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Welcome back! Ben is out today through next week, so you’re stuck with me (Casey) for now. 

While he enjoys some well-deserved vacation time in Greece, let’s unpack what’s happening stateside. Here goes:

The breakup heard ‘round the world  

I was watching CNBC yesterday afternoon (and the French Open, don’t tell my boss) hoping to catch a glimpse of the NYSE exchange floor when Circle started trading, but a bigger story quickly dominated the newscycle. 

Fortunately for Circle shareholders, the political drama had seemingly no impact on shares of the newly-public stablecoin company. Trading under the ticker CRCL, the stock debuted more than 120% above IPO price. Demand was alive and well today, too, with more than 20 million shares traded before 11 am ET. 

Back to that other big story, though. The biggest bromance in Washington is, apparently, imploding. 

Yesterday, when speaking to reporters in the Oval Office alongside German Chancellor Merz, President Trump revealed cracks in his relationship with Elon Musk. 

"Elon and I had a great relationship,” Trump said. “I don't know if we will anymore."

If Merz was upset that his meeting in Washington was completely overshadowed by a public feud, he didn’t show it. I’d imagine he’s just glad he isn’t on the other side of Trump’s wrath. 

Trump’s issues with Musk stem from the tech billionaire’s comments about the “one big beautiful bill” Act, the sweeping tax and budget legislative package Trump is trying to get through Congress. 

The bill is the heart of Trump’s platform, but Musk isn’t a fan for a few reasons: 

1. The bill cuts electric vehicle tax credits. 

2. The bill doesn’t do enough to curb government spending. 

On that first point, we’ll never know if Trump would have won without Musk’s support, but I think it’s safe to say it certainly didn’t hurt. In Musk’s opinion, he spent enough time and money to secure some EV credits. Trump says he doesn’t owe the billionaire a thing. 

Because it’s 2025 and because Trump and Musk are who they are, the venue for the fight was, of course, social media. While Trump fired off “truths” on Truth Social, Musk took to X. 

In perhaps a sign that investors are growing more immune to political antics, US markets didn’t move as much as you may have expected. Well, safe for Tesla, which lost 14% on Thursday. The S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite indexes closed 0.5% and 0.8% lower, respectively. 

By Friday, though, US markets were back in the green, thanks to a better-than-expected May jobs report. The S&P 500 was trading 1.1% higher on the day at 2 pm ET while the Nasdaq Composite had gained 1.4% at that time. 

As for the current state of affairs between Trump and Musk, things are still rocky. Trump’s chief of staff told NBC today there are “no plans” for a call between the president and his (former?) bestie. The New York Times is reporting that Trump plans to sell the red Tesla he added to the White House’s fleet back in March. 

With midterms quickly approaching and Musk’s government contracts apparently on the line (per one of Trump’s threats yesterday), it seems advantageous for the two to kiss and make up. 

We wouldn’t be surprised if they both cool down over the weekend, although I doubt either man can resist posting for too long, so we’ll see. Either way, I’ll be back on Monday to unpack it all.

— Casey Wagner

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Happy Friday! Amid this week’s political drama, better-than-expected jobs data was the saving grace for markets. 

Here’s a recap: 

• The US trade deficit fell by a record amount in April, with imports losing 16% from March. Exports increased 3%, putting the trade deficit for the month at $61.6 billion. March’s figure was a record $138.3 billion. The biggest import declines were in autos and pharmaceuticals, per Commerce Department data.  

• The big data release of the week was May’s employment report, published Friday. It showed the economy added 139,000 nonfarm positions last month, a bit above the consensus expectation of 125,000 positions. Still, this is a decline from April, when nonfarm payrolls increased by 147,000. The unemployment rate in May stayed unchanged at 4.2%.

— Casey Wagner