By Emma Tucker

Ahead of a rally outside of Motor City, President Trump plans to soften the blow of his automotive tariffs so that carmakers paying the levies won't also be charged for other duties, such as those on steel and aluminum. In Silicon Valley, OpenAI's Sam Altman and Microsoft's Satya Nadella, the two CEOs who ignited the modern artificial-intelligence boom together, are drifting apart. And the 4 a.m. wake-up isn't just for supercharged executives anymore.

Today's Headlines

Trump's auto tariff plan will stop duties on foreign-made cars from stacking on top of other tariffs and eases some levies on foreign parts for cars made in the U.S.

Canadians kept the Liberal Party in power, entrusting Prime Minister Mark Carney to forge a new course for their economy and stand up to Trump.

American retail giants are trying everything to keep prices low in the face of tariffs but warn that the status quo can't last forever.

Merck is planning to build a $1 billion plant in Delaware to make U.S. supplies of its blockbuster cancer drug Keytruda.

Russia's spring offensive is under way as changing weather hardens the ground and increases foliage, conditions likely to hamper Ukraine's defenses.

Live From The Markets

Wall Street's biggest banks have sold the final slug of the debt they lent for Elon Musk's takeover of Twitter in 2022.

Expected rules on AI computing power could limit Nvidia's sales even to friendly countries-and give more opportunity to foreign rivals, write Dan Gallagher and Asa Fitch.

Read It Here First

OpenAI and Microsoft's Silicon Valley marriage is on the rocks.

Microsoft's Nadella and OpenAI's Altman helped each other become power players in generative AI. Now, that relationship has become strained. The CEOs are increasingly at odds over the computing power Microsoft provides to OpenAI, the access OpenAI gives Microsoft to its models and whether the Altman-led company's AI systems will soon achieve humanlike intelligence, Deepa Seetharaman, Berber Jin and Keach Hagey report.

Nobody has felt the office market's pain more than this guy.

Brandon Shorenstein became one of the biggest owners of office buildings under the worst circumstances imaginable. He was thrust into the top job of his family's real-estate company just as Covid-19 was sending the U.S. office market into its biggest tailspin since World War II. Peter Grant looks into how Shorenstein quickly learned to lead the real-estate powerhouse and his plan for getting it through the market crisis.

Expert Take

Q: Can Trump's tariff revenue replace income taxes for most people?

Trump has repeatedly teased the notion that his tariffs could finance major income-tax cuts, floating a huge change in how the government raises revenue and offering voters worried about tariffs a promise of future benefits. But there are a few big reasons to be skeptical of his claims, Richard Rubin reports.

A: Trump's existing suite of tariffs would generate $167 billion this year, assuming his "Liberation Day" levies return in full after the current pause ends, according to the Tax Foundation, a conservative group that favors lower tax rates and fewer tax breaks. That still wouldn't be nearly enough to eliminate income taxes on people making below $200,000, as Trump suggested this weekend. In 2022, the bottom 90% of -- those with adjusted gross incomes below about $179,000 -- paid about $600 billion in individual income taxes.

Are tariffs a revenue source or a way to get other countries to the negotiating table? Tariffs lowered after a trade deal can't be a stable revenue source that lets Congress eliminate or significantly lower income taxes.

Also, one important feature of the federal income tax is that tens of millions of households already don't pay it. Tariffs, on the other hand, ultimately apply to anyone who purchases consumer goods. Swapping income taxes for tariffs means trading a tax that most people pay for one that almost everyone does. That shifts the burden of government toward many lower-income households, not away from them.

See The Story

Here's what Trump has delivered in his first 100 days.

Trump's first 100 days in office have been marked by big, bold attempts to remake the U.S. economy, foreign policy and American culture. WSJ's Annie Linskey looks at how Trump has delivered on key campaign promises.

Happening Today

The S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller National Home-Price Index for February will be released at 9 a.m. ET.

The Labor Department will report on March job openings at 10 a.m.

The Conference Board will release its consumer-confidence index for April at 10 a.m.

Earnings: Coca-Cola, Pfizer, Honeywell, Spotify, Starbucks, Mondelez, UPS, PayPal, General Motors, Kraft Heinz

Number Of The Day:

39%

The share of executives planning to decrease their recognition of Pride this year, according to a survey of 49 senior company leaders conducted between March 27 and April 4 by Gravity Research, up from 9% who said they planned to change their Pride activities in an equivalent survey last year. Concerns about potential DEI investigations by the federal government are cited as the top reason. Forty-one percent said their overall Pride engagement wouldn't change.

And Finally...

The early wake-up is being taken to new extremes.

In recent years, the 4 a.m. wake-up has been the domain of world-striding executives and businesspeople. Tech leaders have adopted cold plunges, sauna sessions and intermittent fasting. And now, all sorts of folks are getting in on the action.

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

April 29, 2025 06:29 ET (10:29 GMT)

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