No “sell in May and go away” this year. In fact, the stock market has powered higher this month despite new and confusing tariff headlines lurking around every corner. President Donald Trump ‘s latest trade drama emerged Friday morning when he accused China of violating the preliminary trade agreement reached with the United States on May 12. Around noon ET, Bloomberg reported the Trump Administration was planning to broaden restrictions on Chinese tech companies. Later in the afternoon, at an Oval Office event to thank Elon Musk for his government service, Trump said he would be open to talking to Chinese President Xi Jinping. All this came after Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent described U.S.-China trade negotiations as being “a bit stalled,” during a Fox News interview Thursday evening. And, just a day before that, a U.S. trade court ruled that Trump had overstepped his authority by invoking an emergency law to implement far-reaching tariffs on foreign countries. The Trump administration, in turn, filed a notice of appeal shortly after, allowing the tariffs to remain in place until next week. “I get the sense the president doesn’t understand all the turmoil [he’s creating,]” Jim Cramer said Friday. He described the tariff situation as “pure chaos,” but said “the stock market is up.” Case in point: Although the S & P 500 was flat Friday on the trade policy confusion, the benchmark index is on track for a nearly 6% gain in May. The tech-heavy Nasdaq is poised to gain almost 9% for the month. Trump’s accusation against China on Friday is one of a laundry list of trade developments in May — some good, some bad. As for the positives, the U.S. and China agreed to a 90-day pause on the majority of tariffs imposed on each other’s goods on May 12. A few days before that, the president unveiled a broad outline of a trade agreemen t with the United Kingdom. The deal left in place Trump’s 10% tariffs on British exports but expanded agricultural access for both countries. The Financial Times reported Thursday that Britain will hold talks with the U.S. next week to expedite the process. On Sunday, Trump delayed the 50% tariffs on European Union imports until July 9. Only days earlier, he announced them with a June 1 start date. On the other side of the coin, Trump also threatened Club name Apple with a 25% or higher tariff rate on iPhones made outside of the country last Friday — demanding the tech behemoth move its manufacturing to the U.S. as soon as possible. That’s a tall order for Apple, given it makes most of its devices overseas. In fact, the majority are still produced in China. The company has been trying to move more and more iPhone production to India. So, given the erratic trade headlines over the past month, how is the market still managing its gains? Investors are focusing on signs of resilience in the U.S. economy instead, according to Jim. Job growth, for example, was stronger than expected in April despite worries about the impact…
Read More: Trump’s tariffs are ‘pure chaos’ but stocks are still up. Here’s why