shake off tariff worries with another solid gain

Stocks rallied ahead of President Donald Trump’s tariff announcements. The S&P 500 and Nasdaq 100 rose 0.7%, while the Russell 2000 gained 1.6%.

Every S&P 500 sector ETF gained outside of consumer staples; consumer discretionary topped the leaderboard.

Tesla’s Q1 deliveries were a massive disappointment, sending shares sliding. But news that CEO Elon Musk might soon be stepping away from his White House duties to focus on running his many businesses propelled shares sharply higher. It’s just the second time in the stock’s history (the other time was April 4, 2018) that shares ended up 5% after being down as much 5% earlier in the session.

Electric vehicle maker Rivian also posted a big sales drop; unlike Tesla, the stock slumped and stayed down.

Musk’s reported imminent step away from the government was also cheered by companies that do a lot of business with the feds, like defense companies Palantir Technologies and Booz Allen Hamilton.

Heavily shorted companies like Rigetti Computing and SoundHound AI performed well as traders betting against the stocks faced pressure to fold up those wagers.

The usual suspects — like Amazon and Oracle — are reportedly mulling a bid for TikTok before its scheduled ban this weekend. But what’s surprising is that ad tech firm AppLovin supposedly is as well!

Trump Media & Technology Group tumbled after announcing one primary offering and a secondary offering that enables the president to begin to take profit on his majority stake in the company.

Newsmax’s face-ripping rally reversed course hard, with the pro-Trump media company losing nearly 80% of its value.

BlackBerry also tanked after issuing poor guidance.