Stock Market Today: Stocks higher; tariffs on again, off again
Tariff talk out of Washington is leading to dramatic market volatility. This week, it's off again.
Update 11:00 EDT
Stock indexes are up across the board, with the S&P 500 gaining more than 1.4%.
Leading issues include Tesla (TSLA) , which is up nearly 5% and Nvidia (NVDA) , which is up almost 3%.
Breadth, however, is negative, with around 40% of stocks gaining vs. 60% losing. This indicates that it's the megacap companies doing the bulk of the lifting, even though the Russell 2000 is also up by 1.4%.
So, why is Tesla doing so well today?
Well, it certainly isn't the news out of Europe, where the Austin electric-vehicle maker's sales were off. And it certainly isn't that the Chinese EV manufacturer BYD (BYDDY) is winning over customers in that market, either.
No, it's tariff related! Investors see Tesla as a beneficiary of possible 50% US tariffs on EU-manufactured cars. Getty Images
Musk also said that he's back to sleeping at the office, Tesla's office. (One hopes he's working there, too.)
Nvidia is up in advance of earnings tomorrow. NVDA shares, which are nearly 50 points off their April low, are hardly cheap, trading at a price-to-earnings multiple of 45, vs. the S&P 500's 27.64, according to multpl.com. This indicates that the risk-reward balance is likely skewed in favor of risk. Not that investors seem to care about that these days!
Stocks I'm watching based on volume include:
Fair Isaac (FICO) , the provider of credit scores used to creditworthiness, which is off nearly 9% on following a tweet from Federal Housing Finance Administration Director Bill Pulte, who posted his disfavor with the company on X.
Thanks for input. Still not happy with FICO. We should be making some decisions on all related items in next 1-3 weeks. https://t.co/LVWbakgl2S— Pulte (@pulte) May 27, 2025
Auto-parts retailer AutoZone (AZO) is down 2% on a Q3 report that saw sales increase but margins and earnings miss estimates. The shares remain in an uptrend with a PE multiple of 25.7 per TipRanks.
Until later!
Stock Market Today
Good morning! I hope you're ready for an action-packed four-day week.
Why action-packed? Well, that's just the kind of market that we're in. In her column today, TheStreet Pro's Helene Meisler says we're in a trader's market. Over the past month stocks have rallied to the point of becoming intermediate-term overbought.
That doesn't mean we'll drop like a rock. Rather, Helene says we're in for volatility.
Speaking of volatility, President Donald Trump's on-again, off-again tariffs are sparking volatility. On Friday he threatened Europe with 50% tariffs due to be implemented on June 1. On Sunday, following a call with EU head Ursula von der Leyen, he said he'd wait until July 9. Will he or won't he remains the question.
On that news, futures jumped. Here's a chart of the S&P 500 futures and you can clearly see the impact of the president's on again, off again tariff talk.
Stock futures remain higher today, before the market open, with the S&P 500 looking up 1.3%.
Interesting stocks to watch this morning include Intel (INTC) and Nvidia (NVDA) , which are up before the market open by 2%, and PDD Holdings (PDD) , which is down by 18%.
PDD, which runs the Chinese e-commerce company Temu, reported earnings this morning. The earnings missed analyst revenue estimates.
In other markets, bond futures are up, driving yields lower. The 10-year US Treasury is priced to yield 4.475%. The US Dollar Index is up to 99.21, and Gold is off $69 to $3,296.
