Wow, okay, so the stock market basically had a wild rollercoaster on Wednesday. Trump, being as unpredictable as ever, decided to hit the brakes on his tariff tantrum for a hot minute, and bam, stocks shot up like they were on caffeine. We’re talking the S&P 500 doing some kind of 9.5% leapfrog and the Nasdaq somersaulting up 12%. Seriously, when was the last time we saw this kind of craziness — ’08, ’01? Thanks, FactSet, for digging that up.
But, oh boy, investors are in this awkward “ummm, what now?” dance because, like, let’s not kid ourselves. Everything’s still a big ol’ question mark. Trump basically said, “Okay, let’s chill for 90 days,” but also decided, “Nah, we’re still gonna play hardball with China.” Super casual, just jacked up tariffs on them to 125% – no biggie, right? And he’s holding onto that 10% universal duty like it’s going out of style. So it’s like a half-sigh of relief and then back to nail-biting.
Andy Brenner, who’s, like, the big cheese over at NatAlliance Securities, thinks Trump’s kinda thrown in the towel on the market freakout but kept the tough guy act with China. It’s like, “Hey, I’m still the boss here!” Meanwhile, Goldman Sachs had to do a quick backflip on their recession prediction — talk about whiplash!
And over in bond land, Bob Michele from JPMorgan’s just watching from the sidelines, sipping tea or something, going, “Yeah, nah, bond markets didn’t even flinch, mate.” Apparently, inflation’s looming like a bad smell, and the Fed’s not budging on rates – classic plot twist, right?
Citigroup’s over there nodding, saying, “Hold up, guys. Let’s not pop the champagne just yet.” Even with the tariff time-out, they’re still seeing storm clouds, like inflation breathing down everyone’s necks and growth kinda dragging its feet, at least for Q2.
Everything’s still pretty tangled and up in the air, like someone threw their spaghetti at the ceiling to see if it’s done, and we’re all just waiting to see what sticks. Let’s see where this wild ride takes us next.
