The Rundown - Tesla Pauses Model S and X Sales in China, Meta Prepares for Antitrust Fight

Episode Date: April 11, 2025

Stock market update for April 11, 2025.

Public.com presents the rundown. Your daily market update in five minutes. My name is Zaid Admani, and today is Friday, April 11. In today's episode, we tell you about the latest tariff moves by China and how that's impacting Tesla's business. We also discuss a huge trial coming up that might break up meta. Then stick around to the end of the show for a recap on Big Bank earnings and why CEOs are sounding the alarm.

You got a great show for you today. Let's go. Well, the markets were back in the toilet on Thursday, giving back a big chunk of the gains from Wednesday's epic rally. The S&P 500 fell 3.5%. The NASDAQ was down 4.3%, and the Dow dropped more than a thousand points. I think once investors got over the euphoria of the 90-day tariff pause, they realized that there's still a lot of uncertainty right now

and some big economic changes. Like there's still a 10% tariff on all imports coming into the U.S. There's a 25% tariff on auto imports, a 25% tariff on steel and aluminum imports. And then not to mention the escalating trade war with China. Tariffs on Chinese imports have been increased to 145%. And then China has retaliated again by increasing tariffs on U.S. imports to 125%.

So this beef between the two largest economies in the world is fully on. and there's just a lot of fear and uncertainty around it. So yeah, the stock market still choppy. The bond market's still flashing some warning signs. And I think it's all leading to investors being pretty nervous right now. Next few weeks are going to be pretty interesting because we're about to enter into the thick of earnings season. Longtime listeners of the show know that I get hyped for earnings season.

This time it's a little bit different, though, because I don't think many investors care that much about what the Q1 numbers are. I mean, that's still important. But I think most people want to know how corporations plan to navigate. navigate this new economic tariff environment that we're in right now. We're going to be tuning into these earnings calls, and we'll let you guys know what these executives are saying, what the vibe is like. So it's a great time to get subscribed to the podcast if you aren't already. And we'll keep you guys in the loop on how earnings season goes over the next few weeks.

Let's talk about how this trade war with China is already starting to impact Tesla. Tesla has stopped taking orders for the Model S and Model X in China, according to Reuters. Because of the escalating trade wars between the U.S. and China, China has slapped U.S. imports with a 125% tariff. And the Model S and Model X are both made in the U.S. So both of those vehicles would have been subject to that tariff. I mean, that would make the car not competitive in China when it comes to prices. Tesla has already been dealing with intense competitive pressures in the Chinese EV market, especially from Chinese EV maker, BYD, which surpassed Tesla's sales in 2024.

So these tariffs are already having a new. noticeable impact on Tesla's business. I guess that explains why Elon Musk has been more critical of Trump's tariff policy, specifically calling out Peter Navarro, a senior trade advisor to the president. He literally called Peter Navarro a moron this week. But despite Elon's criticism, the trade war with China seems to be fully on. Let's shift gears to talk about a story that I feel like is not getting enough attention. Meta is about to go head to head with the FTC in court on Monday to prove that the social media giant isn't a monopoly. The FTC is claiming that META monopolized the social media industry through its $1 billion acquisition of Instagram back in 2012

and its $19 billion acquisition of WhatsApp back in 2014. Now, I remember when META bought Instagram for a billion dollars, everyone thought that they had overpaid at the time. I honestly don't think that Instagram would be as popular today if it wasn't for Facebook buying them back in the day. This is expected to be a pretty heat. trial. It might last for a few weeks. Mark Zuckerberg is expected to testify, along with major company executives from TikTok, Snapchat, Google, and more. They got to make a movie about this. Now, some things have changed at the FTC since the case was first brought up back in 2020. Lena Khan, Biden's previous head of the FTC is not there anymore. No, she was responsible for

bringing some big cases against big tech companies during her reign, including one against Amazon and Google back in 2023. But now the FTC is. led by Andrew Ferguson. He was appointed by President Trump. So we'll see how this ends up going. Now, rumor has it that Mark Zuckerberg has been really pushing to get on Trump's good side as of late. You know, Meta updated their content moderation policy a few months ago. They're moving to a community note style moderation, similar to Elon Musk's ex. On top of that, Meta invited Dana White, a Trump ally to its board of directors, followed by a multi-million dollar ad deal with the UFC. So we'll see if any of these gestures from Zuck will end up helping meta on this.

this case. I mean, historically speaking, Trump did have a lot of beef with META before his second turn began. Trump has even called META the enemy of the people during his presidential campaign last year. So we'll have to see which direction this case goes. I'm honestly, I'm surprised this story's not getting more buzz, because if META ends up losing this case, that could be a huge blow to their business. Let's talk about some stocks making moves today. A ton of big banks reported earnings this morning and their stocks are on the move. Let's start with it. with J.P. Morgan Chase, the biggest bank in the world. Their stock is up this morning after the bank beat earnings expectations

and saw their profits jump 9% to $14.6 billion. Got to give a shout out to their trading floor. They crushed it with trading revenues jumping 48% to a record $3.8 billion thanks to the recent market volatility. But CEO Jamie Diamond isn't popping champagne. He continues to warn about a possible recession. And he expects S&P 500 company earnings to drop this. year. But for now, investors like the earnings numbers and J.P. Morgan stock is up around 3% this morning

in reaction to these earnings. Let's talk about BlackRock, the world's largest asset management firm. They reported earnings this morning and missed on expectations with profits coming in at $1.5 billion. That's down 4% from last year. BlackRock didn't pull in as much money as they expected, but their assets still hit a record $11.6 trillion. BlackRock CEO Larry Fink is also sounding the alarm. He thinks the economy is headed for a recession, and that he thinks it might already be in a recession. So not really promising words. BlackRock has been expanding beyond just being a traditional asset manager. They're expanding to infrastructure and private credit. Remember, a few weeks ago, BlackRock said they were

acquiring a couple ports in the Panama Canal from a Hong Kong company. That deal is still in limbo, so we'll see how that ends up going. But investors like what they heard from BlackRock and their shares are up around 2% this morning in reaction to these earnings. Now, on the flip side, Wells Fargo stock, everyone's favorite bank, am I right? Their shares are falling despite the company beating earnings estimates. Their profits jumped 6% to $4.9 billion. But just like the other big bank CEOs, Wells Fargo CEO, expects a slower economic environment in 2025. Investors didn't seem to be as optimistic about Wells Fargo and their stock is down around 5% this morning.

The big takeaway here seems to be that every big bank CEO is expecting some sort of economic slowdown this year. That's not great. Let's wrap the show with the full. Fun fact. Retail investors have bought $11 billion worth of stocks since April 2nd. That's when Trump announces Liberation Day reciprocal tariffs sending the markets into a tailspin. Well, investors are taking advantage of the dip and buying up stocks. I mean, just yesterday alone, $4 billion in net purchases were made, according to J.P. Morgan. I think retail investors have been so accustomed to buying the dip over the last three to four years

that whenever the markets drop significantly, retail investors just instinctively buy. And if you're investing for the long term, it's generally a pretty good strategy. Now, I do wonder, does there come a point where retail investors end up getting too scared and stop buying the dip? That's when you know things are going to be bad.

I hope it never gets to that level. Well, all right, guys, that's the rundown for today. That's the rundown for this week. I think this week might go down as the craziest week of the last five years, pretty much since COVID. The stock market has been on an absolute wildest, roller coaster, we're seeing three to five percent moves every day. The bond market is acting all

crazy. I mean, you don't typically see stuff like that. Generally, I don't mind some volatility. You know, it gets the heart rate going. But I wouldn't mind a couple weeks of just a bit of calm, you know? I don't think I'm going to get that, though, especially with earnings season getting underway. But either way, we're going to be here every day keeping you guys in the loop of what's happening in the markets. Also, keep an eye on your podcast feed for our deep dive episode this weekend. I think you're going to really enjoy this one. A lot of people like last weekend's episode. Thank you everyone for all the great feedback. So we're hoping to follow that one up with another banger. Thank you guys again for all the support. Shout out to Mike and Connor for all the

help behind the scenes. And we'll see you guys back here this weekend for the deep dive. This is the rundown, your real-time resource for news events and trends in the markets. All views presented in the show reflect the opinions of the guests. You should not take any mention of a publicly traded security as recommendation to buy, sell or hold that security. Rounddown guests are not financial advisors and are not affiliated with public holdings or subsidiaries. You should make your own financial and investment decisions or consult. Respective professionals, learn more at public.com disclosures. In partnership with Zaidamani, brokerage services for U.S. listed, registered securities

are offered by Open to the Public Investing Incorporated, member FINRA and SIPC.