“Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth sold off 23 stocks ahead of President Donald Trump’s sweeping tariff announcement and the ensuing stock market plunge in early April,” NOTUS reports.

“Hegseth reported selling between $100,000 and $550,000 in stocks on March 24. Those stocks included Microsoft, Apple, Amazon, Walmart, Lowe’s and about 20 other companies — almost all of which saw stock prices plummet after Trump’s April 2 announcement.”

“In the days before President Donald Trump suddenly paused most of the punishing tariffs on foreign countries he had revealed in early April, more than a dozen congressional lawmakers were tied to thousands of dollars’ worth of stock transactions, including significant purchases as the US stock market tumbled,” CNN reports.

“A growing chorus of advisers inside and outside the Trump administration are pushing another name to serve as the next chair of the Federal Reserve: Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent,” Bloomberg reports.

“President Donald Trump said Friday he would name a successor “very soon” to replace Jerome Powell, whose term as Fed chair ends in May 2026. The small list of candidates under consideration has included Kevin Warsh, a former Fed official whom Trump interviewed for the Treasury secretary role in November.”

President Trump  urged Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell to slash interest rates by a full percentage point, despite a better-than-expected result from the Labor Department’s latest jobs report, CNBC reports.

Reuters: “The feud, which exploded in spectacular fashion over the course of a few hours, pushed shares of electric vehicle maker Tesla down dramatically. The company, where Musk serves as CEO, closed down 14.3% for the day and lost about $150 billion in value after Trump and Musk began their war of words.”

Politico: “Trump-appointed regulators are nearing completion of a proposal that would relax rules on how much of a capital cushion the nation’s largest banks must have to absorb potential losses and remain solvent during periods of economic stress… It could be released in the coming months.”

“JPMorgan Chase Chief Executive Jamie Dimon delivered a dire warning for the markets, predicting a crisis unless the U.S. takes steps to address its spiraling national debt,” the Wall Street Journal reports.

Said Dimon: “You are going to see a crack in the bond market, OK? It is going to happen.”

“American Bitcoin, a new bitcoin miner backed by U.S. President Donald Trump’s two eldest sons, said on Monday it will list on the Nasdaq via an all-stock merger with Gryphon Digital Mining,” Reuters reports.

New York Times: “Stock markets jumped on Tuesday, with the S&P 500 posting its biggest gain in weeks. The index rose 2 percent in afternoon trading, which analysts attributed to President Trump’s delaying a proposed 50 percent tariff on the European Union that he had threatened only a few days earlier.”

“They also talked about tacos.”

“Or rather, the ‘TACO’ trade, which is short for Trump Always Chickens Out. The tongue-in-cheek term, coined by a Financial Times columnist, has been adopted by some to describe the pattern in which markets tumble after Mr. Trump makes tariff threats, only to rebound just as sharply when he relents and gives countries more time to negotiate deals.”

Victoria Guida: “As Republicans haggled this week over a tax bill that would add trillions to federal deficits, the long-term cost of financing the national debt surged. That wasn’t a coincidence — it was a warning. And it was as gently as the bond market is going to warn the U.S. that the path of the national debt is a problem…”

“In conversations with investors this week, I heard a new level of focus on the sheer volume of debt that Washington is set to pump out and, in some cases, real concern about how it will play out in markets. It was a shift from the perennial elite conversation, where the consensus has generally been that the debt is a worry, but not an immediate one. … Congress is not known for heeding gentle warnings.”

Gillian Tett: “When Republican congressmen first crafted their so-called ‘One Big Beautiful Bill Act’, some of President Donald Trump’s advisers dubbed it the ‘Triple B’ plan in internal meetings for brevity, or so I am told.”

“Future historians might well chuckle at the irony — and/or Trump’s lack of self-awareness. ‘Triple B’, after all, is also the tag that credit ratings groups use to designate the lower threshold of investment grade assets, before they become ‘junk’, with rising default risk.”

The Economist: “Complacent about being the world’s haven, America has been budgeting without any sense of restraint. Over the past year the federal government has borrowed a staggering $2 trillion, or 6.9% of GDP, even though no crisis has drained its coffers. On May 16th Moody’s, a rating agency, stripped the country of its last headline triple-A credit score. Yet on May 22nd the House of Representatives passed, by just one vote, President Donald Trump’s ‘big, beautiful’ budget bill, which cuts taxes and raises deficits. Reflecting the rising fiscal risk, the yield on 30-year Treasuries has risen to 5.1%, the highest since 2007, amid a sell-off.”

“America has more fiscal leeway than other countries, but the Republican Party seems determined to test its limits.”

Josh Barro: Trump is about to learn you can’t spin the bond market.

“The U.S. debt-and-deficit situation is bad and facing real prospects of getting worse, triggering a high-profile credit rating downgrade from Moody’s and another selling stampede in stocks and bonds,” CNBC reports.

“Whether the recoil in financial markets continues is largely in the hands of policymakers who seem intent on adding to the U.S. fiscal problems in the name of stimulating growth through President Donald Trump’s ‘big, beautiful’ spending bill.”

Bloomberg: Bond market warns Trump, Congress on dangers of swelling deficit.

New York Times: “Tax cuts pushed by the Trump administration are amplifying debt and deficit concerns among bond investors, a powerful group of market players who strongly influence how much it costs for the government to finance its budget. The buying and selling of government debt, known as Treasuries, also influences interest rates on a wide variety of debt extended to American households and businesses, including mortgages, credit cards and car loans.”

“Those investors were already on edge over President Trump’s whipsawing tariff policy. Then this week’s attempt to push through sweeping tax cuts without significantly slashing spending — in what the president has called a ‘big, beautiful bill’ — set off a fresh bout of bond market turmoil.”

Wall Street Journal: Dow futures fall, bonds extend selloff.

Wall Street Journal: “Investors sold U.S. government bonds and the dollar on Monday, after Moody’s Ratings late last week stripped the U.S. of its last triple-A credit rating, citing large budget deficits and rising interest costs. Adding to the nerves about America’s debt trajectory, the House Budget Committee approved a tax-and-spending bill Sunday that is projected to add trillions of dollars to those deficits.”

“Though stocks ended the session higher, selling pushed up yields on longer-term Treasurys, which rise when bond prices fall. The yield on the 30-year bond briefly topped 5% before settling just below that threshold, still near its highest level of the year.”