US stocks surge on trade truce with China

The US and China agreed to substantially dial down tariffs levied on one another for 90 days, a major de-escalation in the most important front of the trade war that's whipsawed global markets.

Your Evening Briefing May 12, 2025 US stocks surge on trade truce with China The US and China agreed to substantially dial down tariffs levied on one another for 90 days, a major de-escalation in the most important front of the trade war that's whipsawed global markets. The S&P 500 gained 3.3%, the Nasdaq 100 surged 4%, and the Russell 2000 rose 3.5% on the day, with traders bidding up shares of companies that had seen profit estimates slashed since the end of March in expectation of a recovery. Monday's rally sparked a wave of big movers, with NRG Energy, Stanley Black & Decker, and manufacturing giant Zebra Technologies leading S&P 500 gains. On the flip side, Cigna, Newmont Mining, and CVS landed among the day's top decliners. Also of note: Amazon and Apple, the megacap tech names with the most skin in the game regarding China, also jumped on the truce announcement, with the stocks up 8% and 6%, respectively. Shopify soared nearly 14%, helping lead the day's broader rally as the e-commerce giant gears up to join the Nasdaq 100 next Monday. Cruise stocks Carnival, Norwegian Cruise Line, and Royal Caribbean climbed alongside the broader travel sector on hopes that a US-China tariff truce could boost consumer sentiment. Airlines gained altitude too, with American Airlines, Delta, and United Airlines all up more than 5% on the day Pharma stocks including Pfizer, AbbVie, and Eli Lilly dipped in early trading after President Trump floated an executive order to curb drug pricing — but were all positive at the close. Retailers like Sally Beauty, Five Below, Warby Parker, and Victoria's Secret rallied on trade relief hopes. The sector has been one of the hardest hit by tariff tensions since China is a key manufacturing hub. CoreWeave jumped 13% ahead of its first earnings report since going public. The newly IPO'd cloud computing player has seen a strong appetite for upside in the options market. — Luke Kawa, Markets Editor & Nia Warfield, Markets Writer Stocks are pricing in the sweet relief of an earnings recovery S&P 500 members that saw earnings estimates get crushed are broadly outperforming. Read more. Those Chinese TikToks about life on the mainland aren't propaganda — they're brilliant marketing Chinese users are making more videos aimed at an American audience and getting hundreds of thousands of views. Read more. TODAY'S BIG MOVE Shorts squeezed, SoundHound soars Score one for SoundHound AI, as the small-cap software company — and dreamboat of retail traders last year — soared Monday during an apparent short squeeze. Read more. Bullish analyst on China trade news: "Best case scenario" Wedbush Securities tech analyst Dan Ives, unofficial embodiment of the market's bullish vibe, likes the sound of the Switzerland deal. Ripple's XRP rallies as South Korean retail traders pile in The cryptocurrency has a trading volume of more than $926 million in the last 24 hours on South-Korean centralized exchange Upbit, making XRP the most traded token on the platform. Tesla employees confirm demand problems but stock spikes on tariff reprieve Tesla's Model Y doesn't seem to have stopped the company's demand problem. Rigetti tumbles post-market after quantum computing company whiffs on sales Revenues were less than $1.5 million, and the Street was looking for those to be more than $1 million higher than that. Plug Power beats Wall Street sales estimates Plug Power reported its first quarter earnings after the bell today. Semiconductor stocks surge on US-China trade reset Smaller chip companies are leading the massive gains across semiconductor stocks. New Strategy competitors American Bitcoin and Nakamoto Holdings each announce mergers Nakamoto's merger with KindlyMD has sent the stock surging over 200%. Apple may raise iPhone prices because of tariffs while never saying it's because of tariffs Apple appears to have learned a lesson from Amazon. Student loan delinquencies hovered near zero during Covid — but a spike may be coming With payments due again, nearly 10 million borrowers could fall into default within months. Shein and Temu left out of tariff truce as US keeps crackdown on cheap imports Chinese fast fashion giants Shein and Temu are bracing for higher costs and tighter margins. SoftBank $100 billion Stargate investment stalled by tariff chaos Three months after the project announcement, SoftBank's investments haven't materialized.  Nissan will cut 11,000 more jobs than it previously planned, bringing the total to 15% of its workforce In November, Nissan said it would cut 9,000 positions in a restructuring effort. OpenAI seeks to revise Microsoft deal to clear the way for IPO With tensions between executives, big changes are being made to the $14 billion partnership to clear the way to go public.  De Beers is closing down its lab-grown diamond operation Diamonds are forever, but the business behind the natural stones might not be so robust. China shipments from foreign phone makers, including Apple, declined nearly 50% in March March shipments of foreign-branded cellphones in China dropped to 1.9 million units from 3.7 million a year earlier. Nestle is trying to spin off its bottled water business The Swiss food giant has brought in Rothschild to advise the sale of its water division, including S.Pellegrino and Perrier. Was this email forwarded to you? Don't miss out on future stories — subscribe to The Wrap and get your daily dose of financial news straight to your inbox.  Craving more insights in your inbox? Subscribe to Chartr and Snacks for quality reads. We care what you think! 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