Stock Market Summary – May 30, 2025

US stocks generally traded lower on Friday due to renewed uncertainty surrounding US-China trade. Potential new restrictions on Chinese tech companies impacted the tech sector, creating a considerable negative headline for China-exposed companies. The Atlanta Fed’s GDPNow tracker, however, projects a positive gain of 3.8% for Q2, up from its previous estimate of 2.2% on May 27. The market anticipates updates from CrowdStrike and Broadcom next week.

Elon Musk led automaker Tesla noted strong increases for the month, with shares on track for more than 20% increase despite reportedly poor sales in China and Europe. However, the stock still trails about 12% for the year, and Apple is down approximately 21% year-to-date.

Following hedge fund Third Point’s 30th year milestone, its CEO Daniel Loeb highlighted the increasing importance of AI in investment decisions. Companies like Meta, Nvidia, Microsoft, and Amazon have built significant competitive edges in the AI space, and Loeb is also betting on AI benefiters like London Stock Exchange Group and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing.

In other news, President Trump is set to hold a rally at a U.S. Steel plant near Pittsburgh to deliver clarity about a merger with Japan’s Nippon Steel. It is expected that Nippon will close its acquisition of U.S. Steel at $55 per share.

Meanwhile, CNBC’s Jim Cramer expressed frustration over Friday’s lower market, mainly fueled by President Trump’s indication of a harsher stance towards China. Cramer, however, sees positive movements for two bank stocks, Goldman Sachs and Wells Fargo, due to their involvement in EOG’s $5.6 billion purchase of Encino and the end of a 2015 consent order with the OCC, respectively.

What was absent from the articles was specific numerical data on Dow, S&P, and Nasdaq, so I am unable to provide a summary of those indicators. The behavior, gainers, and losers for specific stocks were also not explicitly mentioned within the articles.

The stock market witnessed quite a bit of movement today. Wholesaler Costco gained more than 3% on fiscal Q3 results that exceeded analyst’s estimates, and beauty retailer Ulta Beauty shares jumped nearly 13% following the company’s announcement of a boosted annual profit forecast and high Q1 results.

In contrast, apparel retailer Gap’s shares plummeted 20% due to the company’s prediction of flat current-quarter sales from the same period last year, whilst expected to grow 0.2%, which weighed down on the Q1 earnings and revenue beat. Software company Elastic NV saw a decline of 12% after the full-year revenue forecast missed analyst’s estimates. Marvell Technology dropped 6% after its Q1 earnings failed to impress investors, while Regeneron Pharmaceuticals and Sanofi’s biopharma stocks dropped 18% and 5.6% respectively due to inconsistent results from late-stage trials for a respiratory drug.

Zscaler, the cloud security firm, exhibited a rise of 8% after their Q3 results beat analyst’s estimates, and Palantir Technologies advanced over 5% due to an expansion of ties with the government.

In other news, Zscaler shares rose by 9% after reporting stronger-than-expected results in Q3, driven by artificial intelligence and adoption of its zero-trust security platform. Revenues of the cloud security software company grew 23% to $678 million, increasing from $553 million from the corresponding period last year, surpassing the LSEG estimate of $666 million.

The stock market was also turbulent due to various factors including China breaching its preliminary trade deal with the U.S., causing the S&P 500 to waver despite strong weekly and monthly gains. This was further impacted by a federal appeals court ruling which allowed President Donald Trump to temporarily reinstate his “reciprocal” tariffs.

Furthermore, despite a strong comeback month ending with gains in the S&P 500, Dow Jones Industrial Average, and the Nasdaq Composite, there are warnings of potential disappointments in U.S. growth owing to household and corporate spending plans. Alongside, there are ongoing concerns regarding the normalization across multiple sentiment indicators.