CNBC Daily Open: Wall Street is chill, cheeky and cruising

• Trump’s tariff pause “could be extended,” the White House said.
• The S&P 500 is just a few points away from its intra-day high.
• Tesla’s vice president of manufacturing and operations is out.
• Nike expects a $1 billion hit from tariffs during its fiscal year 2026.
• UBS picked three winners in the AI space.

I am Spriha Srivastava, CNBC International’s executive editor for digital, and I am writing to you today from Singapore.

Enjoy!

Share with me your thoughts on the newsletter and what you’d like to see more or less of.

Markets this week? Totally unbothered — like they’re on a beach somewhere, sipping a cold drink and ignoring the headlines.

Geopolitical tensions flared (again), oil prices plunged, and defense stocks couldn’t make up their mind — but the broader market? Barely blinked. The S&P 500 flirted with record highs, the Nasdaq kept cruising thanks to its AI darlings, and even small caps got in on the action. It’s almost as if investors looked at the chaos and said, “Meh, we’re good.”

What’s driving this chilled-out mood? Part of it is rate-cut optimism creeping back in. Oil’s sudden drop took some inflation pressure off the table, and dovish murmurs from the Fed gave traders just enough hope that September could be in play for a cut. Bond yields eased, and risk appetite returned.

Sure, there are risks everywhere — from Middle East tensions to stretched valuations in some corners of the market — but right now, Wall Street seems to be in full summer mode. Cool, calm, and slightly detached.

Will it last? Hard to say. Markets have a habit of waking up just when you least expect it. But for now, they’re tuning out the noise and catching rays.

What you need to know today

Tariff pause “could be extended.’‘ Trump’s “reciprocal” tariffs are set to resume early July, but White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters on Thursday the deadlines are “not critical” and will depend on the U.S. President’s decision.

U.S. markets advanced Thursday. Buoyed by Leavitt’s comments, the S&P 500 closed at 6,141.02, just a few points away from its intra-day high. The Stoxx Europe 600 ticked up 0.09%. Mining and defense stocks were among the biggest gainers.

Tesla’s vice president of manufacturing and operations is out. Omead Afshar was fired by CEO Elon Musk amid declining sales in key markets. Chinese technology company Xiaomi on Thursday priced a new electric SUV lower than Tesla’s Model Y.

Nike expects a $1 billion hit from tariffs. During an earnings call on Thursday, Nike’s finance chief said the company will tweak its supply chains and increase prices to “mitigate” that cost. Nike beat Wall Street expectations for fiscal fourth-quarter earnings.

[PRO] Three AI stocks to play. Swiss banking giant UBS highlighted three pillars of artificial intelligence that will drive demand, and picked what it thinks will be winners in the space.

— Yeo Boon Ping

And finally…

How the stock market made it back to a new record — even with so much still to worry about

The S&P 500 is less than 0.1% away from closing at a new record, rebounding from a near 20% sell-off in April.

The wall of worry has been crumbling little by little over the past four months. Perhaps most importantly, as Trump backed off from the stiffest tariffs on key U.S. partners.

Corporate earnings have also held up well despite policy uncertainty. For the second quarter, the S&P 500 earnings grew by 4.9%, marking the eighth consecutive quarter of year-over-year earnings growth for the index, according to FactSet.

— Yun Li