U.S. job growth fuels a market rebound with all major stock indexes on the rise, President Donald Trump orders an end to taxpayer funding for NPR and PBS, and political unrest brews in Canada despite a fresh Liberal Party election win.
It’s Monday, May 5, and this is the news you need to know to start your day.
Morning Wire is available on video! You can watch today’s episode here:
If you’d rather listen to your news, today’s edition of the Morning Wire podcast can be heard below:
Trump Touts Economic Comeback
Topline: President Trump takes a victory lap as the economy shows signs of improvement.
After a tumultuous month, stocks are rallying following a better-than-expected jobs report and optimism about trade deals. In the last week or so, markets have taken a bullish turn. On Friday, the DOW, NASDAQ, and S&P 500 all jumped about a point and a half – the S&P saw its ninth straight day of gains, the longest streak in twenty years. Overall, the DOW is now within 2% of where it was when Trump kicked off his “Liberation Day” tariffs, while the S&P 500 and NASDAQ are higher than before. Markets have been fickle — there’s always a chance those gains are erased in a day or two — but this is a remarkable recovery so far.
Meanwhile, the April jobs report showed considerably more growth than projected. Economists expected 133,000 new jobs last month, but the number came in at 177,000 — 33% higher. Unemployment also held steady, and hourly wages saw a 4% increase from the same month last year.
It’s worth noting who those new jobs are going to: Under President Joe Biden, foreign-born workers added nearly four and a half million jobs, but over the same timeframe, the number of American-born workers fell. But in April, the number of foreign-born workers decreased, meaning the net job growth last month was concentrated among workers born in America. Job growth was also concentrated in the private sector, as government employment declined for its third straight month due to the efforts of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) project.
Markets also seem to be buoyed by reports that China may be willing to strike a deal with the United States to end the escalating tariff hikes that followed Trump’s Liberation Day announcement last month. Early last week, China was projecting an apparent willingness to dig in for a protracted trade war and weather the economic storm – the Chinese Communist Party said it was prepared to increase payouts for the unemployed, subsidize new housing projects, and incentivize its people to buy more domestic products. But on Friday, we saw our first major sign that Beijing was open to de-escalation, with the country’s commerce ministry saying, “If [The U.S.] wants to talk, our door is wide open.”
As a sign of that new willingness to strike a deal, the Wall Street Journal reported that Beijing is weighing a potential crackdown on fentanyl production as a show of goodwill, and has been reaching out for details on what the White House is looking for on that front.
Trump Orders Elimination Of Funding For Public Broadcasters
Topline: NPR and PBS threaten legal action after Trump ends their taxpayer funding.
President Trump signed an executive order Thursday to eliminate about $535 million in annual funding to NPR, PBS, and other public media. NPR and PBS vowed to fight the order in court.
President Trump has made it clear for some time that he is no fan of public broadcasting. Recently, he said, “Republicans must defund and totally disassociate themselves from NPR and PBS, the radical left monsters that so badly hurt our country.” He’s also said that taxpayer funding of media networks is “outdated and unnecessary” and “corrosive to the appearance of journalistic independence.”
In a statement on Friday, Patricia Harris, president and CEO of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, immediately shot back, saying that the private nonprofit authorized by Congress is not “subject to the President’s authority.” Harris said Congress authorized the funding, so only Congress can revoke it.
Paula Kerger, president of PBS, also issued a statement calling Trump’s order “blatantly unlawful.”
“This is probably the most difficult and serious threat in the time that I’ve been in public broadcasting,” Kerger told PBS News Hour. “This idea that funds that had already been put aside for public broadcasting would be taken away.”
Oh Canada…
Topline: Canada’s election season might be over, but the political drama is just beginning. Last week, Mark Carney led his Liberal party to a stunning comeback but fell just short of a majority.
The Liberal Party of Canada has been in power for nearly ten years. Last week marked its fourth consecutive win, with Mark Carney as Prime Minister. However, the party isn’t nearly as popular as that showing would lead you to believe – especially in the “prairie provinces,” where voters favored the conservatives by more than 2:1. Carney’s predecessor, Justin Trudeau, was so unpopular that he had to step down to avoid a total electoral blowout.
The Liberal surge in the polls happened around the same time Trump started floating the idea that Canada should become America’s 51st state. Many Canadians, particularly in Canada’s more densely populated east, rallied around Carney as “the best man to take on Trump,” but recent polling suggests that some Canadians would rather be part of the United States – or their own independent country – than remain in Canada under a Liberal government. According to polling from Angus Reid in early April, three-in-10 voters from Alberta and roughly 1-in-3 from neighboring Saskatchewan said that they would support leaving the country if Carney won – at least 20% in each province would have supported secession even if he lost.
For reference, Quebec – a province with a large, influential openly separatist party – also reported 30% support for secession from Canada. Québécois separatists have existed for centuries, and the Bloc Québécois has been a major force in Canadian politics for decades. By contrast, Western separatism is younger and less organized, and so far, it has been more of a grassroots phenomenon, but as of now, it appears to be just as intense.
Canada’s prairie provinces are younger, wealthier, less densely populated, and more dependent on resource extraction – mining, drilling, exporting oil. That’s put them into conflict with the federal government, which has taken steps to restrict the construction of pipelines and refineries. Former Prime Minister Trudeau went so far as to argue for phasing out the production of fossil fuels entirely before Western outcry forced him to walk that position back. Carney has also been a vocal advocate of net-zero policies and was a leading figure in the ESG movement (Environmental, Social, and Governance) when he worked in the financial sector. He was also an economic advisor to Trudeau, leading many skeptics to fear his government would be more of the same.
Last week, Alberta Premier Danielle Smith put forward legislation that would significantly lower the signature threshold for citizen-led referendums – as of now, that legislation has been tabled, and Smith and Carney are currently in talks, which are reportedly going well. However, the possibility of secession appears to be a piece of leverage, and as of now, it’s still on the table.
[#item_full_content]
[[{“value”:”
U.S. job growth fuels a market rebound with all major stock indexes on the rise, President Donald Trump orders an end to taxpayer funding for NPR and PBS, and political unrest brews in Canada despite a fresh Liberal Party election win.
It’s Monday, May 5, and this is the news you need to know to start your day.
Morning Wire is available on video! You can watch today’s episode here:
If you’d rather listen to your news, today’s edition of the Morning Wire podcast can be heard below:
Trump Touts Economic Comeback
Topline: President Trump takes a victory lap as the economy shows signs of improvement.
After a tumultuous month, stocks are rallying following a better-than-expected jobs report and optimism about trade deals. In the last week or so, markets have taken a bullish turn. On Friday, the DOW, NASDAQ, and S&P 500 all jumped about a point and a half – the S&P saw its ninth straight day of gains, the longest streak in twenty years. Overall, the DOW is now within 2% of where it was when Trump kicked off his “Liberation Day” tariffs, while the S&P 500 and NASDAQ are higher than before. Markets have been fickle — there’s always a chance those gains are erased in a day or two — but this is a remarkable recovery so far.
Meanwhile, the April jobs report showed considerably more growth than projected. Economists expected 133,000 new jobs last month, but the number came in at 177,000 — 33% higher. Unemployment also held steady, and hourly wages saw a 4% increase from the same month last year.
It’s worth noting who those new jobs are going to: Under President Joe Biden, foreign-born workers added nearly four and a half million jobs, but over the same timeframe, the number of American-born workers fell. But in April, the number of foreign-born workers decreased, meaning the net job growth last month was concentrated among workers born in America. Job growth was also concentrated in the private sector, as government employment declined for its third straight month due to the efforts of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) project.
Markets also seem to be buoyed by reports that China may be willing to strike a deal with the United States to end the escalating tariff hikes that followed Trump’s Liberation Day announcement last month. Early last week, China was projecting an apparent willingness to dig in for a protracted trade war and weather the economic storm – the Chinese Communist Party said it was prepared to increase payouts for the unemployed, subsidize new housing projects, and incentivize its people to buy more domestic products. But on Friday, we saw our first major sign that Beijing was open to de-escalation, with the country’s commerce ministry saying, “If [The U.S.] wants to talk, our door is wide open.”
As a sign of that new willingness to strike a deal, the Wall Street Journal reported that Beijing is weighing a potential crackdown on fentanyl production as a show of goodwill, and has been reaching out for details on what the White House is looking for on that front.
Trump Orders Elimination Of Funding For Public Broadcasters
Topline: NPR and PBS threaten legal action after Trump ends their taxpayer funding.
President Trump signed an executive order Thursday to eliminate about $535 million in annual funding to NPR, PBS, and other public media. NPR and PBS vowed to fight the order in court.
President Trump has made it clear for some time that he is no fan of public broadcasting. Recently, he said, “Republicans must defund and totally disassociate themselves from NPR and PBS, the radical left monsters that so badly hurt our country.” He’s also said that taxpayer funding of media networks is “outdated and unnecessary” and “corrosive to the appearance of journalistic independence.”
In a statement on Friday, Patricia Harris, president and CEO of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, immediately shot back, saying that the private nonprofit authorized by Congress is not “subject to the President’s authority.” Harris said Congress authorized the funding, so only Congress can revoke it.
Paula Kerger, president of PBS, also issued a statement calling Trump’s order “blatantly unlawful.”
“This is probably the most difficult and serious threat in the time that I’ve been in public broadcasting,” Kerger told PBS News Hour. “This idea that funds that had already been put aside for public broadcasting would be taken away.”
Oh Canada…
Topline: Canada’s election season might be over, but the political drama is just beginning. Last week, Mark Carney led his Liberal party to a stunning comeback but fell just short of a majority.
The Liberal Party of Canada has been in power for nearly ten years. Last week marked its fourth consecutive win, with Mark Carney as Prime Minister. However, the party isn’t nearly as popular as that showing would lead you to believe – especially in the “prairie provinces,” where voters favored the conservatives by more than 2:1. Carney’s predecessor, Justin Trudeau, was so unpopular that he had to step down to avoid a total electoral blowout.
The Liberal surge in the polls happened around the same time Trump started floating the idea that Canada should become America’s 51st state. Many Canadians, particularly in Canada’s more densely populated east, rallied around Carney as “the best man to take on Trump,” but recent polling suggests that some Canadians would rather be part of the United States – or their own independent country – than remain in Canada under a Liberal government. According to polling from Angus Reid in early April, three-in-10 voters from Alberta and roughly 1-in-3 from neighboring Saskatchewan said that they would support leaving the country if Carney won – at least 20% in each province would have supported secession even if he lost.
For reference, Quebec – a province with a large, influential openly separatist party – also reported 30% support for secession from Canada. Québécois separatists have existed for centuries, and the Bloc Québécois has been a major force in Canadian politics for decades. By contrast, Western separatism is younger and less organized, and so far, it has been more of a grassroots phenomenon, but as of now, it appears to be just as intense.
Canada’s prairie provinces are younger, wealthier, less densely populated, and more dependent on resource extraction – mining, drilling, exporting oil. That’s put them into conflict with the federal government, which has taken steps to restrict the construction of pipelines and refineries. Former Prime Minister Trudeau went so far as to argue for phasing out the production of fossil fuels entirely before Western outcry forced him to walk that position back. Carney has also been a vocal advocate of net-zero policies and was a leading figure in the ESG movement (Environmental, Social, and Governance) when he worked in the financial sector. He was also an economic advisor to Trudeau, leading many skeptics to fear his government would be more of the same.
Last week, Alberta Premier Danielle Smith put forward legislation that would significantly lower the signature threshold for citizen-led referendums – as of now, that legislation has been tabled, and Smith and Carney are currently in talks, which are reportedly going well. However, the possibility of secession appears to be a piece of leverage, and as of now, it’s still on the table.
“}]]
