Markets

US stocks dip as Trump’s tariff letters dent optimism

Suddenly it sounds a lot more like early April, with high tariffs being bandied about and stocks moving lower. But as President Trump sent letters to different countries informing them what rate their imported goods will be levied at in August if they don’t make a deal, the damage was much less severe than the drubbing that followed Liberation Day, as traders seem to keep hope that the sequel to the Rose Garden Rout and Rebound will have a similar happy ending.

The S&P 500 and Nasdaq 100 closed down 0.8%, while the Russell 2000 slumped 1.5%. Every S&P 500 sector ETF fell except for utilities, with consumer discretionary faring the worst.

The day’s gains were led by Tractor Supply and Palantir, which were up 3.9% and 3.4%, respectively. Meanwhile Tesla led declines, falling 6.8% after CEO Elon Musk’s plan to start an “America Party” fostered another war of words on social media with Trump and analysts said the EV maker stands to lose about $255 million in regulatory credit revenue each quarter going forward. Meanwhile...

Japanese car companies Toyota, Nissan, and Honda all traded lower after Trump’s proposed 25% tariff on goods from Japan and South Korea.

Shares of recently IPO’d retail darling CoreWeave fell 3% after the company announced plans to buy crypto miner (and business partner) Core Scientific in an all-stock deal worth about $9 billion when it was announced — and 3% less now. Shares of the acquired company tumbled nearly 18%.

Stellantis shares fell 5% after the Jeep maker faced a trifecta of bad headlines including an analyst downgrade, reports of lower production numbers in Italy, and a new NHTSA probe.

Semiconductor stocks including Marvell, On Semiconductor, and Taiwan Semiconductor all dipped on the heels of a report that the Trump administration is cracking down on China’s ability to access AI chips via Malaysia and Thailand.

Uber shares jumped 3%, hitting an intraday all-time high of $97. The move extends a recent rally fueled by steady profits and optimism around the ride-hailing giant’s new tech investments.

Bit Digital soared 18% after the publicly traded digital asset platform announced that it had completed its digital asset treasury transition to ethereum from bitcoin.

GEO Group, which derives over 40% of its revenue from contracts with ICE, rose 4.5% after the GOP’s latest budget bill pushed more federal dollars on the growing network of deportation detention centers.

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With their recent surge, Intel shares just hit their highest level since the dot-com era

Intel’s surge of nearly 60% this month has the iconic American chipmaker’s stock price approaching levels last seen during the dot-com era. Bloomberg noted that shares just touched their highest intraday level since the turn of the century:

The stock rose as much as 1.5% to $69.55, topping a peak it hit on Jan. 24, 2020. The shares are up 90% this year, after soaring 84% in 2025. Intel is now roughly 8% from its all-time closing high of $74.88, established on Aug. 31, 2000.

That’s just the most recent late-’90s-era throwback we’ve been seeing in tech shares lately. Oracle is currently pacing for its best week since late 1999.

What’s even more remarkable, however, is that Intel’s forward price-to-earnings ratio today dwarfs the premiums the market was putting on the stock during the nuttiness of the dot-com mania.

That reflects the fact that the recent run-up in Intel shares is, essentially, giving the chip giant credit for a massive turnaround that hasn’t actually happened yet.

One also might wonder if the fact that Intel is partially owned by the US government means it’s more attractive — and therefore worth a higher premium — than other chipmakers without the state imprimatur.

Still, kind of startling.

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Eli Lilly’s GLP-1 pill hit nearly 1,400 prescriptions in first week

Eli Lilly rose after preliminary numbers cited by Wall Street analysts showed strong uptake of its new weight-loss pill.

The FDA approved Foundayo on April 1 and shipments began on April 9. In its first week, roughly 1,400 US prescriptions were written for the drug, according to IQVIA data cited by Deustche Bank analysts in a Friday note.

Novo Nordisk, Lilly’s rival in the GLP-1 market, released its GLP-1 pill earlier this year, and early signs show that it’s expanding the market, inviting patients who were turned off by weekly injections. Novo’s pill had a stronger first week than Lilly’s, with its Wegovy pill hitting 3,071 US prescriptions in the first four days after its launch on January 5.

Lilly’s pill has an advantage over Novo’s, which is that it can be taken at any time of day, with or without food. Lilly disclosed in a February regulatory filing that it had $1.5 billion worth of prelaunch inventory ready ahead of the FDA approval — which is about as much as analysts polled by FactSet expect it to sell this year.

Novo Nordisk, Lilly’s rival in the GLP-1 market, released its GLP-1 pill earlier this year, and early signs show that it’s expanding the market, inviting patients who were turned off by weekly injections. Novo’s pill had a stronger first week than Lilly’s, with its Wegovy pill hitting 3,071 US prescriptions in the first four days after its launch on January 5.

Lilly’s pill has an advantage over Novo’s, which is that it can be taken at any time of day, with or without food. Lilly disclosed in a February regulatory filing that it had $1.5 billion worth of prelaunch inventory ready ahead of the FDA approval — which is about as much as analysts polled by FactSet expect it to sell this year.

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Critical Metals jumps after Greenland’s government approves CRML to take majority control of the Tanbreez mining project

Critical Metals is up more than 25% in premarket trading on Friday after the critical mining company announced that it now owns 92.5% of the Tanbreez rare earth deposit following an approval from the government of Greenland.

With that latest government support, Critical Minerals added an additional 50.5% stake to its ownership, reportedly acquired from Rimbal Pty Ltd, per Bloomberg News. With access to eight heavy rare earth elements often used in consumer electronics and defense, the site is one of the world’s largest undeveloped rare earth deposits and a key source of rare earth supply outside of China, according to the company.

In Critical Metals’ press release, Chairman Tony Sage commented that the approval “removes the most significant structural overhang on the project and provides the clarity to advance Tanbreez to production with confidence,” especially as Tanbreez’s location offers a significant logistical advantage through its year-round direct shipping access, compared to rival projects.

With 92.5% of the project now vested in Critical Metals Corp., and the remainder owned by European Lithium Ltd., CRML now has full control of the project and is seeking to accelerate development there, with plans for a new international airport and a 150-tonne bulk sample program, which is slated for June 2026.

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