The American market ended the week with a decline after new tariff threats from Trump

The American capital markets experienced a tumultuous day today against the background of new posts by President Trump, published before the opening of trading. These reports have increased concerns about the prospects for economic growth and added uncertainty to the development of tariff policy ahead of the long weekend. The first message contained a warning to Apple (AAPL 195.37, -5.99, -3.0%): if iPhones are not manufactured in the United States, they will be subject to a minimum 25% tariff when sold in the American market. The second post caused a much greater response — the president announced his intention to recommend a direct tariff of 50% on goods from the EU, starting on June 1, as “trade negotiations have reached an impasse.“

Against this background, a large-scale transition of investors to protective assets began, which led to a sharp decrease in the yield of 10–year Treasury bonds from 4.54% to 4.45%, and 30-year – from 5.04% to 4.98%. However, this did not calm the stock market: futures turned down, and the CBOE VIX volatility index jumped from 20.28 to 25.53. The Dow, Nasdaq, S&P 500 and Russell 2000 indexes lost up to 1.2%, 1.7%, 1.3% and 1.7%, respectively, while weak forecasts from retailers Deckers Outdoor (DECK 101.05, -25.04, -19.9%) and Ross Stores (ROST 136.99, -15.26, -10.0%) exerted additional pressure.

Some stabilization came after CNBC, citing a White House official, reported that the president‘s statements should be considered as an element of negotiating tactics, and not as decisions already taken. The source also noted that “the market is overestimating the importance of these messages.“

Meanwhile, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, in an interview with Bloomberg TV, said he was not concerned about rising yields. According to him, yields in other countries have increased even more, and the dynamics in the United States may reflect an upward revision of expectations for economic growth against the background of the adoption of the law on fiscal consolidation.

By the end of the day, the yield on 10–year bonds was 4.51% (+7 bps for the week), and on 30–year bonds it was 5.04% (+14 bps). By the close of the session, the VIX volatility index had dropped to 21.92.

The leaders of the decline were Apple and shares of other mega–stocks, which affected the sectors of information technology (-1.3%), communication services (-1.0%) and consumer durable goods (-0.9%). The Vanguard Mega–Cap Growth ETF (MGK) lost 1.1%.

The only sector that showed growth of 1% or more was utilities (+1.2%), traditionally a protective category in the face of market instability. The overall ratio of falling to rising stocks was 5 to 4 on the NYSE and about 13 to 9 on the Nasdaq.

Unlike the broader market, our American FTinvest 11 portfolio suddenly showed good momentum today, rising 0.25% immediately from the start of trading, and remaining in positive territory for the entire session. As a result, the index ended the day with an increase of 1.59%, broke the barrier by 740 and closed at 743.17. The total weekly gain was 1.83% against the S&P 500‘s decline of 2.61%.