President Donald Trump last week increased the pressure on Apple over foreign-made iPhones in a scathing social media post that also intensified the overall stock market sell-off. In the week ahead, another great American tech giant — Club name Nvidia — will be in the spotlight. Following trade optimism the prior week, the S & P 500 went right back into the soup, with a weekly drop of 2.6%. The Nasdaq fell nearly 2.5% last week. Both of those weekly drops were the worst in more than a month. Apple was our worst-performing stock of the week, down almost 7.6%. Apple also fell out of the $3 trillion U.S. market capitalization club, now occupied only by portfolio names Microsof t and Nvidia. During last Wednesday’s May Monthly Meeting for Club members, Jim Cramer said Apple was the stock he was most concerned about . He listed four others on his worry list and six stocks to buy right now . Trump on Friday reminded Wall Street that he’s in charge and willing to be an “administrator of pain,” as Jim put it , to bring manufacturing back to the United States. He capped the trading week by saying iPhones not made in the U.S. should be subject to a 25% tariff. Friday afternoon, he said that tariff would also apply to Samsung and other smartphone makers. The president on Friday also called for 50% tariffs on the European Union, starting June 1. On Sunday, he delayed the rollout of the EU levies until July 9, and European stocks rebounded Monday. The U.S. stock market was closed Monday for Memorial Day. .SPX .IXIC 5D mountain S & P 500 vs. Nasdaq 5 days Last week’s fresh trade barbs overshadowed continued progress on U.S. tariff talks with China. The world’s two largest economies agreed on May 12 to pause the triple-digit levies on each other’s imports in pursuit of a broader trade agreement. The only trade deal that has come from Trump’s “reciprocal” tariff fight came on May 9 with the United Kingdom. It looked like the market last week was willing to look past Moody’s downgrade of U.S. government debt over concerns about the federal budget deficit and the cost of financing existing debt. The Moody’s one-notch decline from its highest rating happened after the market closed on May 16 and followed similar moves from Fitch in 2023 and Standard & Poor’s in 2011. However, the passage in the GOP-controlled House this week of Trump’s “Big Beautiful Bill” by just one vote took the stock market lower on concerns that the package of tax cuts and spending would worsen the country’s fiscal situation. Putting pressure on stocks was the spike in bond yields, which saw the 10-year Treasury yield briefly go back to mid-February highs above 4.6%. The 10-year yield finished the week above 4.5%. The budget legislation goes to the Senate, where Republicans also have a slim majority. One thing is for sure: the S & P Short Range Oscillator on Wednesday ended a run of 18 straight sessions in overbought territory. We had raised cash during this period as our discipline…
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