💰 5 Fact Friday: Made-In-America Meets The Middle East

ECONOMY
1. Tariff Timeout Sends Markets Soaring 🚀

Sometimes, all it takes is a pause to change the narrative.

At 3 A.M. Monday morning, the U.S. and China agreed to a 90-day tariff timeout—a strategic breather to de-escalate tensions and explore a longer-term deal. It’s not peace, but it’s progress. And that was enough to send markets flying.

The S&P 500 jumped 3.3%. The Nasdaq soared 4.4%. The Dow climbed 2.8%.

Risk assets rallied across the board, while safe havens like gold (-2.7%) and Treasuries sold off. Even the VIX, Wall Street’s favorite fear gauge, slipped below 20 for the first time in weeks.

So, what sparked the celebration?

Key details:

• Both sides slashed tariffs by 115 percentage points

  • U.S. tariffs on Chinese imports dropped from 145% to 30%

  • China’s tariffs on U.S. goods fell from 125% to 10%

• U.S. cut tariffs on de minimis packages (<$800) from 120% to 54%

• China suspended non-tariff countermeasures, including rare earth export restrictions

• China lifted its ban on Boeing plane deliveries

Yes, thornier issues like supply chain independence and IP theft remain unsolved.

But for now, optimism is back in style. The S&P is up 0.6% year-to-date, and CNN’s Fear & Greed Index has swung from “Extreme Fear” to “Greed” in just a month.

Those who stayed invested, or bought the dip, were rewarded. It’s yet another reminder that pessimists sound smart, but optimists make money.

We’re not out of the woods yet. But Monday’s rally made one thing clear: this administration doesn’t want a recession. It wants deals.

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ECONOMY
2. Made-In-America Meets The Middle East ✈️

Never one to let someone else steal the spotlight, President Trump touched down in the Middle East this week with a mission: bring home the bacon.

Following the surprise U.S.-China truce brokered by Bessent, Trump showed he still has some global pull. He inked hundreds of billions in deals across AI, energy, aerospace, and defense.

Here’s where the money is headed:

Qatar

• $96B Boeing order for 210 Dreamliners and 777X aircraft

• 400+ GE Aerospace engines bundled into the deal

• $2B in defense contracts with Raytheon and General Atomics

Saudi Arabia

• $142B arms deal, benefiting defense giants like Lockheed Martin and Raytheon

• $20B investment into U.S. data centers via Saudi firm DataVolt

• 18,000 Nvidia chips + $10B in AMD processors heading to Saudi AI startup Humain

• $14.2B in energy equipment orders from GE Vernova

• $5.8B in healthcare investment, including a Michigan IV fluid plant

• Plus 140 additional deals contributing to $600B in joint economic agreements

While some of the numbers span years or include previously planned investments, the capital flow is clear. The Middle East is modernizing, and they’re buying American to do it.

Saudi Arabia, once 90% reliant on oil revenue, is now betting big on AI, defense, and infrastructure. For U.S. investors, that’s a pipeline of additional demand.

AI Czar David Sacks summed it up best:

For those counting on the end of American exceptionalism, this was a sharp and well-funded rebuttal.

MARKETS
3. Chime Hopes To Ride eToro’s Momentum 🏄‍♂️

It’s been a long winter for IPOs, but green shoots are finally starting to sprout.

During the liquidity boom of 2021, a record-breaking number of companies went public. But from 2022 to 2024, the market flipped, marking the weakest three-year stretch since the Great Recession.

Many firms have stayed private longer, questioning whether the scrutiny and compliance burdens of going public were even worth it.

Then came the U.S.-China trade truce, which reignited risk appetite. A narrow IPO window cracked open, and eToro ($ETOR) charged right through it. 🐂

The Israeli trading platform debuted on the Nasdaq on Wednesday, pricing at $52. The stock opened 34% higher and closed at $67, valuing the company at $5.4B, or ~28x 2024 earnings.

The results spoke for themselves.

Just one day later, Chime ($CHYM) filed to go public.

The neobank now serves over 8.6 million users, pulled in $1.67B in revenue last year, and posted its first quarterly profit in Q1. With a potential $25B valuation, it’s the biggest fintech to test the market since the IPO freeze began.

So, are IPOs finally back?

That’s what investors, founders, and venture capitalists are hoping.

For the last few years, the IPO slowdown hasn’t just hurt Wall Street—it’s jammed the entire startup ecosystem. Without liquidity events, private equity and VC firms can’t recycle capital into new deals. And fewer exits mean fewer new ideas get funded.

But that tide may be turning.

IPO deal activity jumped 55% year-over-year in Q1, led by CoreWeave (up nearly 70% since March) and eToro. Volatility has eased. The S&P 500 is green on the year. Postponed names like Klarna and StubHub are watching closely.

It’s early—but success begets success.

With strong first-day pops and anchor investors like BlackRock stepping in, the market looks more “accommodating” by the week.

STOCKS
4. UNH Hits 5-Year Low After CEO Exit 🚨

UnitedHealth ($UNH) is suffering one of the most violent stock collapses in Dow Jones history. The company is down 53% in the last 30 days, erasing over $300 billion in market value and dragging the entire index with it.

The trigger? A full-blown corporate meltdown disguised as a leadership shuffle.

On Tuesday, CEO Andrew Witty abruptly stepped down for “personal reasons,” just as the company abandoned its 2025 earnings guidance. Investors didn’t buy it, and neither did Wall Street.

The real story? A perfect storm of issues:

• Soaring medical costs are cutting into profitability

• Multiple legal battles, including a federal criminal investigation into potential Medicare fraud

• Disappointing earnings for the first time in over a decade

• Public backlash after the brazen murder of former executive Brian Thompson

This isn’t just a bad quarter. It’s a credibility crisis.

In classic turnaround fashion, the board brought back Stephen Hemsley, the former CEO who led the company from 2006 to 2017. He’s returning with a $61 million pay package, mostly in stock options.

Hemsley is stepping into quite the five-alarm fire.

Even long-time bulls are shaken. Bank of America downgraded the stock. Morgan Stanley labeled the situation “turbulent.” UnitedHealth hasn’t seen a weekly drop this steep since 1998.

And yet… Hemsley’s comeback tour could be a turning point.

Analysts believe that if anyone can steady the ship, it’s him. He built UnitedHealth into a $400B juggernaut once, and now, he has the chance to do it again.

But with shareholders reeling and regulators circling, this isn’t just a turnaround story. It’s a test of how much damage a blue-chip can take before the market says: enough.

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STOCKS
5. Guess That Stock 🕵️‍♂️

From regulatory punching bag to index fund darling, this crypto giant just completed a massive credibility 180.

Can you name the stock?

1. After surviving multiple SEC crackdowns and crypto winters, this stock is set to join the S&P 500 on Monday.

2. The inclusion could bring up to $15B in passive inflows, as index funds are forced to allocate a slice of their holdings to this newly “legit” crypto play.

3. Shares jumped 24% on the news, but the stock is still down ~30% from its all-time highs.

4. The company recently dropped $2.9B to acquire Deribit, the world’s largest crypto options exchange, in a bid to win more institutional and global traders.

5. Its CEO says “everyone’s going to have crypto exposure at least indirectly,” thanks to the company’s mainstream arrival.

Got a guess? Tap here to reveal the answer → 

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