For the week 5/18-5/22

[Posted 4:30 PM ET, Friday]

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Edition 1,413

There’s a reason why some of us question President Trump’s foreign policy moves.  I get into the issues in detail down below, but yesterday, the acting Navy secretary told senators that the U.S. is pausing weapons sales to Taiwan to make sure it has sufficient firepower for the Iran war, when everyone in the Pentagon has been assuring Congress, and the people, that they have more than enough firepower for Iran.

And then the president overruled the Pentagon yesterday in suddenly deciding to send 5,000 troops to Poland just weeks after he had ordered 5,000 troops to be pulled out of Europe, while officials confirmed about 4,000 service members were no longer deploying to Poland!

Trump on Truth Social, Thursday, 4:26 PM:

“Based on the successful Election of the now President of Poland, Karol Nawrocki, who I was proud to Endorse, and our relationship with him, I am pleased to announce that the United States will be sending an additional 5,000 Troops to Poland.  Thank you for your attention to this matter!”

This is nuts. NATO has been blindsided, despite a U.S. pledge to coordinate troop deployments; the generals are pissed; and families of thousands of our service members are totally being jerked around.

Meanwhile, not one word of support for Ukraine, like seriously, all year, because, you know, “Vladimir is a good of friend of mine,” Trump has said more than 50 times.

By the way, there is growing evidence that Vlad the Impaler is preparing for some mischief in the Baltics, which he will blame on Ukraine, saying it has moved some of its drone forces into the likes of Latvia and Estonia, which all parties have denied.

And we note the passing of the great NASCAR driver, Kyle Busch, very suddenly at the all-too-young age of 41.  Our thoughts and prayers to his wife and two children.  Such a tragedy for not just the Racing World, but the sports world overall.  RIP.

—

On to Iran…as it went down, day by day….

Tale of the Tape….

Oil / West Texas Intermediate (WTI)

Friday, Feb. 27…$67.30.
Friday, May 22…$96.55

The global benchmark for crude, Brent, is $103.70.

Nationwide average prices at the Gas Pump [Source: AAA]

Friday, Feb. 27…regular $2.98; diesel $3.75.
Friday, May 22…regular $4.55; diesel $5.64.

President Trump on Truth Social, Sunday, 12:42 PM:

“For Iran, the Clock is Ticking, and they better get moving, FAST, or there won’t be anything left of them.  TIME IS OF THE ESSENCE!”

Earlier on Sunday, a drone sparked a fire in a power station at the UAE’s Barakah nuclear plant, underscoring the fragility of the truce.  It was launched from the west of the UAE, according to the country’s defense ministry, which added that two other drones were intercepted.  There was no radiological impact, Abu Dhabi’s media office said.

Saudi Arabia said it intercepted and destroyed three drones that entered its airspace on Sunday from Iraq, which has many Iran-backed militias.  It was unclear if those were part of the attack on the UAE.

Iran made no public comment on the attacks.

Over the weekend, Iran’s semi-official Fars news agency said the U.S. had set five main conditions for a peace deal.  They included Iran transferring enriched uranium to the U.S., while Washington would not provide any war reparations and would unfreeze less than a quarter of Tehran’s frozen assets.  The U.S. didn’t comment on the reported terms.

Iran has called for reparations and the unfreezing of assets before accepting a peace deal.  It also wants the U.S. to end a blockade on Iranian ports and for Washington to accept Tehran having a measure of control over shipping traffic through the Strait.

“We want to make a deal,” Trump told Axios on Sunday, adding he’s waiting for an updated Iranian proposal.  “They are not where we want them to be. They will have to get there or they will be hit badly, and they don’t want that.”

President Trump on Truth Social, Monday, 3:01 PM:

“I have been asked by the Emir of Qatar, Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia, Mohammed bin Salman Al Saud, and the President of the United Arab Emirates, Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, to hold off on our planned Military attack of the Islamic Republic of Iran, which was scheduled for tomorrow, in that serious negotiations are now taking place, and that, in their opinion, as Great Leaders and Allies, a Deal will be made, which will be very acceptable to the United States of America, as well as all Countries in the Middle East, and beyond.  This Deal will include, importantly, NO NUCLEAR WEAPONS FOR IRAN!  Based on my respect for the above mentioned Leaders, I have instructed Secretary of War, Pete Hegseth, The Chairman of The Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Daniel Caine, and The United States Military, that we will NOT be doing the scheduled attack of Iran tomorrow, but have further instructed them to be prepared to go forward with a full, large scale assault of Iran, on a moment’s notice, in the event that an acceptable Deal is not reached. Thank you for your attention to this matter!”

The next day, Tuesday, Trump told reporters, “I hope we don’t have to do the war, but we may have to give them another big hit,” Trump told reporters.  When asked how long he would wait, he said: “Well, I mean, I’m saying two or three days, maybe Friday, Saturday, Sunday. Something maybe early next week – a limited period of time.”

The president has repeatedly threatened – and then backed off from – renewed military action since a truce was agreed on April 8.

Despite losing many of its senior leaders and many military assets to U.S. and Israeli bombing, Iran’s regime has survived and frustrated U.S. officials by maintaining a chokehold over Hormuz.

But the markets were tired of Trump’s “hot air verbal interventions,” as one commodities analyst told Bloomberg.  “As far as we can see, there has been no real progress in the negotiations between the U.S. and Iran, with both sides still standing by their previous demands.”

Wednesday, Trump said negotiations with Iran were in the final stages, while warning of further attacks unless Iran agrees to a deal.

“We’re going to give this one shot.  I’m in no hurry,” Trump said.  “Ideally I’d like to see few people killed, as opposed to a lot. We can do it either way.”

Tehran, for its part, accused Trump of plotting to restart the war, and threatened to retaliate for any strikes with attacks beyond the Middle East.

“If aggression against Iran is repeated, the promised regional war will extend beyond the region this time,” the Revolutionary Guards said in a statement.

Parliament Speaker Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf, Iran’s top negotiator at peace talks, said in an audio message released on social media that “obvious and hidden moves by the enemy” showed the Americans were preparing new attacks.

President Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu held a contentious call Tuesday evening, people familiar with the matter said, with Netanyahu railing against a pact to end the war with Iran and Trump defending the diplomatic process.

Israel has long expressed skepticism that Iran would abide by any agreement to dismantle its nuclear work and refrain from attacks on regional nations.  Netanyahu reiterated those points with Trump on the call Tuesday and an earlier one on Sunday.

Trump was unconvinced, telling Netanyahu he would continue to pursue an accord that prevents Iran from ever acquiring a nuclear weapon.  Trump added that Iran faced fresh strikes if it didn’t show more flexibility in talks.

Speaking to reporters Wednesday, Trump said his call with Netanyahu went well and that the Israeli leader would “do whatever I want him to do.”  Asked later whether he was close to making a decision on Iran, he replied: “It’s right on the borderline.”

“We have to get the right answers – it would have to be a complete 100% good answers,” he said of Iran’s response.

Thursday, Iran said the latest proposal from the U.S. partly bridged the gap between the warring sides but comments from the Islamic Republic’s Supreme Leader about keeping Tehran’s uranium stockpile and a dispute over tolls in the Strait clouded the outlook for a breakthrough.

Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei issued a directive that the country’s weapons-grade uranium should not be sent abroad.  President Trump said he opposed efforts by Iran and Oman to establish some form of permanent toll system through Hormuz.

“We want it open, we want it free, we don’t want tolls,” Trump told reporters at the White House.  “It’s an international waterway. They are not charging tolls right now.”  [Well, they are…in some instances.]

—Israel said it killed the leader of Hamas’ military wing, one of the architects of the Oct. 7, 2023, attacks that triggered the war in Gaza.

Izz al-Din al-Haddad was killed in a strike in Gaza City last Friday, Israel’s army said.  He was one of the last senior commanders in Hamas’ military who had directed the planning and execution of the Oct. 7 Hamas-led attacks on Israel.

Haddad’s predecessor, Mohammed Sinwar, was killed. On Saturday, Haddad’s family confirmed his death.

The ceasefire between Israel and Hamas remains very fragile as key issues like the disarmament of Hamas stall the deal’s progress.

Last Saturday, Lebanon said 18 were killed, 124 wounded in Israeli strikes over the past day, according to Lebanon’s Health Ministry.

The IDF announced that one of its soldiers was killed Friday by a drone explosion in southern Lebanon.

The total number of Israeli soldiers killed in ongoing combat operations regarding Lebanon is 20.

Israeli strikes then killed at least another 21 on Tuesday in southern Lebanon, including ten of them in a single attack (three of whom were women and three children) that hit a house in the town of Deir Qanoun, the health ministry said.

The latest deaths have come less than a week after the U.S. said Lebanon and Israel had agreed to extend a ceasefire by 45 days, with the two sides set to resume talks at the beginning of June.

—A commander of an Iranian-backed militia was charged with plotting to attack Jewish sites in the United States, including a synagogue in New York City, and carrying out terror attacks in Europe as part of a broader campaign of retaliation by Iran since the war began in February.

A criminal complaint unsealed last Friday accused the commander, Mohammad Baqer Saad Dawood al-Saadi, of planning at least 20 attacks against U.S. and Israeli interests in Europe and Canada since late February.  Al-Saadi was detained in Turkey recently and handed over to U.S. authorities.  He appeared in court and did not enter a plea.

Al-Saadi, according to the complaint, is a commander of Kataib Hezbollah, an Iraqi militia that is a proxy for the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps.

—

Wall Street and the Economy

According to a White House readout of the Xi-Trump summit, issued Sunday, China has agreed to buy at least $17 billion of agricultural products annually through 2028 and establish boards of trade and investment.

The two boards form “the cornerstone of this historic agreement” between the two leaders as they work to “optimize” trade between the world’s largest economies, the White House fact sheet said.

Saturday, the Commerce Ministry in Beijing said both sides would adopt a series of measures, including mutually cutting levies on certain products. China didn’t provide specifics, adding that teams from the two countries were still negotiating details.  The White House release was silent on tariffs.

But neither side in their statements mentioned Taiwan.  Xi warned Trump during the summit that it could trigger  a “highly dangerous situation” if Washington mishandles ties with the island democracy Beijing has vowed to bring under its control.  Which makes a potential $14 billion U.S. weapons sale to Taipei a major test for President Trump. [More on this below.]

Xi, however, did cast his meeting with Trump as “historic” and said it opened a fresh era in ties.  Beijing unveiled the phrase “constructive strategic stability” to describe that chapter – in its fact sheet, the White House embracing the wording, though with qualifications.  The two leaders agreed “the United States and China should build a constructive relationship of strategic stability on the basis of fairness and reciprocity,” the U.S. said.

For now, with the agreement on strategic stability, it appears the one-year trade truce the two sides agreed to in South Korea last fall remains in place, although neither side has actually confirmed this.

The summit also appears to pave the way for lower-level officials to fill in the details of what the White House and Commerce Ministry laid out.  Trump invited Xi to the White House in September, and they have another two potential meetings this year; at the APEC summit in Shenzhen this November and then at the Group of 20 summit in Miami the next month.

The Commerce Ministry then indicated in a statement Wednesday that it would accept some increases in U.S. tariffs to a level agreed upon last year and would continue talks to extend a trade truce.

“We hope that the U.S. will honor its commitments and that, regardless of the reasons given for imposing or replacing tariffs on China in the future, the level of U.S. tariffs on China will not exceed the level” agreed upon at negotiations in Kuala Lumpur back in October.

Trade teams from both countries would discuss extending the one-year agreement worked out at the time, the ministry said.  The statement also signals Beijing would accept U.S. tariffs provided they do not exceed the level agreed to in Malaysia that brought the effective rate to about 30%.  That was later reduced to an estimated 21% after some tariffs were struck down by the Supreme Court.

The Trump administration has sought new Section 301 investigations to return levies to the level before the court ruling.  Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has said those tariffs may be restored by July.

The Ministry of Commerce also confirmed Wednesday that Beijing had agreed to buy 200 Boeing planes, in what will be the largest single sale of the American manufacturer’s aircraft to China in nearly a decade.

The ministry said in a statement: “Aviation is a key area for deepening mutually beneficial cooperation between China and the United States.”

Moving along, there was little economic news of note this week.  April housing starts were better than expected at a 1.465 million annualized pace, but down 2.8% month-on-month.

And we had the minutes from the Federal Reserve’s policymaking arm’s April meeting, which showed that most officials said that interest-rate hikes would likely be appropriate if inflation keeps running above the central bank’s target of 2%, as it has for five years.

Nearly all policymakers were concerned that commodities prices could remain elevated even if the Iran war ends.

“Most participants judged that recent data, such as readings on the unemployment rate, layoffs, hiring, and labor force growth, suggested stabilization in the labor market,” the meeting minutes read.

As a result of this, “many participants indicated that they would have preferred removing the language from the postmeeting statement that suggested an easing bias regarding the likely direction of the Committee’s future interest rate decisions.”

But the next meeting, June 16-17, will be Kevin Warsh’s first as chairman, Warsh sworn in today at the White House.

Today, Fed Governor Christopher Waller, who was a contender along with Warsh to replace Jerome Powell, said he supports making clear the central bank’s next interest-rate move is just as likely to be an increase as a cut, as the energy shock from the Iran war pushes up prices.

Waller said his current position is to be patient in holding rates until the war’s impact is clearer, but he warned on Friday that he wouldn’t rule out a future rate hike if inflation doesn’t start to slow soon.

“Inflation is not headed in the right direction,” Waller said Friday in a speech delivered to a conference in Frankfurt.  “Based on this recent data, I would support removing the ‘easing bias’ language in our policy statement to make it clear that a rate cut is no more likely in the future than a rate increase.”

Waller said the oil shock could dissipate soon, but, he added, “I can no longer rule out rate hikes further down the road if inflation does not abate soon.”

The Atlanta Fed’s GDPNow barometer has second-quarter growth at 4.3%.

Freddie Mac’s 30-year fixed-rate mortgage, however, rose 15 basis points on the week to 6.51%, highest since August.

Next week we receive an update on the Fed’s preferred inflation barometer, the personal consumption expenditures index (PCE).

Europe and Asia

Eurostat released the April inflation figures for the eurozone…3.0%, up from 2.6% in March.  A year earlier it was 2.4%.  But ex-food and energy the figure was just 2.1% and this compares with 2.7% in April 2025.

Headline inflation….

Germany 2.9%, France 2.5%, Italy 2.8%, Spain 3.5%, Ireland 3.6%, Netherlands 2.5%.

And we had flash PMI readings in May for the EA21, courtesy of S&P Global. The composite reading was 47.5, a 31-month low (50 the dividing line between growth and contraction), with manufacturing at  51.0, services 46.4 (63-mo. low).

Germany: manufacturing 50.2; services 47.8.
France: mfg. 46.4; services 42.9 (66-mo. low).

UK: mfg. 52.4; services 47.9 (64-mo. low).

Chris Williamson, Chief Economist, S&P Global Market Intelligence:

“May’s flash PMI survey data show the eurozone economy taking an increasingly severe toll from the war in the Middle East.  Output has now contracted for two successive months, with the rate of decline accelerating in May to its highest for just over two-and-a-half years. The survey data indicate that the euro area economy looks set to contract by 0.2% in the second quarter.

“Job losses are also starting to become worryingly widespread as business confidence in any swift turnaround in the adverse economic climate fades further.

“The service sector is being hit especially hard by the surge in the cost of living created by the war, notably via the demand-sapping impact of higher energy prices. While there has been some support to manufacturing from precautionary stock building, this boost is starting to fade, with demand for both goods and services now in decline.

“The region’s supply shock from the war is also intensifying, as indicated by increasingly widespread supply chain delays. Supply shortages threaten not only to constrain growth in the coming months but also have the potential to add further upward pressure to inflation.

“The rise in the survey’s price gauges already hints at inflation running close to 4% in the coming months which, combined with the growing signs of the region slipping into an economic downturn, creates a deepening dilemma for policymakers.”

In China, we had key data for the month of April.  Industrial production was up 4.1% year-on-year, retail sales rose just 0.2% Y/Y (weakest since Dec. 2022), and fixed asset investment was down 1.6% year-to-date.  In China’s boom times, this last one was up double digits consistently as the nation built a ton of new roads, airports and rail lines.  Not so much these days.

All three of the figures were well below expectations.

The April unemployment rate was 5.2%.

Japan’s first-quarter GDP was 0.5% vs. the fourth quarter, 2.1% annualized vs. 0.8% prior.

April exports rose a much stronger-than-expected 14.8%.

April inflation was 1.4%, and 1.9% ex-food and energy.

A flash PMI reading for May had manufacturing at 54.5, services 50.0.

Street Bytes

–This week it was the Dow Jones’ turn to hit all-time record highs, while the S&P 500 and Nasdaq fell a bit short.  It’s all about earnings and AI…the former generally very strong, the latter still spurring massive spending and hope (and maybe, hype).

The Dow rose 2.1% to a record 50579, while the S&P was up 0.9% and Nasdaq 0.5%.

—U.S. Treasury Yields

6-mo. 3.75%  2-yr. 4.12%  10-yr. 4.55%  30-yr. 5.06%

The yield on the 10-year hit 4.67%, highest since Jan. 2025, before backing off on supposed progress in negotiations with Iran, oil prices falling in kind.  This is an illusion.

—The UAE’s new West-East oil pipeline designed to bypass the Strait of Hormuz is now nearly 50% complete, as the country pushes ahead with plans to strengthen energy export security.

Dr. Sultan Ahmed Al Jaber, Minister of Industry and ADNOC (Abu Dhabi National Oil Company) CEO, said construction of the project was being accelerated towards a planned 2027 completion date.

But Al Jaber said ADNOC was continuing to assess damage and costs linked to the recent conflict after some company facilities and infrastructure were directly hit in the war.

He said restoring some operations could take weeks or months depending on the extent of the damage, while returning to pre-conflict flows would take at least four months.

–It was Big Box retailer week, and Walmart shares fell 7% on Thursday after the retailer reported fiscal first quarter earnings that were in line with expectations and a second quarter outlook that was lighter than expected.

In Q1, the retailer posted same-store sales growth of 4.1% in the U.S., above Wall Street’s expectations for 3.9% growth.  Higher foot traffic, ticket sizes, and 26% growth in e-commerce sales drove results.

Overall, Walmart’s revenue grew 7.3% to $177.8 billion in the quarter, also beating the Street, while Walmart reported adjusted earnings of $0.66, in line with estimates.

New CEO John Furner said in an earnings release that the team is focused on “better shopping experiences, a broader assortment, and faster delivery.”  He also said Walmart is “driving productivity through automation” and growing its higher-margin businesses, such as Walmart+ memberships and advertising.

Globally, e-commerce sales jumped 26%.

For the second quarter, WMT expects net sales to increase 4% to 5% and adjusted earnings to be in the range of $0.72 to $0.74, which is below consensus of $0.75 per share.

The company issued tepid guidance for the full fiscal year, with sales increasing in a range of 3.5% to 4.5%, and adjusted earnings of $2.75-$2.85, when the Street was at 5% sales growth and $2.97 per share for the year.

For the first time since 2022, Walmart shoppers filled their tanks with an average of less than 10 gallons per trip at its gas stations.

“That’s an indication of stress,” said CFO John David Rainey in an interview.  “The headline consumer is reasonably healthy, but when you look underneath, the pressure is uneven.”

—Home Depot got a lift in the first quarter from professionals and also homeowners stocking up on spring supplies.

Profit fell from the first quarter last year, but the national home improvement retailer beat Wall Street expectations.

“The underlying demand in our business was relatively similar to what we saw throughout fiscal 2025, despite greater consumer uncertainty and housing affordability pressure,” CEO Ted Decker said Tuesday.

“There’s no question that the average consumer is feeling pressure from rising fuel costs,” CFO Richard McPhail added.  “Our customer tends to have higher incomes and higher housing wealth, but they do tell us that they’re feeling the impact of fuel costs.”

McPhail added that small projects like painting continue to be “a real source of strength for us for the past few years.”

However, “categories that are more associated with larger projects, like lumber, building materials, millwork, flooring, and lighting…customers continue to defer those larger projects as a result of the concerns they feel over economic uncertainty and general affordability,” he said.

The housing market has been static as Americans wrestle with rising costs and mortgage rates, as well as other economic concerns.

For the three months ended May 3, Home Depot earned $4.29 billion, with adjusted earnings of $3.43 besting consensus of $3.41.

Revenue climbed to $41.77 billion from $39.86 billion, which topped Wall Street’s expectations for revenue of $41.59 billion.

Sales at stores open at least a year, a key gauge of a retailer’s health, rose 0.6%.  In the U.S., comparable store sales climbed 0.4%.

Customer transactions declined 1.3% in the quarter, but the amount that shoppers spent increased to $92.76 per average receipt from $90.71 a year ago.

HD still anticipates fiscal 2026 total sales growth of about 2.5% to 4.5% and comp sales growth to be about flat to up 2%.

The shares rose about 1% Tuesday on the report.

–Home Depot rival Lowe’s shares rose as the company reported narrowly better-than-expected earnings.

Lowe’s reported adjusted EPS of $3.03, while revenue for the quarter came to $23.1 billion, up from $20.9 billion the prior year.

The Street was at adjusted earnings of $2.97 a share on revenue of $22.98 billion.

Lowe’s comparable sales growth of 0.6% was below expectations of 0.8%.

Lowe’s, like HD, has been cautious in its guidance amid the sluggish housing market.

The company reaffirmed its outlook for the full year for comparable sales to be in the range of flat to up 2% compared with the prior year, with total sales set to rise between 7% and 9%.

“Strong spring execution and continued momentum in Pro, Appliances, Online and Home Services supported a solid start to the year as we delivered our fourth consecutive quarter of positive comp sales,” said CEO Marvin Ellison, in a statement.  “In spite of a challenging housing macro, we remain focused on advancing our Total Home strategy.”

—Target posted first-quarter net sales of $25.4 billion on Wednesday, a 6.7% increase from a year ago, and raised its full-year sales outlook after results came in well above expectations.

The 5.6% comparable-sales gain marked the end of four consecutive quarters in negative territory, the company said. Store-originated comp sales contributed a 4.7% gain, while digital comp sales added 8.9%, with same-day delivery through Target Circle 360 cited as a key driver. Customer traffic grew 4.4% compared with the same period last year.

Adjusted earnings per share of $1.71 represented a 32% jump over the prior year’s adjusted figure of $1.30.  Wall Street had penciled in $1.46 per share and revenue of $24.64 billion, making both figures a clear beat.

“First quarter financial results were stronger than expected, providing encouraging early signs that our clarified strategy is resonating with our guests and driving broad-based growth across our business,” CEO Michael Feddelke said in a statement.

The company’s gross margin expanded to 29%, up from 28.2% in the year-earlier period, with the improvement credited to better supply chain productivity, growth in advertising revenue, and reduced markdown rates, partially offset by elevated product costs.

Target lifted its full-year net sales growth target to around 4%, doubling the 2% growth it had previously projected.

But the shares fell because the guidance, given how strong the first quarter, wasn’t exciting to investors.

“Despite our updated guidance, we’re maintaining a cautious outlook given the work we know we have in front of us and ongoing uncertainty in the macroeconomic environment,” Fiddelke told reporters.

—SpaceX, according to reports late last Friday, was aiming to go public on June 12, setting the stage for what is expected to be the biggest initial public offering of all time.

Elon Musk’s rocket company is aiming to raise as much as $80 billion or more.  It will list on Nasdaq (ticker SPCX).

For a June 12 debut, SpaceX needed to make its IPO paperwork public and that came on Wednesday in the form of its S-1 registration statement.

SpaceX isn’t lacking for ambition: “Our mission is to build the systems and technologies necessary to make life multiplanetary, to understand the true nature of the universe, and to extend the light of consciousness to the stars,” the filing said.

SpaceX’s revenue soared to $18.7 billion in 2025, up 33 percent from a year earlier, the filing disclosed.  In the first three months of this year, revenue rose to $4.7 billion from $4.1 billion in the same period a year ago.

But the company lost more than $4.9 billion last year, compared with a $791 million profit in 2024, as capital expenditures nearly doubled to $20.7 billion from heavy spending on artificial intelligence development.  In the first three months of this year, SpaceX lost almost as much money as all of 2025, recording a $4.3 billion loss.

SpaceX, which also owns the social media platform X and xAI, the maker of the Grok chatbot, drew back the curtain on its finances for the first time.  The company values itself at $1.25 trillion.

How closely Musk is tied with SpaceX was made clearer in the filing. He owns around 50 percent of the company’s shares outstanding and controls more than 85 percent of the shareholder votes because of a class of super-voting shares.

Based on SpaceX’s current $1.25 trillion valuation, Musk’s ownership stake is worth more than $635 billion.  Yes, he’d become a trillionaire after the company goes public.

SpaceX’s most lucrative business is Starlink, its satellite internet service, which had 10.3 million subscribers at the end of March, double from a year earlier, according to the filing.  Last year, Starlink recorded about $4.4 billion in income from operations, also more than double the year prior.

The IPO proceeds will largely go to put AI data centers in space.  Musk has shared his vision of “sustainable abundance,” with virtual and physical AI applications expanding the economy to the point where everyone has enough of everything.

xAI, which SpaceX merged with in February, isn’t profitable.  It will be the source of most of the losses and cash burn, although SpaceX is also spending billions to develop Starship, the largest rocket ever made by humans.

xAI is losing money, but the future and the valuation of SpaceX hinge on AI.  Musk has predicted that space-based computing will be cheaper than terrestrial computing in a few years.  Satellites can be powered directly by the sun, without paying a utility bill.

But Musk suffered a big loss in court when a jury unanimously rejected his claims against OpenAI, finding that he brought his lawsuit against the company and CEO Sam Altman after the statute of limitations expired.

In deliberations that lasted less than two hours, the nine-person panel found against Musk on technical grounds. He had alleged in testimony that the startup behind the world’s most popular chatbot “stole a charity” when it converted into a for-profit company.

Musk’s attorney said in court that his side will reserve its right to appeal.

OpenAI now faces a clear path to a public offering.  In the past year, the company has managed a host of challenges, including renegotiating a relationship with longtime partner Microsoft that had grown acrimonious at times, gaining regulatory approval for a conversion to a for-profit business and the rise of rival Anthropic as a formidable competitor that has emerged as a presumptive front-runner in the AI revolution.

The company also closed the largest funding round in Silicon Valley history, raising $122 billion from a host of tech giants and funds, in an effort to help settle questions about its finances that have rattled markets.

At its core, the case revolved around Musk’s allegation that Altman manipulated him into thinking he was donating tens of millions of dollars to help launch a nonprofit to develop AI for the benefit of humanity only for OpenAI to be turned into a for-profit venture.

Musk sued OpenAI and Altman on two claims: unjust enrichment and breach of charitable trust.

OpenAI attorneys had questioned the timing of the lawsuit as part of their defense, claiming that the motive for Musk’s lawsuit was more to prop up his own AI company, xAI.  They also pointed out that the statute of limitations for a breach of charitable trust claim is three years, and two years for unjust enrichment.

In the Oakland, Calif., federal courtroom, OpenAI’s lawyers argued that Musk not only knew about the plan to create the for-profit structure but that he supported it and sought to control the venture.  Only when OpenAI’s leaders rejected his request and Musk left to start his own company did he pursue his suit against OpenAI, the lawyer claimed.

We then had reports Wednesday that OpenAI has been working with bankers to prepare to file an IPO in the coming days or weeks.

The goal is for OpenAI to be ready to go public as early as September, according to the reports.

OpenAI’s lead in the AI race has recently come under threat from Claude-maker Anthropic, which has grown faster than its rival in recent months thanks to the fast adoption of its software tools across the workforce.  OpenAI is in the middle of a major strategy pivot to try and catch up.

OpenAI recently missed multiple revenue and user targets after facing competition from rivals Google and Anthropic.

–Staying on the topic of AI, former Google CEO Eric Schmidt delivered a commencement address at the University of Arizona last Friday, and Schmidt told students the “technological transformation” wrought by artificial intelligence will be “larger, faster and more consequential than what came before.”  He was met by a chorus of boos.  Not the first graduation speaker mentioning AI who received the same reaction.

As the Wall Street Journal noted the other day:

“In one poll after another in recent weeks, respondents have overwhelmingly voiced concerns about AI, a challenge to claims by industry executives that their technology would gain popularity by improving people’s lives.

“Consumers resent energy-price jumps exacerbated by the spread of data centers. Workers fear widespread job losses.  Parents worry about AI undermining education and harming children’s mental health. In recent months, the wave of anger has brought protests, swayed election results and spurred isolated acts of violence….

“Pollsters and historians say the souring of public opinion is all but unprecedented in its speed.  ‘I don’t think I’ve ever seen something intensify this quickly,’ Gregory Ferenstein, who conducted a recent poll with researchers at Stanford University and the University of California, Berkeley, said of the backlash.

The poll showed about 30% of Democrats think America should accelerate AI innovation as quickly as possible, compared with roughly half of Republicans and 77% of tech founders.

“Also unprecedented is the rapid rise of AI anxiety’s salience as a political issue, one that is shaking up routine re-election races and scrambling partisan battle lines, political analysts say….

“ ‘People just feel like they’re under siege,’ said Sen. Josh Hawley (R., Mo.), who has proposed bills to impose new requirements on data centers and AI companies….

“Chris Lehane, OpenAI’s chief global affairs officer, said ‘doomers’ peddling worst-case scenarios, lingering anger at social-media companies and negative media coverage have fueled poor sentiment in the U.S.  ‘If you’re going to constantly and consistently talk about AI from a fear perspective, you are going to drive fear,’ he said….

“ ‘We as an industry need to be a lot more calibrated in making the case as to why this is good for the country and good for the world,’ he said.

“At a recent data-center conference in Washington, one executive said the industry is facing ‘cave people’ who oppose all development.”

–Neil Sorahan, CFO of Ryanair, Europe’s low-cost behemoth, said persistently high jet fuel prices may cause some airlines that were already struggling before the war to be hit even harder or potentially go out of business come winter (a la Spirit Airlines, already).  As for Ryanair, the company is prepared for even the worst possible situation if the conflict between the U.S. and Iran escalates.

Sorahan said Ryanair may be insulated from the worst of the effects of spiking oil prices because it has hedged 80% of its summer fuel at an even lower price than it paid for fuel last year.  And as a result, he doesn’t foresee any cancellations this summer or any fuel surcharge added to fares, even though price increases may not be out of the question.

In just a few weeks, Europe’s supply of jet fuel will sink below the 23-day shortage threshold that could mean more rationing, canceled flights, and even the closure of smaller airports this summer, according to a note from Goldman Sachs.

But Ryanair CEO Michael O’Leary said he has seen oil shocks before during Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and after 9/11: “This happens regularly within our industry,” he said.  He claimed Europe is not going to run out of jet fuel.

O’Leary told Bloomberg on Monday: “We met with all of our fuel suppliers in Paris last week. There’s no issues over jet fuel supply right now through to September.”

–Inflation-weary consumers aren’t giving up their summer vacations.

United Airlines said Tuesday it expects to serve about 53 million travelers this summer – about 3 million more than last year.

The company said demand is particularly strong for destinations tied to once-in-a-lifetime moments such as the total solar eclipse in Europe, as well as international soccer matches and major global concert tours.

Bookings to destinations including Madrid, Barcelona and Reykjavik are up more than 50% ahead of the Aug. 12 total solar eclipse, United said.

Oh, the locals in Barcelona, in particular, will be up in arms, just as they were the last few summers, with hordes of tourists.

Having been to Reykjavik twice, I know that place would not be as pleasurable with big crowds at the key tourist sites.  That’s why in my traveling fool days of the 2000s I went offseason, never in the summer months.

Of course, we are going to have our own hordes in some spots in the U.S. for the World Cup, which is coming up.  There are two big hotels within five minutes of me that I know are going to be major hubs for all the games at the Meadowlands, including the Final.

—AAA projects that 45 million people will travel at least 50 miles from home over the five-day Memorial Day weekend, which it says starts Thursday and goes through Monday.  That would set a Memorial Day record, topping last year by 0.4%.

Of the travelers, 87% are expected to drive despite the noticeable rise in gasoline prices since the end of February.

AAA says 3.66 million people are flying to their destinations, a 0.3% gain from 2025.

—TSA checkpoint numbers vs. 2025

5/21…118 percent of 2025 levels
5/20…110
5/19…83
5/18…95
5/17…125
5/16…80
5/15…98
5/14…121

—Nvidia released its first-quarter earnings after the market close Thursday, with the chip maker handily beating analysts’ estimates.

For the period, the leader in the AI investing boom posted adjusted earnings of $1.87 a share on revenue of $81.6 billion (up 85% from the year-earlier period), higher than forecasts that called for $1.75 and $78.9 billion, respectively.

Net income was $58.3 billion for the quarter, more than three times a year ago and the $42.9bn analyst had predicted.

Nvidia said it expects $91 billion in second-quarter revenue, plus or minus 2%. That range is higher than the $87.3 billion analysts forecast.

The company also hiked the quarterly payout from 1 cent to 25 cents, and, with a market capitalization of around $5.4 trillion, Nvidia said it also plans to buy back $80 billion worth of stock.

CEO Jensen Huang called the quarter “extraordinary” during a conference call with investors.  “Demand has gone parabolic,” he said.  “The reason is simple. Agentic AI has arrived.”

Nvidia “should be growing faster” than the capital expenditure of so-called hyperscalers, Huang said, adding that smaller companies are worth watching since they’re expected to grow their spending.

But the stock moved little as some on Wall Street have concerns the hyperscalers may slow down spending on Nvidia chips.  On the other hand the shares had risen 19% in the past three months, so an earnings beat was already priced in.  Plus Nvidia is the victim of the law of large numbers – it takes a lot to move a $5 trillion company.

—NextEra Energy agreed to buy Dominion Energy in a roughly $67 billion deal that would create a utility giant and represent one of the biggest tie-ups of the year.

The deal would combine two of the largest U.S. utilities into an East Coast energy titan with territory in Florida, the Carolinas and Virginia, and require approval from a gauntlet of state and federal regulators.

It comes as the utility industry faces a big upswing in customer demand for the first time in decades, much of it driven by the mania over artificial intelligence and the build-out of data centers that require an insatiable amount of electricity.  Access to power has become a key hurdle in the race to build data centers quickly.

Florida-based NextEra has a market value of nearly $200 billion, while Virginia-based Dominion’s is more than $50 billion.  NextEra shareholders will own approximately 75 % of the company, with Dominion shareholders holding the rest.

NextEra owns Florida Power & Light, the largest electric utility in the U.S., and is also one of the largest developers of power generation, battery storage and transmission.

Dominion has a large portfolio of gas-fired power plants and is sitting on a mountain of future electricity demand growth in Virginia, which is home to “data center alley,” a massive concentration of data centers.

Dominion has connected more than 450 data centers in Virginia since it began keeping track, and last year that industry accounted for about 28% of its electricity sales in the state.

—Deere & Co. shares fell 5% after the company reported net income of $1.773 billion for the second quarter ended May 3, or $6.55 per share, compared with net income of $1.804 billion or $6.64 per share a year ago.  The Street was at $5.70 a share.

Worldwide net sales and revenues increased 5 percent to $13.369 billion for the quarter, vs. consensus of $12.73bn.

“Our performance in the current market environment demonstrates the strength of our diversified portfolio. This is particularly reflected in the strong outcomes achieved by our Small Ag and Construction & Forestry divisions during this year,” stated John May, chairman and CEO of Deere.

May added: “While our customers face ongoing challenges, John Deere remains firmly omitted to supporting their success through disciplined operations and resilience.”

But Deere has struggled from an extended slowdown in the tractor business with farmers cutting back on big-ticket purchases amid elevated interest rates and a challenging farming market and that’s what investors are focusing on.

Meanwhile, construction and forestry sales rose 29% to $3.79bn and small agriculture and turf saw net sales increase 16% to $3.49 billion.

It now expects construction and forestry net sales to be up 20% for the fiscal year, up from its prior forecast of up 15%. It maintained its outlook for small agriculture net sales to be up 15% and production agriculture sales to be down 5% to 10% for the year.

—Soybean futures climbed to near $12 per bushel, rebounding from losses seen on May 15 after new details emerged from President Trump’s summit in China regarding agricultural trade commitments.  The White House said that China agreed to purchase at least $17 billion worth of U.S. agricultural products annually through 2028, intended to supplement earlier soybean purchase agreements.

After Trump’s meeting with President Xi last year, China had initially committed to buying 12 million metric tons of soybeans, alongside a broader pledge to purchase 25 million tons annually for three years.  While the announcement was largely welcomed by U.S. farmers seeking clearer demand signals following the summit, they still face persistent pressure from relatively low crop prices and elevated production costs in recent years.  These challenges have been further intensified by Trump’s tariffs and rising fertilizer costs linked to the broader conflict in the Middle East.

—Berkshire Hathaway had an active first quarter for stock purchases and sales as Berkshire got rid of all – or nearly all – of the equity holdings run by former manager Todd Combs.

A big question was which Berkshire manager decided to triple the Alphabet stake to 58 million shares on March 31, from 18 million at year-end.  That stake is now Berkshire’s fifth largest holding at $23 billion, behind Apple, American Express, Coca-Cola, and Bank of America.

It is believed the new investment in Delta Air Lines is likely the work of Berkshire manager Ted Weschler.  Barron’s said Weschler has a value bent, and Delta is the industry leader valued at around 10 times earnings.

Berkshire initiated a small investment in Macy’s, which is a purchase that could have been made by Warren Buffett.  In a CNBC interview on March 31, he was asked whether he was still “making new purchases” of stock as chairman.  He replied: “Got one tiny purchase.”

–The Trump administration has agreed to award $1 billion to International Business Machines Corp. to build a foundry for producing quantum computing chips, part of a broad strategy to bolster U.S. leadership in an emerging industry.

IBM will also invest $1 billion into a new business, called Anderon, which will produce the processors at an existing facility in Albany, New York, the company said in a statement on Thursday.

Shares of IBM rose a whopping 12% on the news.

—President Donald Trump’s latest financial disclosures show that he or his investment advisers made more than 3,700 trades in the first quarter, a flurry totaling tens of millions of dollars and involving major companies that have dealings with his administration.

The transactions were spelled out in more than 100 pages of documents filed last Thursday with the U.S. Office of Government Ethics.

In the first quarter, the president bought at least $1 million each in companies including Nvidia, Oracle, Microsoft, Boeing and Costco, according to the documents.

The disclosure reignited conflict-of-interest concerns.  Unlike his predecessors, Trump didn’t divest or move his assets into a blind trust with an independent overseer. His sprawling business empire is managed by two of his sons and operates in several areas that intersect with presidential policy.

At the same time, son-in-law Jared Kushner helps manage billions in investments for Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.

A spokesperson for the Trump Organization earlier said that the president’s holdings are independently managed by third-party financial institutions who have control over all investment decisions, with trades executed through automated processes.  Trump, his family members and his company play no role in making transactions, the spokesperson said.  They receive no advance notice of trading activity and provide no input, she added.

Of course, the president has made a number of policy moves that affect the publicly listed companies he traded.

One report said Trump made 94 different trades of “Magnificent Seven” stocks in the first quarter of 2026, executing millions of dollars in transactions even as he was meeting with and often promoting these top tech companies.

—Workers on New York’s Long Island Rail Road went on strike early last Saturday and it was looking like a lengthy walkout was underway, paralyzing the busiest commuter rail system in North America.  It was the first strike by the LIRR since 1994.

So Monday, 300,000 weekday riders needed to find other ways to get around the island and into New York City.

The LIRR labor groups were seeking a 5% boost, or close to it, to begin in June to keep up with inflation.  The Metropolitan Transportation Authority, a state agency that runs New York City subways and buses as well as the LIRR and Metro-North commuter lines, said that such a hike without savings on other labor costs would force it to raise fares more than anticipated or reduce service.

New York Governor Kathy Hochul (Dem.) said, “These unions represent the highest paid workers of any railroad in the nation, yet they are demanding contracts that could raise fares as much as 8%, pit workers against one another, and risk tax hikes for Long Islanders.  This is unacceptable.”

Negotiators then reached an agreement to end the strike later Monday.  Gov. Hochul in a statement said the deal “delivers raises for workers while protecting riders and taxpayers.”

—Ford Motor CEO Jim Farley, on his podcast, said America faces a massive shortage of skilled blue-collar workers.

“We are in a really vulnerable place – I would argue the most vulnerable we’ve ever been,” he said.

Farley went on to explain that the economy is entering dangerous territory as industries struggle to find enough electricians, plumbers, factory workers and construction crews to keep the country running.

Bottom line, higher costs will show up everywhere, from home repairs and car maintenance to grocery prices.

—Ray Dalio, the billionaire founder of the hedge fund Bridgewater Associates, gave graduates of Long Island University an invitation to learn transcendental meditation.

As part of the university’s centennial commencement ceremonies over the weekend, Dalio delivered the keynote speech and gave the graduates scholarships to the Transcendental Meditation Technique, which he learned while a student there in 1969 and called it the most valuable gift he could give them.

The Maharishi Foundation, a nonprofit that offers a Transcendental Meditation course, charges $980.

Dalio told the graduates that TM has positively influenced his personal well-being, decision-making, and professional achievements, according to the university.

Dalio said when he was a sophomore at LIU, “The Beatles went to India to learn to mediate, and they raved about it, so I learned to meditate, which has been invaluable to me.”

Foreign Affairs

Russia/Ukraine: Overnight Saturday, four people were killed in a large-cale Ukrainian drone attack on the Moscow region, Russian officials said.

Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said 12 people were injured in strikes on a city oil refinery. Russia’s military said 556 drones were intercepted.

Sunday night, Russia targeted eight regions of Ukraine in its latest nighttime drone and missile barrage, with local authorities reporting that the strikes wounded more than two dozen civilians.

Russian forces fired 524 attack drones and 22 ballistic and cruise missiles, President Volodymyr Zelensky said.

—Despite a dramatic campaign of Ukrainian drone strikes taking millions of barrels of oil off Russian balance sheets, Moscow’s oil revenues rose for a second consecutive month – albeit, not by much.

The International Energy Agency’s April report said Russia’s oil revenues increased by $180 million to $19.8 billion.  That is still lower than expected when combined with gas revenues, especially amid persistently high energy prices.  A relatively strong ruble and costly compensation payments to refiners have weighed on potential gains.

Owing to the crisis in the Strait of Hormuz, revenues in the year to April 2026 were a staggering $6.28 billion higher than the year before.

LNG exports to the European Union have reached their highest level since early 2022.  And the U.S. keeps extending a sanctions waiver allowing purchases of Russia seaborne oil.

—Editorial / Wall Street Journal

“Americans have their heads on swivels from the summit in Beijing to President Trump’s renewed warnings to Iran, and thus it’s all the more important to keep track of the Administration’s stealth retreat from Europe unfolding in the background.

“The Administration in recent days abruptly canceled a planned brigade deployment to Poland.  Members of Congress say they and Poland were blind-sided by the decision and that equipment for the deployment was already on the way when the Pentagon pulled the plug.  A Pentagon spokesman obfuscated the choice to the press in the language of a ‘comprehensive, multilayered process.’

“Abrupt exits from Europe are becoming a Trump Administration habit. The Pentagon last year yanked a rotational brigade from Romania, and this spring it said the U.S. will remove 5,000 troops from Germany out of irritation with how Berlin had handled the Iran war. Both decisions earned the Administration public rebukes from its GOP allies in Congress.

“ ‘Russia has invaded Ukraine,’ Nebraska Republican Don Bacon said to Army officials on Capitol Hill late last week.  ‘Have they given us any concessions to withdraw two armor brigades out of Europe as they’re invading Ukraine?  What concessions have they given us as we withdraw forces?’  You know the answer.

“No doubt Mr. Trump wants to punish Europe for its ambivalent (and at times unhelpful) response to the Iran war. But…Poland?  The Trump team’s refrain about ‘model allies’ who share the burdens of defense is meaningless if Poland doesn’t qualify.

“Warsaw holds the gold medal for North Atlantic Treaty Organization defense spending – 4.3% of its economy, according to NATO’s count.  President Trump was asked last year if he’d take troops out of Poland.  ‘If anything,’ he said, ‘we’ll put more there, if they want.’

“The cancellation is also inept politics.  The President has proposed a $1.5 trillion defense budget, but getting it passed will require a legislative Hail Mary of another GOP budget reconciliation bill. So why is the President provoking a brawl with the GOP defense hawks who will write those bills?

“The answer: Some in the Trump Administration wants to capitalize on the President’s frustration with NATO to stage a larger retreat from Europe, which they see as a peripheral security interest to the U.S.  They should have the candor to admit this openly to Europe, Congress and the American public, rather than do it in stealthy dribs and drabs.

“But Vladimir Putin is still attempting to grind his way across Ukraine, and though wounded he also keeps throwing more men and equipment into his conquest.  Meanwhile, the U.S. is dealing with a dug-in Iranian regime and whispering nice tiger to Beijing. It’s no time to look weak and halting in Europe.”

So, days after the Journal posted its editorial, President Trump reversed course and said he’s sending 5,000 U.S. troops to Poland, just weeks after he had ordered 5,000 troops to be pulled out of Europe, and U.S. officials confirmed about 4,000 service members were no longer deploying to Poland!

Trump back then told reporters that the U.S. would be “cutting a lot further than 5,000.”

But then this.  NATO was totally blindsided, despite a U.S. pledge to coordinate troop deployments.

“We’re going to stay well-synchronized with our allies moving forward,” NATO’s top military officer, U.S. Lt. Gen. Alex Grynkewich, promised on Wednesday.

China: Returning on Air Force One from his Beijing summit with Xi Jinping, President Trump said that the Chinese leader doesn’t want a war over Taiwan and that “nothing’s changed” in the U.S. policy toward it.

Trump cautioned Taiwan against formally declaring independence from China.

“I’m not looking to have somebody go independent,” the president.

Taiwanese President Lai Ching-te has previously stated that Taiwan does not need to declare formal independence because it already sees itself as a sovereign nation.

Trump earlier said he had “made no commitment either way” about the island.

Beijing has been vocal in its dislike of Lai, who it has previously described as a “troublemaker” and a “destroyer of cross-strait peace.”

Many Taiwanese consider themselves to be part of a separate nation – though most are in favor of maintaining the status quo in which Taiwan neither declares independence from China nor unites with it.

But when it came to the $14 billion arms package for Taiwan that Trump has yet to sign off on, the president described it as a “negotiating chip” with China, raising doubts about the pace and scale of American military support for the island.

Trump said he discussed the package with Xi and, asked by Fox whether he would approve the deal, the president said, “No, I’m holding that in abeyance and it depends on China.”

“It’s a very good negotiating chip for us, frankly,” he said.  “It’s a lot of weapons.”

His comments appear to undermine the assurances to Taiwan from some in his own administration that U.S. support for the island is steadfast and nonnegotiable.

Trump said the two leaders had made “fantastic trade deals,” without providing details.  Beijing said it had reached “new common understandings” with the U.S., but didn’t say what those entailed.

President Lai then weighed in on the summit in a Facebook post on Sunday.  He reiterated his (and his predecessor, Tsai Ing-wen’s) stance that there is no need to formally declare independence.

“Taiwan, the Republic of China, is a sovereign and independent democratic country,” Lai wrote, adding that “Taiwan’s future must follow the will of all the Taiwanese people.”

“Taiwan will not provoke, will not escalate conflict, but will not under pressure give up national sovereignty and dignity, as well as the democratic and free way of life.”

“Taiwan has always been a firm defender of the status quo on both sides of the Strait, not a party to change it,” Lai wrote.

He also said that Taiwan was willing to “promote healthy and orderly exchanges and dialogue with China on the premise of equality and dignity,” but it rejects China’s attempt at using “unification” as a cover to coerce Taiwan into dialogue.

Since 1982 the U.S. has assured Taiwan that it would not consult Beijing on arms sales to Taiwan.  But when asked about that commitment as he flew back from Beijing, Trump said the 1980s was a “long way.”

On Sunday, Lai thanked Trump for his “continued support” for peace in the Taiwan Strait, as well as the increase in arms sales to Taiwan.

“Given that China has never given up the use of force to annex Taiwan and continues to expand its military power to try to change the regional and cross-strait status quo, America’s continued sale of arms to Taiwan and deeper U.S.-Taiwan security cooperation is necessary and a key factor in maintaining regional peace and stability,” Lai wrote.

Wednesday, Lai said that if given the chance he would tell President Trump of his hope to continue U.S. arms purchases, which Lai called essential for peace.

In a speech marking his second anniversary in power, Lai said he would emphasize that peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait was crucial for global security, alleging China was the “destroyer” of the strait’s peace.

Beijing then accused Lai of “destroying cross-strait peace” after his speech.  The State Council’s Taiwan Affairs Office said Lai’s speech and subsequent remarks to reporters were filled with “lies and deception, hostility and confrontation.”

Thursday, Hung Cao, the recently promoted acting Navy secretary, told senators that the U.S. paused weapons sales to Taiwan to make sure it has sufficient firepower for the Iran war.

Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) pressed Cao and other Navy officials on why the U.S. appeared to be dragging its feet on the arms package to Taiwan.

“Right now we’re doing a pause in order to makes sure we have the munitions we need for Epic Fury – which we have plenty,” Cao said.  “We’re just making sure we have everything, but then the foreign military sales will continue when the administration deems necessary.”

Cao said Defense Secretary Hegseth and Secretary of State Rubio could ultimately make that decision.

“Yeah, that’s what’s really distressing,” McConnell replied.

On the issue of Jimmy Lai, the Hong Kong businessman imprisoned after his outspoken criticism of the Chinese government, Trump divulged how Xi responded to his inquiry about releasing Lai.

“I brought up Jimmy Lai.  I would say the response to that was not positive. He said that he’s been, you know, he said it’s been sort of his worst nightmare,” Trump told Fox News in an interview that aired Friday.

Trump said he spoke with Xi “at length” about Lai’s declining health as the media mogul remains in a Hong Kong prison under reportedly harsh conditions.

“I said, well, I would appreciate it if you would release him.  He’s gotten old and he’s probably not feeling too well, it would be nice,” the president told Fox News’ Bret Baier.

“I did not feel optimistic. I have to be honest with you about that one.”

—Russian President Vladimir Putin traveled to Beijing Wednesday for a summit with President Xi, the two praising the strength of their relationship as both countries seek to reinforce bilateral ties in the shadow of wars in Ukraine and Iran.

Putin said approximately 40 agreements from trade and technology to railway construction were reached, though the two sides did not reach agreement on a key gas pipeline project.

Addressing the Iran war, Xi said, “A comprehensive ceasefire is imperative, restarting war is even more unacceptable, and adhering to negotiations is particularly important.”

Editorial / Wall Street Journal

“The main rule of presidential summitry with an adversary is first do no harm. By that standard President Trump’s Beijing parley with Chinese leader Xi Jinping this week was a success.  It didn’t achieve much, but it also didn’t appear to give away anything notable to the wily dictator.

“We say ‘appear’ because we can’t be sure based on the few details leaking out from the parties.  Mr. Trump boasted about ‘fantastic’ Chinese purchases to come of U.S. soybeans and aircraft. But China didn’t confirm the sales, and by our count this is the second time China has bought the same American soybeans.  Or is it the third?  Mr. Trump also said the two now agree on Iran and the Strait of Hormuz, but there was no overt agreement with Mr. Xi.

“The good news is that the President doesn’t seem to have granted Mr. Xi’s wish that the U.S. allow the sale of advanced computer chips to China.  This is a Communist Party priority as it seeks to catch up with the U.S. on AI.  But U.S. firms can’t get enough such chips themselves, and there’s no reason to help China catch up faster to the U.S. leaders.

“ ‘We’re going to set up a protocol in terms of, how do we go forward with best practices for AI to make sure nonstate actors don’t get ahold of these models,’ said Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent about cooperation on advanced AI models.

“Nice thought.  But Mr. Xi promised Barack Obama that China would stop its cyber raids on U.S. companies and agencies, and China kept on stealing American secrets and embedding malware in U.S. systems. This attempt at AI arms control won’t amount to much unless the Trump team is as naïve as Mr. Obama.

“Mr. Trump also didn’t appear to bend to Mr. Xi’s threats on Taiwan, at least not so far.  He said the two talked extensively about Taiwan, and that he’ll soon make a decision on whether to keep selling arms to the island democracy.  If he stops arming Taiwan, Mr. Xi will have won the veto over U.S. sales that the Chinese leader has long sought.  It will send a message of weakness to our allies in the region.

“The U.S. President ladled his usual flattery on Mr. Xi as a ‘great’ and ‘powerful leader’ and said the two are now fast friends. The best we can say is that this is typical Trump behavior toward dictators, whom he seems to believe he can charm into good relations.  Mr. Xi’s restraint, by contrast, made it appear as if he viewed Mr. Trump as the beseeching party in the relationship.

“All of this fits Mr. Trump’s second-term desire to seek a stable relationship with China.  He is cultivating Mr. Xi as a partner now, not an adversary.  We’ll believe this is possible when Mr. Xi stops bullying his neighbors and stops trying to undermine U.S. interests any chance he gets around the world.”

Fareed Zakaria / Washington Post

“Regular readers of this column know that I have not been a fan of President Donald Trump’s foreign policy in his second term.  From threatening to seize Greenland and annex Canada, unilaterally raising tariffs sky-high to the fiasco of the Iran war, Trump has been reckless, chaotic and deeply destabilizing.  But he might well turn out to have the right instincts – and perhaps even the right policy – in one crucial arena: the U.S.-China relationship.

“In Trump’s recent interactions with Chinese President Xi Jinping, we saw a version of him rarely on display.  He was respectful, almost deferential, eager to emphasize their personal rapport. Xi, by contrast, remained formal, disciplined and never especially warm. The asymmetry was revealing.

“Trump is obsessed with power.  More than ideology or values, he thinks in terms of leverage and dominance. He insults European allies because he understands how dependent they remain on American military protection and access to U.S. markets.  Trump senses weakness and exploits it.

“But with China, he has come to understand something that much of Washington still struggles to accept emotionally: Beijing has enormous strength of its own – economic, technological, industrial and militarily – and can wield it effectively.  So Trump has evolved from belligerence toward a more complicated mix of rivalry and cooperation.  That may be what this relationship requires.

“Contrast Trump’s visit with the first meeting between Biden officials and their Chinese counterparts in Anchorage in 2021.  The Americans launched into a televised public scolding of China over human rights, cyberattacks and the international order.  China’s diplomats responded angrily in kind.  It was a less serious diplomatic exchange than a cable news shouting match.

“Many centrist Democrats live in fear of being portrayed as ‘soft on China.’  So they often overcompensate rhetorically, adopting maximalist language and escalating symbolic confrontations. After showing skepticism toward Trump’s China tariffs and promising to remove them, President Joe Biden kept nearly all of them in place. And Biden never visited China as president, nor did he invite Xi to Washington….

“Trump’s superpower is that he can’t be attacked from the right.  He came to power after the 2016 election railing against Beijing, blaming it for lost manufacturing jobs, trade imbalances and the United States’ industrial decline. In a sense, the analogy is not ‘Nixon going to China’ but rather President Ronald Reagan – the uber hawk, to the right of President Richard M. Nixon – going to the Soviet Union. Trump may be capable of a similar pivot precisely because his base will follow wherever he leads.  One need only look at how quickly many MAGA figures reversed themselves on intervention in Iran once Trump signaled support for military action.

“Why would a more cooperative approach toward China make sense?  Because the truth is that China is not the Soviet Union. According to one measure, the Soviet economy was smaller than Italy’s by the end of the Cold War. China, by contrast, is the world’s second-largest economy, the leading trade partner for more than 120 countries and a technological powerhouse in fields ranging from electric vehicles and batteries to drones, advanced manufacturing and artificial intelligence. It produces more manufacturing output than the U.S., Japan and Germany combined.

“Trying to launch a full-scale cold war against such a country would not resemble the struggle against the Soviet Union when the world was already divided. It would mean tearing apart the global economy itself. American consumers would face higher prices and supply shocks.  U.S. companies would lose access to one of the world’s largest markets.  Universities would lose many top students.  The danger would not simply be economic pain. It would be the creation of two hostile technological and geopolitical blocs spiraling toward increasing confrontation.

“Of course the U.S. and China are rivals.  That is unavoidable in a bipolar world.  They will compete economically, militarily and strategically for decades to come.  But rivalry need not mean total rupture.  In the weeks before he died, Henry Kissinger noted to me that leaders of both countries should keep in mind how in 1914, nationalist competition pursued with no concerns of its consequences led to a world war that upended the entire global order.

“In an age of artificial intelligence, cyber warfare and nuclear weapons, maintaining channels of cooperation is more important than ever. The two countries should compete fiercely while still trading, talking and collaborating where possible – on nuclear stability, AI safety, pandemic and financial crises.  During the Cold War, Washington and Moscow maintained arms-control talks even at moments of intense hostility because both sides understood that unmanaged rivalry could end in catastrophe.

“That remains true today.  And if Trump – for reasons rooted less in philosophy than instinct – has come to recognize this basic reality, then on this issue at least, his pragmatism makes sense.”

Cuba: The Justice Department indicted Raul Castro, the former president and defense minister of Cuba, on murder and conspiracy charges in the deaths of four people in 1996.  Castro, 94, was charged along with five others in the case.

The charges stem from the downing of two planes operated by a Cuban exile group that followed months of diplomatic wrangling.  Cuba’s president, Miguel Diaz-Canel, said that his country had acted in self-defense after its airspace was repeatedly violated by ‘notorious terrorists.’

The indictment, issued in Federal District Court in Miami, was an extraordinary escalation of the Trump administration’s multifaceted pressure campaign against Cuba’s Communist government.

Castro and the others are accused of killing the four people when the Cuban military shot down two planes in 1996 run by Brothers to the Rescue, a Cuban exile group that used aircraft to look for Cubans fleeing the country by sea.  Fidel Castro took responsibility for downing the planes shortly after they were shot down, claiming that the organization had dropped anti-regime leaflets over Havana in earlier flights.

When asked by reporters if the indictment was a prelude to U.S. military action in Cuba, Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche said that decision was up to President Trump and his foreign policy team.

Random Musings

–Presidential approval ratings….

Rasmussen: 43% approve of President Trump’s job performance, 56% disapprove (May 22).

A new New York Times/Siena poll found 64% of registered voters believe Trump’s decision to go to war with Iran was the ‘wrong decision.’  Just 30% believe it was the ‘right decision.’

The split among ‘independents’ is 21% right decision, 73% wrong decision.

On the economy, 33% approve of the president’s handling of the economy, 64% disapprove.

On immigration, 41% approve of Trump’s handling of the topic, 56% disapprove.

Trump’s overall approval rating in this poll is 37%, 59% disapproval.

A Fox News poll, released Wednesday, found that 39% of Americans approve of Trump’s overall job performance, while he received a record-high 61% disapproval.

The poll revealed that 77% of respondents believe the economy is in bad shape, as 73% said it is worse than last month.

In the survey, Trump’s approval rating hit all-time lows among Republicans (80%), non-MAGA Republicans (54%), white people (43%) and rural voters (43%).

A CBSNew/YouGov poll revealed just 29% of Americans say the U.S. economy is “good,” down from 34% in February.

Fifty-nine percent say gas prices have been “a financial hardship/difficult.”

Only 31% say they are “getting a clear understanding of the situation in the Strait of Hormuz.”

And only 27% approve of Trump’s handling of inflation.

Among Republicans, just 63% now approve of Trump’s handling of inflation, vs. 74% in March.

—Sen. Bill Cassidy was decisively defeated in Saturday’s Republican primary in Louisiana, unable to convince voters that he deserved another term five years after voting to convict President Trump during an impeachment trial over the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol.

Cassidy finished third, with U.S. Rep. Julia Letlow, who has Trump’s endorsement, and state treasurer John Fleming now in a runoff.

Letlow had 45%, falling short of the 50% needed to avoid a runoff, while Fleming was around 28% and Cassidy 25%.

“Our country is not about one individual,” Cassidy told supporters after his loss. “It is about the welfare of all Americans, and it is about the Constitution.”

Trump unloaded on Cassidy the morning of the election, calling him “a disloyal disaster” and “a terrible guy.”  The senator made a thinly veiled reference to the attacks later Saturday night.

“Insults only bother me if they come from somebody of character and integrity, and I find that people of character and integrity don’t spend their time attacking people on the internet.”

–In Kentucky, Rep. Thomas Massie (R) was beaten by Ed Gallrein, endorsed by President Trump, 55-45 percent.

Trump called Massie, whose big sin was a call to release all the Epstein files, though he also took a number of Libertarian stances, “the Worst ‘REPUBLICAN’ Congressman in History.”

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, in a highly unusual move, campaigned for Gallrein on Monday.  Even for Hegseth, who has stretched the boundaries of partisan politics in his job leading the Pentagon, it was an extraordinary breach of decorum for a serving defense secretary to campaign for a political candidate.  Pentagon officials typically stay far away from such activities to maintain the military’s apolitical image.

–In Alabama, retiring Sen. Tommy Tuberville clinched the Republican nomination for governor, setting him up for a rematch of sorts with the winner of Tuesday’s Democratic primary, former Sen. Doug Jones (D-Ala.).

Tuberville beat Jones in the 2020 Senate race and, though the Cook Political Report has labeled the race solidly Republican, Jones is a rare Democrat with past statewide success.

—President Trump on Tuesday endorsed Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton for Senate over incumbent Sen. John Cornyn, throwing an 11th-hour curveball into a vicious and tightly contested Republican primary, which is next Tuesday.

“Ken is a true MAGA Warrior who has ALWAYS delivered for Texas, and will continue to do so in the United States Senate,” Trump wrote in a lengthy Truth Social post.

Trump called Sen. Cornyn a “good man” but added, “he was not supportive of me when times were tough.”  He also said Cornyn “was very late in backing” his 2024 run for president.

Cornyn has been in office since 2022.

Republican senators were fuming with Trump’s endorsement of Paxton, the Texas attorney general with a checkered past.

“Oh boy,” said a visibly dismayed Sen. John Hoeven of North Dakota, as he left the Senate chamber after hearing of Trump’s announcement.

“Well, obviously,” he added, “I support Senator Cornyn.”

A stone-faced Sen. Roger Wicker of Mississippi refused to answer questions about the endorsement as he exited the chamber following a vote.

Sen. Lisa Murdowski, the Alaska Republican whose independent streak has often angered the president, said that she was “supremely disappointed” by Mr. Trump’s decision.

Then she said the endorsement could cost Republicans what had been considered a safe Senate seat.

“I think that this puts that seat in jeopardy,” she told reporters.

Majority Leader John Thune (S.D.) was also clearly pissed, and Trump’s decision amounted to a slap at Thune, an institutionalist like Cornyn.

“It’s his decision,” Thune told reporters, throwing up a hand in a gesture of exasperation.

We’ll see what happens next Tuesday, but it doesn’t look good for Cornyn, and that’s a shame. He’s my kind of Republican.

—Colorado’s Democratic governor granted clemency last Friday to a former county clerk convicted on charges related to a scheme to bolster President Donald Trump’s false claims that the 2020 election was stolen.

Gov. Jared Polis (D) has faced pressure and attacks from Trump aimed at eliminating the sentence given to former Mesa County clerk Tina Peters.

The president celebrated Polis’ decision with a social media post that said, “FREE TINA!” as election officials from both parties condemned Polis, saying he gave special treatment to someone who has undermined confidence in elections.

Polis’ clemency order will grant Peters parole on June 1, potentially shaving years off her prison sentence.

Polis, in a social media post, said Peters committed serious crimes but he believed she had been given too much time behind bars.

He argued that she had taken responsibility for her actions, but Colorado Sec. of State Jena Griswold (D) said Peters did not appear remorseful. “She really celebrated the fame that this brought her in MAGA circles,” Griswold said.

“Her actions have been repeatedly used to spread conspiracy theories, amplify falsehoods and fuel dangerous election lies,” Griswold added.  “This in turn has increased the threats to election officials and election infrastructure across our state.”

Matt Crane, a Republican and the executive director of the Colorado County Clerks Association, said that Polis “is bending the knee to the same political forces and conspiracy movements that are actively undermining confidence in our democratic institutions.”

—President Trump dismissed his $10 billion lawsuit against the IRS in exchange for an apology and the establishment of a $1.8 billion fund to compensate victims of federal government weaponization.

Anyone who believes they have been unfairly targeted by any administration could apply for compensation from the Justice Department’s new Anti-Weaponization Fund – including those charged in connection with the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot.

Trump, his sons and the Trump Organization are not entitled to any compensation from the fund, but will receive a formal apology.

Upon Trump’s return to office in January 2025, he vowed to end the weaponization of the government, saying in his second inaugural address: “Never again will the immense power of the state be weaponized to persecute political opponents – something I know something about.”

Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche testified on Capitol Hill Monday, and he faced scrutiny over the compensation fund. Blanche called it the “anti-weaponization fund” on Monday.

Blanche defended the fund, arguing it’s not limited to just Republicans. “There’s no limitation on the claim,” Blanche told senators, arguing anyone can apply for the “anti-weaponization” fund.

Sen. Chris Coons (D-Del.) pushed Blanche to commit to prohibiting Trump campaign donors or members of groups like the Oath Keepers from gaining money from this new fund. Blanche said he would not commit to that pledge.

Brian Morrissey, the Treasury’s general counsel, resigned from the position seven months after he was confirmed to it by the Senate and just hours after the Trump administration announced the fund on Monday.

Morrissey did not respond to requests for comment.

The Justice Department on Tuesday then expanded the agreement it reached with President Trump to resolve his extraordinary lawsuit against the Internal Revenue Service to include a provision that would bar the agency from pursuing tax claims against the president, his family or his businesses.

In a one-page document signed by Blanche and quietly posted on the department’s website, officials vowed not to pursue any matters, including those involving Mr. Trump’s tax returns, that are currently pending.

Two police officers who defended the Capitol on Jan. 6 (former Officer Harry Dunn and Officer Daniel Hodges) sued the Trump administration on Wednesday to try to block the creation of the fund they say will be used to reward the rioters and right-wing militia groups who tried to stop Congress from certifying the election results that day.

And then Thursday, Republicans postponed their plans to pass tens of billions of dollars in additional funding for immigration enforcement agencies after widespread frustration over the “Anti-Weaponization Fund.”

Majority Leader Thune acknowledged Thursday that Trump’s role in Sen. Cornyn’s and Sen. Cassidy’s races inflamed the reaction to the fund.

“I think it’s hard to divorce anything that happens here from what’s happening in the political atmosphere around us,” he said.  “There’s a political component to everything we do around here. So yeah, you can’t disconnect those things.”

Meanwhile, House Republicans called off a vote on a war powers resolution Thursday, brought by Democrats, that would rein in President Trump’s military campaign. But as it became clear that Republicans would not have the numbers to defeat the bill, GOP leaders delayed planned votes into June.

Just another sign of the slipping support in Congress for a war that Trump launched more than two months ago without congressional approval.

–This afternoon, Tulsi Gabbard resigned as director of national intelligence, saying she needed to step away as her husband battles cancer.  She is the fourth Cabinet official to depart during Trump’s second term.

Aaron Lukas, Gabbard’s principal deputy, will serve as acting director of national intelligence.

—The Democratic National Committee on Thursday released its long-hidden post-mortem examining Kamala Harris’ presidential loss in 2024.  The whole thing is a joke.

Or, as the Wall Street Journal opined:

“What’s missing is any discussion of the many obvious reasons Ms. Harris lost. The draft report makes no attempt to examine Joe Biden’s decision to stay in the race for as long as he did despite public evidence of cognitive decline, or to investigate the political consequences of the hasty handoff of the campaign torch to Ms. Harris, by resigned acclamation, without a party competition.

“Also absent is any discussion of the Democrats’ problems on the issues. The election showed that interest groups and party leaders are out of step with the general public on climate and transgender issues. The latter garners only a single, oblique mention when discussing Mr. Trump’s most effective campaign ad (‘Kamala is for ‘they/them,’ President Trump is for you’).  Israel and Gaza, which divided Democrats, don’t rate a mention.

“Presumably, this is because to analyze Ms. Harris’ loss convincingly, the DNC would have to explain to its progressive base that they’re the problem.  Which, in a way, is why anyone should care about this report.”

—The head of the World Health Organization expressed deep concern on Tuesday at the speed and scale of the Ebola outbreak, as the number of cases rises.

As of Tuesday, there were at least 500 suspected cases and 131 suspected deaths from Ebola since the new outbreak began in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said.

Tedros told members of the World Health Assembly meeting this week in Geneva that the “numbers will change as field operations are scaling up, including strengthening surveillance, contact tracing and laboratory testing.”

“I’m deeply concerned about the scale and speed of the epidemic,” Tedros said.

The WHO declared the current strain of Ebola a global international emergency.

Tedros then said Wednesday the risk of global spread of the outbreak is high at national, regional levels but low at the global level.

Fifty-one cases have been confirmed in Congo, “although we know the scale of the epidemic is much larger.”

He said Uganda has also told the UN health agency of two confirmed cases in the capital, Kampala.  “Beyond the confirmed cases, there are almost 600 suspected cases and 139 suspected deaths,” he said.  “We expect those numbers to keep increasing.”

Today, Friday, Tedros said the number of suspected cases in the Congo is now 750, with 177 suspected deaths and 82 confirmed cases.

This is not good.

Dr. Lena Wen / Washington Post

“Ebola is a rare but extraordinarily deadly viral disease, with an average fatality rate of 50 percent.  In some past outbreaks, as many as 90 percent of infected patients have died.

“Early symptoms such as fever, muscle aches and fatigue are nonspecific and mimic those of other illnesses.  Clinicians may mistake early Ebola for malaria, influenza or other more common infections, and may not use appropriate protective equipment and become infected themselves.  During the epidemic in West Africa between 2014 and 2016, which ultimately killed over 11,000 people, more than 800 health care workers became infected and two-thirds died.  That was a catastrophic loss for countries that already faced severe shortages of doctors and nurses.

“Later symptoms are terrifying. The virus damages blood vessels and disrupts the body’s ability to clot, leading to internal bleeding, multi-organ failure and shock.  Patients may vomit and cough up blood, bleed from their gums and rectums and leak blood from IV sites.  Severe dehydration and cardiovascular collapse then follow, eventually leading to death.

“While Ebola is not airborne, it is highly contagious through direct contact with bodily fluids such as blood, saliva, semen, vomit or diarrhea.  People can also become infected by handling contaminated bedding, clothing and other objects and by touching the body of someone who has died from the disease….

“So far, only about a dozen cases have been confirmed [Ed. now over 50] despite hundreds of suspected infections. This creates a major problem: As we saw in the early days of the Covid-19 pandemic, when testing becomes the bottleneck, many infections go undetected and sick patients continue to expose others unknowingly.

It also means the outbreak may be substantially larger than official numbers suspect.  That concern is heightened by conditions in Congo, where most cases have been reported in the deeply impoverished Ituri province. Some infected patients may never seek medical care and could die at home without ever being diagnosed, potentially infecting caregivers and family members.

“Past Ebola outbreaks have also been fueled by traditional burial practices in which guests unknowingly handled highly infectious bodies.  Compounding these challenges is Ebola’s incubation period, which can extend up to 21 days, so it could take weeks before infected individuals show symptoms….

“On Monday, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced an entry ban on foreign nations who have recently been in Congo, Uganda or South Sudan. But travel restrictions alone will not be enough, especially if the virus continues spreading across borders.

“The lesson from prior Ebola scares is that the best way to protect Americans is to stop outbreaks at their source. Tom Frieden, who led the CDC during the 2014-16 outbreak, warned that there are already more reported cases now than during the early days of the calamity. The world must focus on containing this outbreak before it spirals to anything approaching that scale.”

–There was an interesting piece in NJ.com (Star-Ledger) by Brianna Kudisch on Princeton University and its honor code.  Since 1893, the rule has been the same.  Students can be trusted to take their in-person exams without faculty members watching them for cheating.

But due to the rise of generative AI, the policy is changing.

On May 11, faculty members approved a new proposal requiring instructors to proctor in-person student exams.

Dean Michael Gordin said students and faculty members requested the change “given their perception that cheating on in-class exams has become widespread.”

“The ease of access of these (AI) tools on a small personal device have also changed the external appearance of misconduct during an examination, which is much harder for other students to observe (and hence to report)” he said.

But whereas in the past students were obligated by the Honor Code to report violations, now, due to social media deterring students from openly reporting their fellow students “out of apprehension of doxxing or shaming among their peer groups,” Gordin wrote in a letter to faculty, “there is no check against misconduct during assessments.”

Having instructors proctor exams won’t completely erase cheating, but it “will be a significant deterrent effect.”

–Among the temperature records this week for the entire month of May, Philadelphia hit 98, topping their previous record of 97 set from May 30-31, 1991.

Newark, N.J., 99, and Reading, Pennsylvania (97) tied their May monthly record highs Tuesday.

Boston (96) had its hottest May day since May 31, 1944, just one degree off the all-time May record from 1880.

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Pray for the men and women of our armed forces…and all the fallen, as we do not just Memorial Day weekend, but every week of the year.

Slava Ukraini.

God bless America.

—

Gold $4507…Silver $75.60
Oil $96.55

Bitcoin: $75,797 [4:00 PM ET, Friday]

Regular Gas: $4.55; Diesel: $5.64 [$3.19 – $3.55 yr. ago]

Returns for the week 5/18-5/22

Dow Jones  +2.1%  [50579]
S&P 500  +0.9%  [7473]
S&P MidCap  +1.8%
Russell 2000  +2.7%
Nasdaq  +0.5%  [26343]

Returns for the period 1/1/26-5/22/26

Dow Jones  +5.2%
S&P 500  +9.2%
S&P MidCap  +11.1%
Russell 2000  +15.6%
Nasdaq  +13.4%

Hang in there.

Have a safe Memorial Day holiday.

Brian Trumbore