The Rundown - Trump Softens Stance on China Tariffs & Powell, Tesla Profits Drop 71%

Episode Date: April 23, 2025

Stock market update for April 23, 2025.

Public.com presents the rundown. Your daily market update in five minutes. My name is Zaid Admani, and today is Wednesday, April 23rd. In today's episode, we tell you the latest comments from President Trump that has the market soaring. We also dive into earnings from Tesla. The numbers were terrible, but the stock is still a big. Then stick around to the end of the show to find out how much YouTube would be worth today if it was a standalone company. That number is a lot higher than you think.

We got a great show for you today. Let's go. Stocks bounced back in a big way on Tuesday following the sell-off on Monday. The S&P 500 and NASDAQ were both up more than 2.5% yesterday, thanks to a big vibe ship from the White House when it comes to the trade war. Yesterday morning, the Treasury Secretary Scott Besson said that he expects a de-escalation in the U.S.-China-Terr fight. And then President Trump said something similar at the White House last night, saying that tariffs on China will come down substantially from the 145 percent level that they're currently at,

and that the U.S. is not going to play hardball with China when it comes to the negotiations. It'll come down substantially, but it won't be zero. It used to be zero. 145 percent is very high, and it won't be that high. It's not going to be that high. And then to add to that, Trump was asked about Fed Chair Jerome Powell, and he said that he has no intentions of firing him. I have no intention of firing him. So we got back to back good news on Tuesday.

The market's ripped higher and that momentum seems to be carrying over into today. I'm looking at the pre-market right now and I'm seeing green across the board. Now, no official trade deal with China or any other country have been announced yet. I mean, tariffs on China still haven't been reduced. So I still have my guard up, but this is definitely a change in tone coming from the Trump administration when it comes to tariffs and the trade war. So I think that plus the fact that Jerome Powell doesn't look like he's going to be fired is given investors a little bit of hope. We'll see how long the good vibes last. I mean, I think we're still going to have to see some sort of trade deals

be announced, but at least it looks like things are headed in the right direction. Let's run through some headlines. And of course, we have to start with Tesla earnings. The EV company reported earnings last night. And man, the numbers were absolutely terrible across the board. Tesla's revenues were down 9% to $19.3 billion. That missed Wall Street estimates by $2 billion. And their core business, you know, selling cars, that saw a 20% drop in revenue. And overall, the company saw their profits drop 71% to $409 million in Q1. I mean, just looking at the numbers, this might be one of the worst quarters that Tesla has

ever reported. Tesla is facing a ton of challenges right now. Their sales are tanking across the world because of the brand damage cost. caused by Elon Musk's involvement in politics. And now the company has to deal with tariffs, which they admitted is going to increase the cost of parts and impact their overall supply chain. In fact, Elon on the Arnings call said that he's not a fan of high tariffs and that he's given his advice to the president advocating for lower tariffs.

The tariff decision is entirely up to the president of the United States. I will weigh in with my advice with the president. I've been on the record many times saying that I believe. lower tariffs are generally a good idea for prosperity. So that's the bad news, but investors did get some good news on the earnings call. The biggest news being that Elon said he's going to be spending less time on Doge and more time on Tesla starting next month. Turns out being the CEO of a trillion-dollar company is kind of hard to do as a side hustle.

And some more good news, Tesla's energy business, which is the money they make from battery storage and solar, that grew by 67% in Q1. and Tesla said they're still on track to launch their Robotaxy Pilot program in Austin, Texas this summer. Oh, and Elon also hyped up the progress that Tesla is making on their humanoid optimist robot. So, you know, despite the disastrous Q1 numbers, Tesla stock shot up more than 5% after hours. I think that was a mix of the news that Elon is going to spend more time at Tesla and the overall market jumping after Trump said he plans to back off on Chinese tariffs and not fire Jerome Powell. So we'll have to see if this is a turnaround point for the company or just a temporary bump.

Let's talk about another company that's trying to turn things around, Boeing. They just reported earnings this morning, and the numbers weren't so bad. Boeing's revenue was up 18% to $19.5 billion, beating Wall Street estimates. Now, Boeing still lost $31 million in Q1, which actually isn't that bad when you consider the fact that they lost 10 times the amount in the same quarter last year. So they're making progress. The company delivered 130 planes in Q1, which is more than the 83 planes they delivered in Q1 of last year. And the company also won a major government contract to build the Air Force's newest fighter jet. So things are starting to look up for Boeing.

Their CEO, Kelly Ortberg, is calling 2025 the turnaround year for the company, saying that Boeing has half a trillion dollars in backlog for their products and services. The company is also looking to increase the output of their 737 max jets. Right now, the FAA has capped Boeing from only making 38 of those jets a month, but Boeing is hoping to increase that cap to 42 a month. If the FAA grants them that increase, that'll mean more cash coming in for the company. Now, there are concerns about the trade war with China and the tariffs impacting Boeing. Earlier this month, the Chinese government told Chinese airlines to not take any orders of Boeing jets.

So that's something to keep an eye on. But, I mean, overall, I can't believe I'm saying this. The vibes seem to be turning around at Boeing. Investors definitely seem to be noticing Boeing stock is up more than 6% today in reaction to these earnings. And the stock is up about 1% for the year, which isn't bad if you consider the fact that the S&P is down almost 10% this year. Let's talk about some stocks making moves today. A lot of green on the board this morning, but I wanted to shout out Kava. their shares are up after J.P. Morgan upgraded the stock with a price target of $150.

J.P. Morgan thinks that Kava can be resilient even during an economic slowdown, pointing to the potential for the food chain to reach 10% same store sales increase. Shares of Kava are up more than 6% this morning, currently trading north of $86 a share. So J.P. Morgan thinks the stock has room to run. I guess Kava is so good that people wouldn't be willing to give it up even during a recession. That's what J.P. Morgan thinks. Now, on the flip side, the pharma giant Bristol Myers not having a great morning after poor results from their recent drug trial. Bristol's drug, Cobbin fee, failed to show solid signs of helping patients with schizophrenia during a six-week period.

Shares of Bristol Myers are down more than 4% today on this news. Let's wrap the show with a fun fact. Today is YouTube's 20th birthday. The first video that was posted on YouTube is called Me at the Zoo. It was posted on April 23, 2005. And since that first video was uploaded, YouTube is now set to become the biggest media company in the world by revenue. I'm talking bigger than Disney, Netflix, and Fox. In fact, if YouTube was a standalone business and not under the Google umbrella,

it would be worth around $550 billion today. That's according to estimates from Moffat-Nathanson. So, yeah, YouTube, is an absolute juggernaut, and it's crazy to think that Google bought YouTube for just $1.6 billion in 2006. That's going to go down as one of the best acquisitions of all the time. Well, all right, guys, that's the rundown for today.

Hope you guys enjoyed today's episode. A lot going on in the markets right now. We're going to be staying on top of all this stuff and keeping you guys in the loop. So make sure you guys are tuning in every morning. And if you guys have like 12 extra seconds, consider giving us a five-star rating on Apple or Spotify, And if you're listening on Spotify, don't forget the vote in today's Spotify poll.

Leave us a comment on Spotify. Let us know if you think this is the start of the turnaround for Tesla or if their best days are behind them. All that engagement really does help us out and it helps other people find the show. Thank you guys so much for listening. Shout out to Mike and Connor for all the help behind the scenes. And we'll see you guys back here tomorrow. This is the rundown.

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