Midday Fly By: Trump fuels rebound with softened China stance

Stocks are rebounding after a sharp drop late last week, helped by a softer tone from President Trump on U.S.-China tariffs. The pivot in rhetoric is being read as a tentative signal that escalation may moderate, which is offering relief to skittish investors. President Trump threatened a 100% tariff on China last Friday, but softened his stance yesterday, stating in a post to Truth Social: “Don’t worry about China, it will all be fine!”

Gold surged to fresh records above $4,070 per ounce as capital flows into safe havens intensify amid geopolitical and policy uncertainty. Silver also climbed to an all-time high.

In the oil patch, prices are attempting a rebound after recent weakness. Brent and WTI both climbed after hitting five-month lows, with hopes that U.S.-China dialogue and easing trade tensions might cushion global demand concerns.

The dollar steadied after earlier selling pressure, as markets calibrated between the risks of a fresh tariff war and the possibility of renewed diplomatic overtures.

Get caught up quickly on the top news and calls moving stocks with these five Top Five lists.

1. STOCK NEWS:

• Broadcom (AVGO) is partnering with OpenAI to build custom AI chips, adding to deals that the maker of ChatGPT recently announced with Nvidia (NVDA) and AMD (AMD)
• JPMorgan launched a $1.5T security initiative, via which the bank will make direct equity and venture capital investments of up to $10B to help select companies, primarily in the United States
• Bloom Energy (BE) shares shared after the company announced a $5B strategic AI Infrastructure partnership with Brookfield (BAM)
• President Donald Trump said that the U.S. could impose export controls on Boeing (BA) plane parts in response to China’s export limits on rare earth minerals, Reuters reports
• Fastenal (FAST) slipped after the maker of screws and industrial fasteners posted Q3 profit that slightly missed estimates

2. WALL STREET CALLS:

• BofA downgrades Intel (INTC) to Underperform after “too far, too fast” rally
• Palo Alto Networks (PANW) upgraded to Buy at BTIG following positive field checks
• PayPal (PYPL) downgraded to Sell at Goldman Sachs
• Yelp (YELP) upgraded to Outperform at Evercore ISI
• StubHub (STUB) received several bullish initiations as Wall Street rolls out coverage following the company’s recent IPO

3. AROUND THE WEB:

• Warner Bros. (WBD) rejected Paramount Skydance’s (PSKY) initial takeover offer of around $20 per share for being too low, Bloomberg reports
• Apple (AAPL) glasses may run full visionOS when paired with Mac, or a lighter user interface with iPhone, Bloomberg says
• Google (GOOGL) has warned it will be “extremely difficult” for Australia to enforce a law prohibiting anyone younger than 16 from using social media, Reuters reports
• Wayve, a U.K. startup, is in discussions with Microsoft (MSFT) and SoftBank (SFTBY) to raise up to $2B of new funding in a deal that could value Wayve at approximately $8B, FT says
• According to China’s market regulator, Qualcomm (QCOM) admitted it had not informed Chinese authorities when it completed its acquisition of Autotalks in June, Reuters reports

4. MOVERS:

• American Battery (ABAT) gains after completing its required baseline studies for its Tonopah Flats project
• Critical Metals (CRML) higher in New York after REAlloys entered into a letter of intent for a 10-year offstake agreement with the company
• Marqeta (MQ) declines after Goldman Sachs downgraded the stock to Sell
• Datavault (DVLT) falls after signing as letter of intent to acquire NYIAX
• LoanDepot (LDI) lower after announcing the return of Rick Calle as Chief Strategy Officer

5. EARNINGS/GUIDANCE:

• Dragonfly (DFLI) provided guidance for Q3
• VCI Global (VCIG) provided guidance for FY25, with revenue expected to be $47.3M
• NextNRG (NXXT) reported preliminary September revenue
• Wabash (WNC) provided guidance for Q3
• TSMC (TSM) to report Q3 results on October 16

INDEXES:

Near midday, the Dow was up 1.26%, or 572.40, to 46,052.00, the Nasdaq was up 2.04%, or 451.88, to 22,656.31, and the S&P 500 was up 1.53%, or 100.05, to 6,652.56.