Let's put some trade points on the board already/Pull forward auto sales/Interesting company comments

As the fate of many small US companies are in the hands of politicians that have thrown their businesses under the bus with little time to adjust, we can only hope that not only do the US/China talks start asap but there is an immediate articulation of what the end game will be, a quick deal will be had and tariff rates collapse from current levels. As many holiday ordering needs to be set by around June 1st, I'm guessing that is the soft deadline date for a ratchet down of this war.

In terms of other deals, I saw comments from the Japanese lead negotiator who said he sees a deal done in June. What was really interesting about these talks was the comment today from Japan's Finance Minister who said they can use their $1.2 trillion holdings of US Treasuries as leverage. He said, "It does exist as a card. Whether or not we used that card is a different decision."

Before I get to earnings calls, April vehicle sales totaled 17.27mm, about 100k more than expected. This follows the March read of 17.7mm and Wards Automotive said this, "Tariff-related buying lifted sales over the past two months to a seasonally adjusted annual selling rate of 17.6 million, well above the roughly 16.0 million they would have totaled otherwise. There was some indication that the surge was decelerating by the end of the month, probably due to tariff “exuberance” starting to dry up and because of a drain to inventory. There was more strength, in general, in demand for fullsize and luxury-segment trucks than for more affordable vehicles, including cars and small and midsize CUVs and SUVs."

From Amazon who saw revenues up 10% y/o/y:

"As always, we're working to keep prices low. And with this being an uncertain moment for consumers, it's even more important than it typically is."