Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) Live May 30: On-Again, Off-Again Tariffs Are On Again, Dow Index Slumps
Investing
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The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit has issued a temporary restraining order keeping President Trump’s tariffs in force pending appeal of a lower court ruling yesterday.
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Costco reported sales and earnings beats yesterday… but JPMorgan likes China’s Cosco stock even better!
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Live Updates
Live Coverage Has Ended
4:34 pm
The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed in the green Friday at 42,270, up 0.1% for the day, and up 3.9% for the month of May.
12:56 pm
Reuters is reporting that President Donald Trump is en route to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania to headline a “rally” to celebrating Nippon Steel’s “planned partnership” with U.S. Steel (NYSE: X).
Separately, Japan’s Yomiuri Shimbun newspaper confirms that a deal is imminent. Nippon Steel will agree to sign a “national security agreement,” of unknown terms, to win U.S. government approval. Nippon will also commit to not reducing steel production capacity at U.S. Steel for some set period of time absent prior U.S. government approval.
11:32 am
Deutsche Bank has raised its price target on The New York Times Company (NYSE: NYT), about 4.5% to $69 a share. Deutsche has a buy rating on NYT stock, and notes the company has signed its first major artificial intelligence licensing agreement, with Dow Jones Industrial Average component company Amazon.com (Nasdaq: AMZN), a “significant milestone” for the New York Times.
The DJIA itself is now down for the day, but less than 0.1%.
10:19 am
The U.S. trade deficit narrowed dramatically in April. It’s still quite large, but just half its March level at negative $87.6 billion. The U.S. imported $39 billion less in goods in April than experts had predicted, and imported $13 billion more.
The trade deficit with China in particular narrowed to $14 billion in April, the smallest gap since Covid first struck in March 2020, and the trade gap was just $11.8 billion.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average is now in positive territory, up 0.1%.
This article will be updated throughout the day, so check back often for more daily updates.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJINDICES: ^DJI) closed up 0.3% on Thursday, but is already giving back those gains in pre-market trading — down 0.3%. Investors seemed happy to hear, yesterday morning, that a U.S. trade court had decided to order President Trump to lift most of the tariffs he announced in April. But by evening the joy had faded, as the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit stepped in to grant a temporary restraining order preventing the tariffs from being lifted.
So the on-again, off-again tariffs are right back “on again” — and in fact, could be even more “on” than we thought last night.
This morning, in a post on Truth Social, the President accused China of having “TOTALLY VIOLATED” a trade agreement under which the President had cut China tariffs from 145% to 30% earlier this month. “So much for being Mr. NICE GUY!,” posted the President, apparently threatening to raise tariffs even higher.
How high will tariffs go? No one knows, but investors are already spooked and the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) is predictably slumping in response.
Earnings
Dell Technologies (NYSE: DELL) and Costco (Nasdaq: COST) both reported earnings after close of trading last night. Dell’s earnings were “mixed,” with a Q1 sales beat but an earnings miss. On the plus side, Dell said both sales and earnings in Q2 will be better.
Costco’s report featured top-and-bottom line beats for that company’s fiscal Q3.
Analyst Calls
Regarding the effect of tariffs, Loop Capital observed that Costco is refraining from passing on higher costs from tariffs to its customers, which is helping the company to grow market share. Loop upped its price target on Costco to $1,115 per share, and maintained a buy rating on the stock.
In related trade news, and easily confused with Costco, JPMorgan upgraded Shanghai-based Cosco Shipping to overweight this morning, setting a target price of 19 Hong Kong Dollars ($2.42) on the stock. That’s about 40% more than what Cosco stock costs now.
So at least JPMorgan seems to remain bullish on international trade. I guess that’s good news.
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