US stocks edged higher on Friday as market sentiment improved following President Donald Trump’s comments suggesting progress on multiple trade agreements and a possible reduction in tariffs on Chinese goods ahead of key talks this weekend.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 111 points, or 0.3%, while the S&P 500 gained 0.4% and the Nasdaq Composite advanced 0.6%.

Tech and trade-sensitive sectors led gains, building on momentum from Thursday’s announcement of a preliminary trade deal between the US and the UK.

“Many Trade Deals in the hopper, all good (GREAT!) ones!” Trump posted on Truth Social, reinforcing investor optimism that the UK agreement could pave the way for more pacts with other major economies.

The UK deal is the first announced since the US implemented its sweeping “reciprocal” tariffs policy last month, and the 10% rate agreed with Britain is being viewed as a potential benchmark for future deals.

Investors are now closely watching the upcoming US-China negotiations in Switzerland, which will mark the first formal meeting since tariffs between the two nations escalated.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer will meet Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng in what could be a crucial step toward easing bilateral trade tensions.

Week to date, the S&P 500 is flat, the Nasdaq is on track for a 0.3% gain, and the Dow is up 0.5%, positioning for a third straight positive week.

Trump on China tariffs

US President Donald Trump on Friday floated the idea of an 80% tariff on Chinese imports ahead of scheduled trade talks in Switzerland this weekend.

In a post on Truth Social, Trump said: “80% Tariff on China seems right! Up to Scott B,” referring to Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, who is set to lead the US delegation alongside Trade Representative Jamieson Greer in talks with Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng.

The proposed figure would mark a significant drop from the current 145% tariffs imposed by the US on various Chinese goods, though it would still be well above historical levels.

China has responded with its own set of retaliatory tariffs, exceeding 100%.

The comment comes just days after the US announced a trade agreement with the UK, which included a 10% baseline tariff, well below the rate Trump has suggested for China.

Earlier this week, the president reiterated that American consumers are prepared to face higher prices and reduced product variety if it helps shift manufacturing jobs back to the US.

Despite expressing openness to lowering tariffs in the future, Trump’s latest comments suggest that any compromise with China may remain elusive in the short term.

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Lyft Inc (NASDAQ: LYFT) rallied more than 20% on Friday morning after reporting its financial results for the first quarter that topped Street estimates on most fronts.   

But factors beyond the numbers are contributing to the rise in LYFT shares.

For starters, the company’s board authorised a significant boost to the stock buyback programme.

According to Lyft, as much as $500 million of it will be executed over the next year.

The share repurchase plan indicates management’s confidence in what the future holds for Lyft stock through the remainder of 2025.

Lyft is not seeing signs of a consumer slowdown

Investors are cheering Lyft’s Q1 earnings release this morning also because David Risher, its chief executive, said the American consumer was not showing any signs of a slowdown yet.

Concerns of a potential recession in the back half of this year have been brewing lately in the wake of the Trump administration’s aggressive tariffs on friends and foes alike.

However, “our team is stronger than it’s ever been, and the consumer demand is absolutely there,” Risher told CNBC in a post-earnings interview on Friday.

Including today’s gain, Lyft shares are up well over 50% versus their low in early April.

Highlights from Lyft’s Q1 earnings release

On Friday, the ride-hailing giant reported a 13% year-on-year increase in gross bookings to $4.16 billion for its fiscal Q1.

Analysts had called for a marginally lower $4.15 billion instead.

According to the Nasdaq-listed firm, the total number of rides in the first quarter also went up 16% to 218.4 million, handily beating experts’ forecast of 215.1 million.

Lyft stock is up also because the San Francisco headquartered firm turned a profit (a cent per share) in its recently concluded quarter, a meaningful improvement from 8 cents a share of loss last year.

Note that LYFT is not a dividend stock, though.  

Is it too late to invest in Lyft stock?

The only metric on which Lyft disappointed in its fiscal Q1 was revenue that printed at $1.45 billion (up 14% annually).

Street was at a slightly higher $1.47 billion instead.

Still, Eric Sheridan – a Goldman Sachs analyst continues to see upside in LFYT to $20 on “a rapid cadence of product innovation in consumer offerings and rising driver supply affinity enhancing the forward growth trajectory.”

Sheridan is convinced that Lyft will benefit from self-driving vehicles as “AV operators and fleet owners continue to enter into partnerships in the coming years.”

Last night, Lyft guided for a further mid-teen percentage increase in ride bookings for its fiscal Q2.

All in all, the investment firm is bullish since the company’s stock price appears “dislocated from its earnings power in the next 2-3 years.”

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The Trump administration has significantly raised tariffs on aluminum imports this year to 25% to throw a lifeline to the domestic aluminum industry.

However, all that higher tariffs have accomplished so far is increased costs for American consumers, while the government’s primary goal of reviving local production remains in shambles.

According to industry experts, there’s one big reason why tariffs aren’t helping on-shore aluminum production – and that’s discouragingly high electricity prices in the United States.  

Why do electricity prices matter for aluminum producers?

A lack of competitively priced electricity in the US is a huge letdown for aluminum producers, as smelting is an energy-intensive process.

Higher energy costs have plagued the local industry for years, argued Ami Shivkar, an analyst with Wood Mackenzie, in a recent note to clients.  

Aluminum smelters get to benefit from “long-term energy contracts or captive power generation facilities” in Canada, Norway, and the Middle East.

However, the US is “at a disadvantage” in this space as it relies rather heavily on short-term power contracts only, he added.

According to the Wood Mackenzie analyst, energy costs for Canadian smelters stand at $290 per tonne versus a significantly higher $550 per tonne for their US counterparts.

Note that Canada exports more aluminum to the United States than any other country does in 2025.

Electricity demand from the tech sector is growing fast

Trump tariffs are failing to revive the domestic aluminum sector as a significant chunk of the US electricity capacity is now catering to the fast-growing demands of the tech industry.

Ever since the AI boom started in late 2022, these non-industrial entities have made it even more challenging for aluminum producers to access competitively priced electricity for the long term, said Trond Olag Christophersen, the chief of finance at Norway-based Hydro.

“The tech sector has a much higher ability to pay than the aluminum industry,” he told CNBC in a recent interview, adding in order for us to build a smelter in the United States, “we’d need cheap power. We don’t see the possibility in the current market to get that.”

Trump tariffs are resulting in a reshuffling of trade flows

While raised tariffs under Trump 2.0 are failing to boost domestic production, they have been and will continue to reshuffle the trade flows, argued Hydro’s Christophersen.

Since higher prices are making it less attractive to export aluminum to the US, producers are now exploring other destinations to export their metal.

For example, in recent weeks, Europe replaced the United States as the most attractive region to export aluminum for Canadian producers, he added.   

Note that the iShares US Basic Materials ETF (IYM), which covers aluminum through US stocks with a quarterly dividend, is currently trading at about the same level at which it started the year 2025.   

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Brazil’s CSN Mineração (CMIN3), the mining arm of steel giant CSN, reported a net loss of R$357 million (approximately $69.5 million) in the first quarter of 2025, a significant decrease from the previous quarter’s net profit of over R$2.0 billion ($389.2 million).

According to InfoMoney, the company’s downturn was primarily caused by exchange rate fluctuations affecting its foreign currency cash holdings.

Adjusted net revenue in Q1 was R$3.41 billion ($662.9 million), a 12.7% decrease from the fourth quarter of 2024.

The reduction was mostly caused by normal seasonality and significant rainfall, which hindered transit quantities.

Despite the quarter-over-quarter reduction, revenue increased by 21.7% year on year, thanks to improved operational efficiency and a more advantageous exchange rate scenario, according to InfoMoney.

Stable prices, rising costs

Unit net revenue was US$61.96 per ton, unchanged from both the prior quarter and year-ago quarter, which is consistent with relatively flat iron ore prices during the period.

COGS for 1Q25 were R$2.24 billion ($435.5 million), up 5.3% from 4Q25 due to increasing purchases of grade ore and high freight charges.

CSN Mineração achieved a strong cash cost per ton of US$21.0/t, a marginal (2.9%) increase q-o-q but a significant (11.0%) year-on-year improvement due to recent operational efficiency gains.

Gross profit for the quarter was R$1.17 billion ($227.4 million), down 34.1% from 4q24.

The gross margin fell to 34.4%, attributable mostly to a lesser dilution of fixed costs as volume fell.

However, compared to the same period the previous year, gross profit climbed by 28.4%, with a margin improvement of 1.8 percentage points.

Administrative and financial pressures

General and administrative expenses increased to R$57.6 million ($11.5 million), a 16.9% uptick quarter-over-quarter, driven by a one-off effect.

Nonetheless, despite a higher sales volume, these costs were 21.1% lower than those in Q1 2024, indicating a turnaround in cost control initiatives.

Equity income was R$37 million ($7.2 million), a decrease of 16.4% compared to the fourth quarter due to seasonality and lower rail logistics activity via the MRS railroad.

One of the reasons behind the quarterly loss was the impact of the weaker currency on CSN Mineração’s dollar-denominated cash reserves.

Shareholder returns of $252.8 million have been approved

CSN Mineração’s board approved a substantial shareholder distribution of R$1.3 billion ($252.8 million).

This included R$1.09 billion ($212 million) in interim dividends and R$210 million ($40.8 million) in interest under equity (JCP).

The business indicated that stockholders on record as of Monday, May 12, will be eligible for the distribution.

The payment will be finished by December 31, 2025, with the exact date to be revealed later.s.

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Shares of Expedia Group fell sharply by more than 8.5% on Friday after the company reported first-quarter revenue that came in below Wall Street expectations, signalling a slowdown in US travel demand.

The online travel platform posted revenue of $2.98 billion, falling short of the $3.01 billion expected by analysts surveyed by LSEG.

The decline marks a concerning signal for the broader travel industry, which had been hoping for a strong summer season.

Analysts attributed the weaker-than-expected results to economic pressures weighing on consumer spending, particularly in the United States, where Expedia generates about two-thirds of its revenue.

At least 13 brokerages reduced their price targets on the stock post the earnings announcement.

Large US presence adds to the drag as inbound travel is affected

Expedia’s performance reflects growing consumer caution in the face of elevated interest rates, lingering inflation, and geopolitical uncertainty, including the impact of ongoing trade tensions.

“It’s all just a bit more pronounced in the case of Expedia, with a bigger US presence than peers,” said BTIG analyst Jake Fuller.

According to Barclays analysts, the recent results confirm that US travel has entered a slower phase.

Piper Sandler said commentary around US inbound travel and the B2C business was “discouraging”, and suggested a “tough slog from here”.

The brokerage downgraded the stock.

“Expedia will continued to have balanced risk/reward profile due to its ‘outsized exposure’ to the US demand environment, which makes up around two-thirds of its revenue,” Wedbush said in a Friday note.

US demand has demonstrated the greatest signs of uncertainty of softer consumer spending in the near term, Wedbush analysts said, lowering its price target to $165 from $180.

Analysts caution that low Canadian inbound travel to the US could dent summer play

One of the most striking data points was a nearly 30% drop in bookings to the US from Canada.

Analysts at Truist highlighted that tensions between the two countries may have begun discouraging cross-border travel.

This slump is significantly steeper than the 7% overall decline in international inbound bookings.

Analysts warned that the geopolitical strain could further dent sentiment during the summer season, especially if diplomatic ties do not stabilize.

They particularly cautioned about Canadian inbound travel to the US, which took a hit even though souring geopolitics only took hold in the final weeks of the quarter.

Core profit margin likely to be met despite weakening travel demand

Despite the gloom, Expedia Group is expected to stay on course to meet its core profit margin targets despite signs of weakening travel demand, according to a note from Oppenheimer on Friday.

The investment firm pointed to the company’s disciplined cost controls as a key factor supporting its margin resilience.

Chief Financial Officer Scott Schenkel told investors during an earnings call on Thursday that the online travel platform now anticipates its full-year EBITDA margin will expand by 75 to 100 basis points.

That marks an improvement over its earlier forecast of a 50-basis-point increase, according to a transcript from FactSet.

Despite the improved profitability outlook, Expedia revised its revenue growth guidance downward.

Management now expects revenue to rise by 2% to 4% over the full year, compared with a prior projection of 4% to 6%.

For the current quarter, the company forecasts revenue growth in the range of 3% to 5%, along with a similar 75 to 100 basis point increase in EBITDA margin.

Stock performance hinges on the macroeconomic picture

While gross bookings missed forecasts, Expedia managed to deliver adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization above expectations.

The company’s business-to-business segment showed relatively stronger performance thanks to its wider international reach.

Still, the outlook remains tepid.

The company’s second-quarter and full-year guidance fell modestly below consensus expectations.

“While Expedia investors do value profitable growth, returning to a focus on profitable growth isn’t the messaging those investors want to hear right now, even if it is the right move,” Benchmark analyst Daniel Kurnos says in a research note.

There needs to be a better growth component to the Expedia story for the stock to really work, the analyst says.

“That said, it probably wouldn’t take much for shares to pick up some low-hanging fruit as long as the broader macroeconomic picture doesn’t get worse.”

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