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Markets rallied on Friday as Washington and Beijing agreed not to escalate. Labor Day became the new line in the sand, and Section 899 was blindfolded and tied to a post, prompting traders to believe diplomacy might outrun duty hikes.

The change in percentages as of Friday, June 27, 2025 are as follows:

• Dow: +1.0
• Nasdaq: +0.5
• Nasdaq 100: +0.4
• S&P 500: +0.5
• S&P 400: +0.3
• S&P 600: +0.2

Stocks shook off a midday stupor for a final-hour dash, closing the week on a strong note. The S&P 500 and Nasdaq set fresh records, with tariff bears and oil bulls nowhere to be found—last seen muttering about mispriced risk before disappearing into the tall grass.

Start with trade: The US and China dusted off their Geneva handshake and affirmed a framework to implement May’s grand bargain away from trade-war maximalism. Washington will loosen a few screws, while Beijing speeds up exports of the minerals that make modern life scroll.

Canada, on the other hand, got shoved back down the stairs. President Trump nixed talks over Ottawa’s digital service taxes and promised to reveal Canada’s new tariff rate within a week. Odds favor higher—and a fresh nickname.

Treasury Secretary Bessent played good cop, stretching the July 9 trade-deal deadline to Labor Day. He also urged Congress to yank Section 899 from the big, beautiful bill—a Trumpian tool for retaliatory tax tantrums. “Greater certainty for the global economy,” he said, in a statement that sounded like Oppenheimer praising the disappearance of nuclear weapons.

Elsewhere in the 'House of Numbers and Nonsense,' inflation refused to cooperate with forecasts. Core PCE rose 0.2% in May, a tick hotter than the expected 0.1%. Personal income and spending both fell. The consumer, it seems, is finally running out of rope, or at least choosing not to lasso anything new with it.

The Fed may not mind. Minneapolis’s Kashkari reiterated his call for two cuts this year, with the first possibly in September—unless tariffs hit like a hammer instead of a flyswatter. Another fine entry in the two-handed economics genre: it’ll be fine, unless it isn’t.

Which brings us to Nike (NKE, +15.2%), poster child for not-great news that isn’t quite as bad as feared. Revenue fell 12%, tariffs will cost it $1 billion, and margins are set to shrink—but guidance for next quarter beat expectations. That was all Wall Street needed. If the swoosh can stomach the storm, maybe the rest of retail won’t drown.

And that was the day: China got coaxed, Canada got iced, consumers got cautious, and Nike got credit for running in place.

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