Futures ticked up Friday morning - not with conviction, but with the kind of tentative optimism that suggests investors are trying to will a dovish pivot from the Federal Reserve. It’s a peculiar kind of cheer: not born of robust growth or earnings surprises, but of the notion that slightly bad news might just be good enough to justify a rate cut.

This odd logic was put to the test with the release of the May labor report. The numbers? Solid, if not stunning. Nonfarm payrolls rose by 139,000, a notch above the 126,000 economists had expected. Average hourly earnings climbed 0.4% month-over-month, beating the forecast of 0.3%. The unemployment rate held steady at 4.2%.

In short, the labor market remains resilient. Job creation may be cooling slightly from the previous month - and relative to the prior day’s blowout private sector estimates - but it’s still far from recessionary. Wages are still rising at a clip that suggests demand for labor hasn’t evaporated.

So where does this leave the Fed - and the markets? Squarely in the gray zone. This data doesn’t scream for a rate cut, but it doesn’t preclude one either. 

Meanwhile, Tesla pirouettes. After a market cap nosedive sparked by a public clash with Donald Trump, Musk's fortunes rebounded as the White House dialed down the drama. In a twisted ballet of egos and contracts, a scheduled call between Musk and Trump now functions as a de-escalation ritual - Wall Street's version of shuttle diplomacy. Tesla was up 5% in premarket trading.

Meanwhile, Lululemon and DocuSign tumble, collateral damage in a market that increasingly reacts to tariffs, tech misses, and leadership feuds with Pavlovian volatility.

Yesterday, the love affair between Donald Trump and Elon Musk - an alliance as improbable as it was influential - imploded, sending tremors through the financial markets and stirring no small degree of alarm in political circles. There is, admittedly, something absurd in assigning geopolitical weight to a spat between the world's most powerful man and its wealthiest. Yet the rupture feels less like celebrity gossip than the tremor before a landslide.

As the more astute commentators foresaw, the strange détente between Trump and Musk was always a fragile contrivance. The catalyst? Musk's uncompromising opposition to the president's flagship tax proposal. What began as murmurings of discontent soon erupted into full-throated outrage, delivered with the familiar cocktail of arrogance and theatre. “Kill the bill,” he urged - weaponizing his following against the very administration he once flattered.

In another age, this might have remained a side-show. But in 2025's America - where power is measured in retweets and policy in provocations - the feud carries real consequence. Markets recoiled not merely from the prospect of higher taxes, but from the unravelling of a pact that, however dissonant, had become an axis of influence in its own right.

Yesterday, the feud descended into global spectacle, a surreal ballet of digital sabre-rattling played out on X and Truth Social - platforms owned, fittingly, by the combatants themselves. If ever there were a mirror held up to the modern psyche, this was it: politics as performance, technology as theatre.

Musk, in his trademark barrage of bluster and bravado, threatened to halt supplies to the space station, claimed Trump owed his election to him, and lent his backing to talk of impeachment. Trump branded his former ally a lunatic, threatened to axe every government contract feeding Musk's empire, and chalked up the tycoon's bitterness to his expulsion from the inner circle of power.

By evening, the storm showed signs of subsiding. Trump fell unusually silent, while Musk appeared to dilute his fire with a more conciliatory tone. 

This digital duel between two avatars of modern America - one populist, the other techno-utopian - rattled markets already on edge. Tesla, always vulnerable to Musk's moods, lost 14%. The S&P 500 dropped 0.5%, while the Nasdaq 100 slid 0.8%. Even crypto markets recoiled, proving once again how tethered they are to the cults of personality that now govern our financial ecosystem.

It is a curious moment. On one hand, there is something faintly ludicrous about two grown men - one seated in the Oval Office, the other in a rocket factory - trading barbs on social media platforms they own. On the other, it is deadly serious. 

Meanwhile, a phone call between Trump and Xi Jinping - an event that might have once dominated headlines - barely registered. The resumption of US-China trade talks, once the kind of news to boost indices, was drowned out by the melodrama.

The European Central Bank offered a dose of orthodoxy amid the chaos, hinting that its rate-cutting spree may be nearing an end. Markets reacted with restrained disappointment. In Asia-Pacific, the week concluded with a whimper rather than a bang. Mixed trading saw modest gains in Japan and India, minor losses in Australia and China, and a holiday pause in South Korea. The MSCI Asia Pacific Index posted a small weekly gain after a run of declines. Europe's indices are mixed.

Today's economic highlights:

See the full calendar here.

  • Dollar index: 99,035
  • Gold: $3,358
  • Crude Oil (BRENT): $65.25 (WTI) $63.26
  • United States 10 years: 4.39%
  • BITCOIN: $104,080

In corporate news:

  • Amazon is investing over $5 billion in new AWS regions and data centers in Taiwan.
  • Broadcom Inc. projects higher Q2 FY 2025 revenue driven by AI demand.
  • Tesla plunges 14% after Musk and Trump clash.
  • Citigroup plans to cut 3,500 jobs in China.
  • Genpact acquires Xponentl Data to accelerate AI-driven innovation.
  • Fiserv acquires the remaining 49.9% of AIB Merchant Services.

Analyst Recommendations:

  • American Homes 4 Rent: Citi downgrades to neutral from buy with a target price of USD 41.
  • Applied Materials, Inc.: Morgan Stanley downgrades to equalwt from underwt with a target price reduced from USD 162 to USD 158.
  • Crowdstrike Holdings, Inc.: Bernstein downgrades to market perform from outperform with a target price of USD 371.
  • Invitation Homes Inc.: Citi upgrades to buy from neutral with a target price raised from USD 35 to USD 38.50.
  • Mastec, Inc.: Goldman Sachs upgrades to buy from neutral with a price target raised from USD 156 to USD 195.
  • Sarepta Therapeutics, Inc.: Scotiabank upgrades to sector outperform from sector perform with a target price of USD 80.
  • Broadcom Inc.: Deutsche Bank maintains its buy recommendation and raises the target price from USD 205 to USD 270.
  • Ciena Corporation: Rosenblatt Securities Inc. maintains a neutral recommendation with a price target raised from 65 to USD 85.
  • Lululemon Athletica Inc.: Deutsche Bank maintains its hold recommendation with a price target reduced from 358 to USD 286.
  • Pvh Corp.: Citigroup remains neutral recommendation with a price target reduced from USD 94 to USD 73.
  • Rubrik, Inc.: BMO Capital Markets maintains its outperform recommendation and raises the target price from 77 to USD 110.
  • Zscaler, Inc.: CITIC Securities Co Ltd maintains its buy recommendation with a price target raised from 255 to USD 317.