Market Report for Wednesday, April 30, 2025
Markets found 0.6% worth of comfort on Tuesday, in tariffs that hurt a little less and earnings that didn’t fall apart. It’s a low bar, but no one tripped, and the S&P notched its sixth straight gain, the year’s longest winning streak.
Level Change 4/29/25 (%)
– – – – – – – – – – – – – – –
+0.8 Dow
+0.6 Nasdaq
+0.6 Nasdaq 100
+0.6 S&P 500
+0.5 S&P 400
+0.6 S&P 600
The market’s modest cheer traced back to trade headlines, where the administration floated a fresh attempt at de-escalation, this time in the auto sector.
White House warriors suggested they may prevent steel and aluminum duties from piling onto the new round of auto-parts tariffs set to kick in May 3, and even dangled the possibility of partial reimbursements. A kinder, gentler tariff? Not quite, but less stacked, at least. Still, none of it came as a surprise, and the auto industry remains squarely in the tariff crosshairs, but now with a blindfold and cigarette.
Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick joined the optimism parade by announcing a trade deal had been reached—but don’t ask with whom. Not fully finalized, he said, and best left unnamed for now. Call it Schrödinger’s Deal: both real and imaginary on Bloomberg screens. Your correspondent’s best guess? Lower Delusia, a proud ally in many administration statements, curiously absent from maps.
Meanwhile, Main Street is overdue for a pep rally.
April consumer confidence sank to 86.0, the lowest since the early pandemic panic of spring 2020. Expectations fell even harder, diving to levels not seen since 2011, when “recovery” still came with an asterisk. The labor-market differential shrank as more Americans said jobs were hard to find, with optimism going the way of affordable rent.
And they’re not wrong. The latest JOLTS report showed job openings falling to 7.2 million from 7.5 million, weaker than expected and headed in the wrong direction, hinting that Friday’s employment report might come with a trigger warning.
Well, at least the captains of commerce are outsmarting the toads of tariffs.
Coca-Cola (KO +0.8%) posted solid organic sales growth and stuck to its full-year guidance—unlike Pepsi, which cracked open a cold can of cuts. United Parcel Service (UPS -0.4%) delivered a beat on stronger domestic package performance, proving some commerce is still in motion. And PayPal (PYPL +2.1%) logged a Q1 beat and strong early Q2, and left its full-year forecast intact. Payers gonna pay, tariffs or no.
Amazon (AMZN -0.2%) briefly irked the White House with reports it planned to make tariff costs prominent on its website. But alas, like the deal with Lower Delusia, it was a figment of someone’s imagination. Amazon said it had only “considered the idea,” then quickly reconsidered once the administration clarified that clarity was not on the agenda. Sneaking tariff taxes into shopping carts fits better with the grand plan, helpfully subtitled, Invisible Costs Make Invisible Consequences.
And those were the licks, good enough for 0.6.
— Jason Kelly
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