Wall Street is looking for any sign that the White House has its foot on the brakes in its game of tariff chicken with China. And finally, it’s begun receiving one: President Trump said this week, “We’re going to be very nice. They’re going to be very nice,” and that tariffs will “come down substantially.”

The S&P 500 jumped more than 2% after those conciliatory words and a report yesterday that the administration is considering rolling back its 145% tariff on Chinese imports:

• The Wall Street Journal reported that trade officials are mulling lowering the levy to 35% for Chinese goods not related to national security.
• The report also said the overall tariff rate on Chinese imports might come down to 50%, which is still steep, but represents a significant reduction from current trade-halting levels.

But nothing is decided yet…Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent threw cold water on investors’ rosiest hopes yesterday afternoon by saying that the administration isn’t considering lowering tariffs unless China does the same, which led the stock market to give back some of its earlier enthusiastic gains. Still, Bessent said that he sees an opportunity to make “a big deal,” and earlier he said that the current standoff was unsustainable.

What might be changing Trump’s tune?

The economy has been sending some SOS signals, like the S&P 500 declining every week since Trump announced a hefty blanket tariff on all Chinese goods earlier this month.

This week, retail honchos including the CEOs of Walmart, Target, and Home Depot met with the president to voice concerns about expected price hikes and store shelves emptying in a matter of weeks as tariffs hinder global logistics—which Bloomberg reports the president was receptive to.

American importers have already begun to cancel shipments from China, with US–China shipping falling 60% in the weeks since the latest tariffs on China were announced, according to logistics firm Flexport.

Looking ahead…Flexport warns that a tariff rollback could have companies scrambling to rebook space on container vessels, which would abruptly drive up shipping costs.—SK

Apple and Meta hit with first fines under new EU competition law. The European Union slapped Apple and Meta with a combined €700 million ($798 million) in fines for allegedly running afoul of the bloc’s new, stringent antitrust rules aimed at curbing Big Tech’s bigness. Apple was fined €500 million ($570 million) and Meta was told to pay €200 million ($230 million) for breaking the EU’s Digital Markets Act. Those numbers might seem high to us normies, but for these companies, they’re relatively small—which might be by design, as the EU tries to avoid ratcheting up trade tensions with President Trump, who has criticized its treatment of US tech companies. However, Meta hit back at the fine with trade war flair, calling the EU’s rules “a multibillion-dollar tariff” and an attempt to “handicap successful American businesses.”

Trump accuses Zelensky of blocking Ukraine–Russia peace deal. President Trump lambasted Ukraine’s leader, Volodymyr Zelensky, for saying that his country would not agree to recognize Crimea—which Russia annexed in 2014—as Russian territory as part of a potential peace plan. “It’s inflammatory statements like Zelensky’s that makes it so difficult to settle this War,” Trump said on social media, saying Zelensky would prolong the “killing field.” The president’s social media remarks came as US-brokered peace talks in London stalled after top US officials decided not to attend following Zelensky’s pushback on terms. But Trump maintained that a deal to end the war between Russia and Ukraine was still “very close.”

Intel reportingly plans to lay off more than 20% of staff. The chipmaker is poised to announce that it’s letting 21,000+ employees go as part of its first major restructuring under its new CEO, who’s been tasked with turning the company around, Bloomberg reports. The announcement is expected this week. The California-based company is trying to streamline management and renew focus on its engineering prowess as it plays catch-up with competitors like Nvidia. The company also cut ~15,000 jobs last year.—AR

The nation’s top universities are stockpiling cash at levels not seen since Covid or the Great Recession as they prepare for a financial standoff with the federal government. The Trump administration has so far pulled, suspended, or put under review more than $10 billion in funding to schools it says haven’t done enough to combat antisemitism, per the Wall Street Journal.

While the colleges dispute those claims, they’re also breaking into the piggy bank: Harvard raised $750 million in a bond deal, Northwestern $500 million, and Princeton $320 million.

Yale is going even further: Paul Giamatti’s alma mater is reportedly aiming to sell up to $6 billion of its private equity holdings, equivalent to nearly 15% of its $41.4 billion endowment.

That Yale would sell private equity holdings is raising eyebrows, because the university pioneered the endowment strategy—it’s literally called the Yale Endowment Model—that emphasized illiquid investments like private equity over the traditional mix of stocks and bonds. This approach changed institutional investing forever, and some argue that Yale’s retreat from PE may be a worrying signal for the sector more broadly.

Fun fact: Yale’s $41 billion endowment dates back to 1718, when Elihu Yale donated 562 British pounds.—NF

On June 26, three-time Olympic gold medalist Faith Kipyegon of Kenya will line up at the Stade Charlety in Paris and attempt to become the first woman to run a sub four-minute mile. And she will be decked out from head to toe in Nike.

A recent study found that if anyone can break the record, it’s probably Kipyegon, who already holds the record for fastest mile and is regarded as the best female mid-distance runner of all time. Still, she will need to shave off nearly eight seconds from her 4:07:64 world record.

Kind of a rerun: Nike’s moonshot campaign, which it’s calling “Breaking4: Faith Kipyegon vs. the 4-Minute Mile,” is a highly ambitious stunt that follows a similar route as its 2017 partnership with legendary runner Eliud Kipchoge as he attempted to run the first marathon in under two hours. Kipchoge broke the record two years later wearing a prototype of a Nike shoe with the controversial Vaporfly technology.

Big picture: Nike hasn’t confirmed any new shoe developments for Kipyegon, but said it will offer a “holistic system of support.” The shoemaker is trying to reposition itself as the go-to running company after losing market share to upstarts like On and Hoka.—MM

Sometimes everyone wants a film that transports them to a fantasy realm like Middle Earth, but other times, the moment calls for art that imitates life. And right now, it seems that we can all suddenly relate to a particular tense political thriller featuring ambitious cardinals and curtsying nuns. Viewership of Conclave shot up 283% on Monday as news of the death of the real-life Pope Francis spread, per Luminate.

• Viewers watched the fictional papal drama, which was released last year and is currently streaming on Amazon Prime, for 1.8 million minutes on Sunday. By the end of the next day, that number had climbed to 6.9 million minutes.
• It wasn’t the only pontiff-centered movie to get a boost in interest from the sad news out of the Vatican. Netflix’s 2019 movie The Two Popes garnered 290,000 minutes watched on Easter, compared to 1.5 million minutes on Monday.

If you’re among the many who recently watched Stanley Tucci spend time in the Sistine Chapel as a primer on the papal selection process, you can read up on how it compares to reality here.—AR