Company Interview / the open: ASX to fall as Trump-Musk split

The local share market is set to fall at the open with ASX futures off by 13 points, as the ‘bromance’ between US President Donald Trump and Elon Musk appears to be over, as the two continue to engage in a public slinging match over Trump’s ‘Big Beautiful Bill’. 

On Wall Street, in an escalating war of words, Trump retaliated by threatening to pull government support for Musk’s companies, most notably with Tesla’s stock plunging 14%. 

The Nasdaq Composite was the worst performing major index, dropping 0.83%, whilst the S&P 500 and the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.53% and 0.25% respectively. Consumer discretionary led sector losses, ending down 2.47%. 

The US President and Chinese leader, Xi Jinping held a leader-to-leader call, inviting each other to visit their respective countries. Trump said there would be further lower-level US-China discussions and added that “there should no longer be any questions respecting the complexity of Rare Earth products. 

Oil was up amidst the news that the US and China agreed to more trade talks, as Brent crude oil futures rose 0.7% to $65. The Australian dollar rose slightly to US65.07c, whilst Bitcoin fell to a one-month low to nearing the $US100,000 mark. 

Looking at the day ahead, we have Eurozone GDP for the first quarter and April retail sales, and then May’s US non-farm payroll will be released.