BABA Jan 2026 135.000 put

New tariffs on China, meme rally, Walmart layoffs: Morning Brief

In today's edition of The Morning Brief, Hosts Seana Smith and Brad Smith break down current market trends and what you need to know for the trading day ahead. Stocks (^DJI, ^IXIC, ^GSPC) opened relatively flat on Tuesday morning following hotter-than-expected Producer Price Index (PPI) inflation data for April. Jefferies Senior US Economist Thomas Simons joins the show to break down the PPI print and what it signals for the Federal Reserve, believing there is a chance interest rate cuts may not happen this year at all. Meanwhile, President Biden is set to unveil a new wave of tariffs on Chinese imports, including electric vehicles, semiconductors, and precious minerals. Yahoo Finance's Jennifer Schonberger analyzes the sectors most likely to be impacted. Meme stocks like GameStop (GME) continue to soar in a second-day rally following the online return of user "Roaring Kitty" on X (formerly Twitter), who was largely responsible for the 2021 GameStop short squeeze. However, the retail sector is under pressure, as Walmart (WMT) is reportedly preparing to lay off hundreds of corporate workers and Home Depot (HD) posted first-quarter earnings that fell below Wall Street estimates, signaling a pullback on consumer spending. Shares of Alibaba (BABA) also sunk after the company posted an 86% loss in profit year-over-year. Tesla (TSLA) is backpedaling its recent decision to lay off most of its Supercharger team, as Bloomberg reports the electric vehicle giant is preparing to rehire some of them. Alphabet (GOOG, GOOGL) is expected to unveil new artificial intelligence initiatives in its Google I/O developer conference today. This post was written by Melanie Riehl