U.S. Stocks End May with a Bang Despite Late-Day Drama

Hold onto your hats, folks! U.S. stocks wrapped up a wild and thrilling May with a mixed finish on Friday, clawing back from early plunges. Talk about a rollercoaster!

The S&P 500 barely budged but still racked up a whopping 6% gain for the month—its best May since way back in 1990. The Dow inched up 0.13% for the day, while the Nasdaq took a 0.3% hit after a heart-stopping 1.6% nosedive earlier in the session. Buckle up!

Over the month, the tech-heavy Nasdaq rocketed nearly 10% as those tech stocks just kept the momentum going. The Dow tacked on 4%. But Friday's chill close came on the heels of buzz about the U.S. tightening the screws on tech exports to China and a fresh round of trade jitters. Yikes!

Rumors are swirling that the Trump crew is planning to crank up export rules for subsidiaries of companies already on the naughty list. And just hours before, ex-Prez Trump took to social media to blast China for breaking their trade deal. Drama!

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent spilled the beans that talks with China are "stalled" and hinted that a Trump-Xi call might be the key to getting things moving again. Will they or won't they? Stay tuned!

Trump's Tariff Rollercoaster

And get this—while investors were chewing their nails over all that, a U.S. appeals court threw everyone for a loop by temporarily keeping Trump's tariffs in place, flipping a lower court's call. Talk about legal whiplash!

The powers that be are also mulling over a 15% duty for up to 150 days, thanks to the Trade Act of 1974. Can you feel the tension?

But hey, it's not all doom and gloom! Investors found a silver lining in cooling inflation. The Fed's fave inflation tracker—the core Personal Consumption Expenditures index—rose just as expected in April, easing fears of more rate hikes. Phew!

The only downer was health care, the lone S&P 500 sector to take a 6% hit for the month. But all the other big sectors ended May in the black, thanks to that cooling inflation and the unstoppable tech surge.

So, as we roll into June, the gains are holding strong, but watch out—trade policy could still throw a wrench in the works. Keep your eyes peeled, folks!