Tariffs are just one weapon in a trade war newsthirst.

Tension in dual mandate
U.S. Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell on Wednesday expressed concern that the central bank “may find ourselves in the challenging scenario in which our dual-mandate goals are in tension.” The Fed aims to ensure stable prices and full employment. Economists, including those at the Fed, see threats to both goals from Trump tariffs, which are “likely to move us further away from our goals,” Powell said in a question-and-answer session.

WTO warns of world trade disorganization
“The outlook for global trade has deteriorated sharply due to a surge in tariffs and trade policy uncertainty,” the World Trade Organization warned in its latest “Global Trade Outlook and Statistics” report out Wednesday. Based on the tariffs currently in place, and including a 90-day suspension of “reciprocal tariffs,” the volume of world merchandise trade is now expected to decline by 0.2% in 2025.

Freight ships from China canceling trips
U.S. importers are being notified of an increase in canceled sailings by freight ships out of China: A total of 80 blank, or canceled, sailings out of China have been recorded by freight company HLS Group. The impact of the diminished freight container traffic to North America will be significant for many links in the economy and supply chain, including the ports and logistics companies moving the freight.

OpenAI eyes ‘vibe coding’ tool Windsurf
OpenAI is in talks to pay about $3 billion to acquire Windsurf, an artificial intelligence tool for coding help, CNBC has confirmed. Should a deal take place with Windsurf, it would be by far OpenAI’s biggest acquisition. Windsurf is among the tools, alongside Cursor and Replit, that developers have flocked to in recent months to “vibe code,” a term that refers to having AI models quickly assemble code for new software.

[PRO] Still confident on dollar: Piper Sandler
The dollar index, which measures the greenback against a basket of major currencies, fell last week to its lowest point since April 2022 amid heightened uncertainty from Trump tariffs. More alarmingly, the U.S. dollar is typically viewed as a safe-haven asset in times of volatility, so its weakening has raised concerns. Piper Sandler, however, is still confident on the currency — here’s why.

Wall Street banks just posted their biggest-ever haul from stock trading as the opening months of Trump’s tenure led to upheavals across asset classes, as institutional investors around the world position themselves for a new regime.

Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, JPMorgan Chase and Bank of America each notched record equities trading revenue in the first quarter, with the first three generating roughly $4 billion in revenue apiece.

Trump’s second time in office was supposed to be good for Wall Street’s dealmakers, the investment bankers handling billion-dollar acquisitions and high-profile IPO listings. Instead, deal activity has remained tepid, and the biggest beneficiaries so far have been sitting on bank’s trading floors.