WSJ

Trump Administration Lays Out Roadmap to Streamline Tariff Talks

• The U.S. is looking to negotiate within the new framework with about 18 major U.S. trading partners on a rolling basis over the next two months, the people familiar with the matter said. The initial plan is for six nations to come in for talks in one week, six nations in a second week, and six nations for a third week of talks—an 18-nation cycle that would then repeat until the administration’s self-imposed July 8 deadline. At that point, reciprocal tariffs would hit nations that can’t reach a deal, unless Trump further extends his 90 day pause.

Pentagon Prepared Briefing for Musk on Top Secret U.S. Weapons for China War

• Top Pentagon aides were developing a briefing for Elon Musk last month on more than two dozen highly classified weapons programs for fighting China until the department’s top lawyer intervened, people familiar with the plan said.

Yahoo Finance

Tariff uncertainty creeps into tech earnings

• And with Meta (META) and Microsoft (MSFT) set to report their earnings on April 30 and Amazon (AMZN) and Apple (AAPL) scheduled to report on May 1, expect to hear even more about tariffs very soon.

• Google was far more tight-lipped about what tariffs will mean for its bottom line next quarter, outside of the de minimis commentary. That said, if tariff concerns begin to force advertisers to pull back on their ad budgets, Google could find itself in trouble.

Tesla stock surges 9.8%, clinches 18% weekly gain after DoT unveils new self-driving car rules

• “This Administration understands that we’re in a race with China to out-innovate, and the stakes couldn’t be higher,” said Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy.
• CEO Elon Musk said on the company’s earnings call this week that Tesla expects to be “selling fully autonomous rides in June in Austin, as we’ve been saying for now several months. So that’s continued.”

Reuters

China criticizes US for ‘recent abuse’ of tariffs

• People’s Bank of China Governor Pan Gongsheng said in a statement at the conclusion of the International Monetary Fund’s steering committee meeting.

China exempts some goods from US tariffs

• China has exempted some U.S. imports from its 125% tariffs and is asking firms to identify critical goods they need levy-free, according to businesses that have been notified, in the clearest sign yet of Beijing’s concerns about the trade war’s fallout. The dispensation, which follows de-escalatory statements from Washington, signals that the world’s two largest economies were prepared to rein in their conflict, which had frozen much of the trade between them and raised fears of a global recession.

CNN

China quietly rolls back retaliatory tariffs on some US-made semiconductors, import agencies say

• China appears to have quietly rolled back retaliatory tariffs of 125% on some semiconductors made in the US, according to details provided to CNN on Friday by three import agencies in the southern technology hub of Shenzhen, as Beijing tries to soften the blow of an ongoing trade war on its all-important tech industry. The exemptions apply to integrated circuits, also known as microchips or semiconductors, according to the agencies. They found out about the exemptions, which have not been officially announced, on Thursday.