Catch up on the top industries and stocks that were impacted, or were predicted to be impacted, by the comments, actions and policies of President Donald Trump with this daily recap compiled by The Fly:
DEEPSEEK: After the Trump administration moved to restrict Nvidia’s (NVDA) sale of A.I. chips to China, it also is weighing penalties that would block DeepSeek, China’s artificial intelligence star, from buying U.S. technology and is debating barring Americans’ access to its services, three people with knowledge of the matter told The New York Times‘ Tripp Mickle, Ana Swanson, Meaghan Tobin and Cade Metz. The House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party has opened an investigation into Nvidia’s sale of chips across Asia to assess whether the U.S. chipmaker knowingly provided DeepSeek with critical technology to develop A.I., potentially in violation of U.S. rules, added the report.
IRS DIRECT FILE: The Trump administration plans to eliminate the IRS’ Direct File program, an electronic system for filing tax returns directly to the agency for free, according to two people familiar with the decision, Associated Press’s Fatima Hussein reports. The program developed during Joe Biden’s presidency was credited by users with making tax filing easy, fast and economical. But Republican lawmakers and commercial tax preparation companies complained it was a waste of taxpayer money because free filing programs already exist, although they are hard to use. Publicly traded companies in the space include H&R Block (HRB) and Intuit (INTU).
OBSCURE STOCKS: Trading in two obscure New York-listed stocks skyrocketed in the weeks before the companies announced the appointment of Trump family members to their advisory board, the Financial Times’ Paul Caruana Galizia, Ray Douglas and George Steer report, citing data and regulatory experts. Drone maker Unusual Machines (UMAC) almost tripled in the four weeks leading up to the announcement of Donald Trump Jr.’s appointment, while fintech group Dominari Holdings (DOMH) rose by 580% in the six weeks before disclosing Trump Jr and Eric Trump had joined its board. Regulatory experts said the timing and scale of the moves, which do nor appear tied to other announcements in the period, were “clearly unusual.”
STOCK MANIPULATION: Trump Media and Technology Group (DJT) sent a memo to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission that states in part, “This letter serves to inform you of suspicious activity related to a disclosure filed in Germany by the U.K.-based hedge fund Qube Research & Technologies. The following data points raise critical questions about the timing and methods used in Qube’s trading activities… The above factors, especially when combined with the history of suspicious trading surrounding DJT stock–including DJT appearing on Nasdaq’s Regulation SHO Threshold Security List continuously for more than two months in 2024–could be indications of the illegal naked short selling of DJT shares. We urge you to immediately investigate this suspicious trading and report your findings back to TMTG and any relevant civil and criminal authorities. American equities exchanges should be operated with full transparency and maximum efficiency, not as an opaque free-for-all reminiscent of a third-world casino.”
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PUSH BACK: Chris Krebs, a former Trump administration official targeted with a federal probe by the sitting president, will resign from his position at SentinelOne (S), saying he will fight back against what he called an unprecedented campaign by the government to punish dissent, the Wall Street Journal’s Josh Dawsey and Dustin Volz report. Krebs joins a small but growing list of universities and law firms aiming to push back against the president’s efforts to use the office to attack critics and opponents, the authors note.
AUTO TARIFFS: Ford Motor (F) told dealers in a memo penned by a top executive that was obtained by Automotive News that the company could increase prices on newly built vehicles next month if President Donald Trump doesn’t ease tariffs on automotive imports, reported Michael Martinez.
FEDERAL FUNDING PAUSE: In late January, President Donald Trump paused all awarded federal funds for clean school buses and although the Environmental Protection Agency, which is in charge of distributing the bus funds, has since started to release some of the money, the process has been slow-going and disruptive, according to Bloomberg’s Zahra Hirji, citing interviews with bus advocates, makers and dealers, and school officials. The EPA tells Bloomberg it “is not blocking any recipients from receiving funding” already awarded, but declined to comment on its plans for unspent resources, Bloomberg noted. Shares of Blue Bird (BLBD), a maker of electric school buses, were down in Wednesday afternoon trading.
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