Stock Market Today: Dow Ends Up; Bessent Touted for Fed; CPI in Focus; Guilfoyle on Apple, China

Updated 4:30 pm EDT

Stocks finished higher Tuesday as U.S. and Chinese officials continued their trade negotiations.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 105.11 points, or 0.25%, to finish the session at 42,866.87, while the S&P 500 rose 0.55% to close at 6,038.81 and the tech-heavy Nasdaq advanced 0.63% to end the day at 19,714.99.

Talks between U.S. and Chinese officials continued for the second day. U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said he hopes the discussions will end Tuesday night, adding that they could run into Wednesday if need be, CNBC reported.

“I think the talks are going really, really well. We’re very much spending time and effort and energy - everybody’s got their head down working closely,” Lutnick told reporters in London.

Updated 2:30 pm EDT

Trump advisers urge Bessent as new Fed chairman: Bloomberg

The Dow industrials were back to flat, with the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq Composite holding onto gains of less than 0.25%. 

Bloomberg reports that a number of advisers inside and outside the Trump administration are making the case for Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent to succeed Jerome Powell as chairman of the Federal Reserve. 

President Trump said Friday that he'd soon be naming the next Fed chief. Powell's term ends in May 2026. 

Bessent told the news service that "I have the best job in Washington. “The president will decide who’s best for the economy and the American people.”

Trump has constantly pressed Powell to cut interest rates. To no avail. 

Updated 12:45 pm EDT

Stocks Gently in the Green

Stocks were edging higher in early afternoon trading.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.18%, or 78.37 points to 42,815.61, while the S&P 500 gained 0.36% to close 6,027.51 and the tech-heavy Nasdaq advanced 0.37% to 19,663.18.

The Consumer Price Index is due out tomorrow. TheStreet's Mary Helen Gillespie reports that interest rates remain high and market watchers don't see much chance that the Federal Reserve will cut them. 

"Many economic experts say 2025's whiplash trade wars, fueled by Trump's tariff games, are leading the economy into a dangerous landing," she writes. "Some speculate that a recession or even stagflation could be ahead in the last two quarters of 2025."

House Members' Stock Trading Back in Focus: WSJ

Stocks slumped after President Trump revealed his April 2 tariff plans and then leaped on April 9 when he paused many of them. In the period April 2-8, The Wall Street Journal reports, more than a dozen members of the House made hundreds of trades.

The paper said that current rules make it impossible to glean whether these trades were profitable. But the Journal said the situation renewed calls for tighter trading rules for the representatives. 

“This whole episode is a reminder that the opportunity for insider trading by members of Congress is very real, very toxic and needs to be eliminated,” said Rep. Seth Magaziner (D., R.I.), who is leading negotiations on a bipartisan bill that would further restrict trading.

Updated 10:28 am EDT

Stocks Mixed; Energy Names Higher

In the first hour of trading, the Dow 30 were flat, the S&P 500 were 0.23% higher and the Nasdaq Composite was up 0.36%

Leading the S&P 500 are energy-tech company Enphase  (ENPH) , up 4.8%; and oil-and-gas producers APA  (APA) , up 3.9%, and EOG Resources  (EOG) , up 3.2%. 

Energy-services giant Halliburton  (HAL)  is up 3.5%.

Retailer Target  (TGT)  is ahead by 3.3%.

JM Smucker, the producer of jams and preserves, Jif peanut butter and Folger's coffee, is off 13% after it reported a mixed set of quarterly earnings and a weaker profit outlook for the fiscal year.

Stock Market Today

As mentioned in this column 24 hours ago, the financial media had shown very little buzz concerning Apple's  (AAPL)  annual Worldwide Developers Conference event this year. The media appeared to be indifferent to the conference in the days leading up to Monday's keynote address. In addition to that, there was absolutely no buzz whatsoever on social media or among Apple fans as far as I could tell.

Apple has clearly been the world's all-time greatest consumer electronics company, but in recent years, has been accused of showing little in the way of creativity or imagination. Incredibly, on Monday, those who did approach the event with low expectations, likely still came away disappointed. That's how underwhelming the kick-off of the week-long developers' conference was.

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Apple fans and Apple investors likely wanted to hear that Apple was going to make an effort to catch up to the rest of "big tech" as far as the implementation of artificial intelligence is concerned. It appears for now, that the company is more than content to lag far behind in this field. Perhaps there is a strategy there invisible to the rest of us. Time will tell.

Apple did inform those concerned that the company's operating systems are being updated to create a more uniform appearance across all devices. I guess that could be pleasant for those already heavily integrated into the Apple ecosystem. The new design has a cool name... "Liquid Glass" and is said to have a more modernized look to it.

Where the implementation of AI will be apparent will be in the ability to translate in real time during FaceTime calls between users speaking different languages. I guess that's cool. The AI interface will also allow users to ask questions about whatever they are seeing on their screens. While these two functions are probably going to be quite useful for those who need them, I can't imagine the majority of users will need the translate function very often.

Needless to say, Apple stock closed Monday down 1.21% from Friday's close, and down 2.21% from its high of the day about 45 minutes after the opening bell. That was when a few traders (and apparently momentum-driven algorithms) apparently showed some misplaced optimism ahead of the firm's address.

What Really Matters: Trade

Trade talks between the U.S. and China will enter a second-straight day of negotiation on Tuesday. What investors are hoping to see is a more normalized condition between the two economic superpowers. 

What the U.S. needs above all, at a minimum, is less restriction covering the export of rare earths from China. What China needs in exchange, at a minimum, will be increased access to high-end, AI-capable, semiconductor chips, largely designed by the likes of Nvidia  (NVDA)  and Advanced Micro Devices  (AMD) , as well as others.

Both of those companies are U.S.-based and just happen to be led by Taiwanese Americans. Interestingly, with U.S. equity markets up only slightly on Monday, the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index soared 1.96%, led by AMD and ON Semiconductor ON. Those two stocks gained 4.77% and 4.41% respectively.

Marketplace

Markets had rallied. Markets sold off sharply into the closing bell on Monday, closing up small. Trading volumes increased from Friday's level but remained below recent averages. At least, there was something of a rebound across Treasury debt markets. The yield paid by the U.S. Ten-Year Note dropped two basis points to 4.48%, while the U.S. Two-Year Note paid an even 4% (-3 basis points) by day's end. These yields have continued to fall overnight.

On Monday, the S&P 500 gained just 0.09%, as the Nasdaq Composite closed 0.31% higher. Small-cap stocks outperformed the broader marketplace with the Russell 2000 adding 0.57%. The Dow Transports also had a nice day, gaining 0.67%. The Dow Jones Industrial Average, which is literally followed by no one at all in 2025, and has not been followed closely by traders since the early 1990's, closed down small on the day.

Only four of the 11 S&P sector SPDR ETFs closed in the green on Monday led by the Consumer Discretionaries XLY. The Utilities XLU led the losers as the more defensive sectors continue to underperform. No single fund among the eleven gained more than 0.8% or lost more than 0.64%. "Meh" was the word of the day.

Breadth was rather strong, with winners beating losers by 7 to 4 at the NYSE and by 3 to 2 at the Nasdaq. Advancing volume took a commanding 74.9% share of composite Nasdaq-listed trade and a 61.3% share of composite NYSE-listed activity. While that's nice, as mentioned above, trading volume remained sort of light. Aggregate trade across the membership of the S&P 500 fell a rough 12% short of the 50-day trading volume simple moving average for that index.

Trump-Musk Bromance Reborn?

Not exactly. The bromance may have ended, but when asked if he would be willing to speak with Elon Musk, the former head of DOGE, President Trump on Monday said, "I'd have no problem with it. I'd imagine he wants to speak with me."

The two entered into a bizarre feud last Tuesday as Tesla  (TSLA)  and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk attacked the president's "big, beautiful bill" online and the two went back and forth with the slinging of mud on their competing social media platforms.

Musk was the first to back away from comments he had made and appeared to be looking for an opening to at least call a truce if not patch things up as he had put a number of his businesses in serious jeopardy. Now that the president seems to have cooled off as well, perhaps companies such as SpaceX will remain on solid footing with the federal government, who is a major client. This is why Tesla shares rallied 4.55% on Monday and this is why Rocket Lab USA  (RKLB) , a SpaceX competitor, closed up 3.49%, but down more than 9% from its high of the day.

At Last: Disney Bundle

The Disney  (DIS)  Bundle will be complete. The Walt Disney Company announced on Monday that it had closed its deal to fully acquire Comcast's  (CMCSA)  remaining stake in the Hulu streaming service. This leaves Disney with 100% ownership of Hulu and 100% ownership of the Disney Bundle that includes Disney + and ESPN +, which in this consumer's opinion, is the best value in streaming.

Disney will pay $438.7 million to Comcast, the company revealed in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, which is far less than the investment bank hired by Comcast had valued this remaining stake in the streaming service at. That appraiser was supposedly looking for an additional payment of up to $5 billion. Disney had previously paid $8.61 billion to Comcast in late 2023 for that company's stake in Hulu based on a 2019 valuation. This payment closes the deal completely.

Economics (All Times Eastern)

06:00 - NFIB Small Biz Optimism Index (May): Expecting 95.9, Last 95.8.

08:55 - Redbook (Weekly): Last 4.9% y/y.

4:30 p.m. - API Oil Inventories (Weekly): Last -3.3M.

The Fed (All Times Eastern)

Fed Blackout Period.

Today's Earnings Highlights (Consensus EPS Expectations)

Before the Open: CNM (.54), SJM (2.25)

After the Close: GME (.04)

At the time of publication, Guilfoyle was long NVDA, AMD, RKLB equity.