WSJ What’s News
What’s News in Markets: Tesla Turmoil, Steelmaker Rallies, Dollar General Gains
Sat, 07 Jun 2025
How much did a fight between Elon Musk and President Trump hurt Tesla shares? And why did tariff news lift steelmaker Cleveland-Cliffs? Plus, what types of shoppers are driving Dollar General’s gains? Host Francesca Fontana discusses the biggest stock moves of the week and the news that drove them. Sign up for the WSJ's free Markets A.M. newsletter. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Chapter 1: What are the major stock moves discussed this week?
Hey Listeners, it's Saturday, June 7th. I'm Francesca Fontana for The Wall Street Journal and this is What's News in Markets. Our look at the biggest stock moves of the week and the news that drove them. Let's get to it. All right. What happened this week? Of course, of course, we had more earnings reports. We had developments in tariffs with steel and aluminum.
But we're going to get to that later, because really what captured all of our attention and not just in the stock market was the giant feud unfolding between President Trump and Elon Musk. So it started with Musk's criticism of Trump's tax and spending megabill and it escalated to an afternoon of back and forth insults and attacks.
Chapter 2: How did the feud between Elon Musk and Trump affect Tesla shares?
Trump threatened to eliminate government subsidies and contracts for Musk's businesses. And Musk called Trump ungrateful after his campaign support and agreed with a tweet that Trump should be impeached. And it certainly made Thursday's trading interesting. Tesla's shares fell 14% during the session, losing about $152 billion in market value, which is the company's biggest one-day slide on record.
And Trump Media & Technology, the parent company of Trump's Truth Social, saw its shares fall 8%. On Friday, they made up some ground, both gained close to 4%. All in all, the three major indexes notched weekly gains. Die S&P 500 und die Dow sind alle mehr als 1% gestiegen und die Nasdaq ist mehr als 2% gestiegen.
Now let's get back to those metals tariffs and what they mean for American steelmakers like Cleveland Cliffs. Steel producers seriously rallied on Monday on Trump's recent move to double steel and aluminum tariffs to 50%. And yes, that's 5-0. He unveiled the higher duties at a rally the Friday before. And by that I mean May 30th, not yesterday.
while promoting a $14 billion deal between Japan's Nippon Steel and U.S. Steel, which the president said would ensure U.S. control over the company. The higher tariffs, which took effect on Wednesday, give domestic steelmakers more power to raise prices. And, as we've seen since April, steel demand and prices have been cooling off. So, back to that rally.
Cleveland Cliffs shares surged 23% on Monday, and on a weekly basis, the stock gained 30%. Next up, we've got earnings reports from bargain chains like Dollar General. We've talked about the ongoing trend of falling retail demand, and these companies are apparently bucking that trend, thanks to an influx of higher-income customers looking for deals.
Dollar General on Tuesday raised its annual sales outlook after posting better-than-expected first-quarter results. The company said its updated guidance assumes current tariff rates remain in place through mid-August. As we've seen, of course, it's hard to predict anything when it comes to Trump's trade policy.
Executives for Dollar General and rival Dollar Tree said that increased demand from middle- and upper-income customers boosted sales in their spring quarters. Meanwhile, as Dollar General's CEO mentioned, lower-income customers remain financially strapped. And on Wednesday, low-cost retail peer Five Below joined the dollar stores in posting better-than-expected quarterly results.
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Chapter 3: What implications do steel tariffs have for American steelmakers?
Chapter 4: What are the weekly trends in major stock indexes?
while promoting a $14 billion deal between Japan's Nippon Steel and U.S. Steel, which the president said would ensure U.S. control over the company. The higher tariffs, which took effect on Wednesday, give domestic steelmakers more power to raise prices. And, as we've seen since April, steel demand and prices have been cooling off. So, back to that rally.
Cleveland Cliffs shares surged 23% on Monday, and on a weekly basis, the stock gained 30%. Next up, we've got earnings reports from bargain chains like Dollar General. We've talked about the ongoing trend of falling retail demand, and these companies are apparently bucking that trend, thanks to an influx of higher-income customers looking for deals.
Dollar General on Tuesday raised its annual sales outlook after posting better-than-expected first-quarter results. The company said its updated guidance assumes current tariff rates remain in place through mid-August. As we've seen, of course, it's hard to predict anything when it comes to Trump's trade policy.
Executives for Dollar General and rival Dollar Tree said that increased demand from middle- and upper-income customers boosted sales in their spring quarters. Meanwhile, as Dollar General's CEO mentioned, lower-income customers remain financially strapped. And on Wednesday, low-cost retail peer Five Below joined the dollar stores in posting better-than-expected quarterly results.
So, back to Dollar General. How'd the stock do? Well, it soared 16% on Tuesday and ended the week with a gain of about 17%. Last but not least, let's talk Lululemon. You may know it for its yoga pants. The Sportswear brand cut its annual profit outlook, as the company faces cautious U.S. consumers pulling back spending and tariffs that stand to threaten its supply chain.
Specifically, tariffs affecting products from some of the company's largest sourcing bases. It makes products in China, Vietnam, Cambodia, Sri Lanka, Indonesia and Bangladesh. Lululemon said it's assuming tariffs of 30% on Chinese imports and 10% from other countries. It's looking at ways to cut shipping costs and plans to raise prices on some products.
On Friday, Lululemon shares plummeted 20% and the stock notched a weekly loss of about 16%. And now you know what's news in markets this week. You can read about more stocks that moved on the week's news in The Score, my column in the Wall Street Journal's Exchange section. Today's show was produced by Zoe Kolkin with supervising producer Talia Arbel. I'm Francesca Fontana.
Have a great weekend and I'll see you next Saturday.
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