The April 11 edition of the Bloomberg Evening Briefing Americas was mistakenly resent today. We apologize for the error.

The Trump administration over the weekend and again on Monday appeared to continue a piecemeal retreat from parts of its tariff war, all in the face of brutal market reaction, warnings from Wall Street chieftains, the risk of permanent damage to the US economy and now sinking poll numbers. At the same time, China—President Donald Trump’s main adversary in his trade fight—has been on the attack, most recently with restrictions on rare-earth minerals that could hobble critical industries in America and elsewhere.

Trump said he’s now exploring possible temporary exemptions to his tariffs on imported vehicles and parts, ostensibly to give auto companies more time to set up US manufacturing. Levies on auto imports have threatened to raise prices for American consumers and wreak havoc on auto supply chains, which are deeply integrated across the US, Canada and Mexico.

But with fresh new threats Monday about semiconductor and pharmaceutical tariffs, Trump’s confusing signals to markets are only accelerating as companies and trading partners grapple with how to engage. At least markets didn’t seem to mind the chaos—here’s your markets wrap. —David E. Rovella

What You Need to Know Today

As Trump sought to address fallout from his tariff step-backs, the Republican made news Monday when his administration effectively reaffirmed a decision to disregard an order from the US Supreme Court. The acceleration of the ongoing constitutional crisis involves Trump’s illegal deportation of a Maryland man, an El Salvador citizen married to a US citizen. The Supreme Court said Trump should “effectuate” his return, but Trump’s Justice Department said Sunday courts don’t have power over foreign policy. On Monday, Trump’s aides said it was up to the president of El Salvador. President Nayib Bukele, the self-proclaimed “dictator” of El Salvador, was at the White House Monday. He said no. Simultaneously, Trump reiterated his idea of sending jailed American citizens to the Central American country to be imprisoned there, a move which—except in rare circumstances involving naturalized US citizens—is illegal. 

Human rights groups have criticized Bukele for neglecting due process while some families say innocent loved ones have been imprisoned for crimes they didn’t commit. Hundreds of inmates have died in El Salvador’s overcrowded prisons, according to rights groups. Trump, 78, said he’s not concerned about human rights abuses at the Salvadoran jails, which last month received more than 200 migrants deported from the US, some under the 227-year-old Alien Enemies act. Trump paid Bukele $6 million to imprison the men and boys for a year. A Bloomberg investigation found the vast majority of them have no criminal record beyond immigration violations or traffic tickets.

Unlike Columbia University, Harvard University refused to accept a deal with the Trump administration two weeks after he threatened to halt $9 billion in funding. The university vowed it won’t “surrender its independence or its constitutional rights.” The White House has used allegations of antisemitism on campuses where students protested the war in Gaza to try and force changes that faculty, students and legal experts warn violate free speech guaranteed under the US Constitution and damage scientific research “in service of the government’s political or policy preferences.”

“Neither Harvard nor any other private university can allow itself to be taken over by the federal government,” Harvard’s lawyers wrote in a letter Monday to US agencies including the Department of Education. 

Goldman Sachs stock traders posted their highest quarterly revenue haul on record, riding a wave of volatility triggered by the global trade war. Equity-trading revenue rose 27% from a year earlier to $4.19 billion for the first three months of the year. The results build on the sector’s momentum from last week, when Goldman peers including JPMorgan and Morgan Stanley also notched record stock-trading hauls for the period. And they follow a record year for Goldman in 2024, when the New York-based bank lifted its revenue in the division by almost 50%. “While we are entering the second quarter with a markedly different operating environment than earlier this year, we remain confident in our ability to continue to support our clients,” Chief Executive Officer David Solomon said.

Mark Zuckerberg argued in federal court that his company’s social networks aren’t just about friends, taking the stand as the first witness in the US Federal Trade Commission’s antitrust trial against Meta. Allowing people to connect with friends and family “remains one of our priorities,” Zuckerberg said. However, “we’ve always been a service that lets you discover and learn about what’s going on in the world.” The FTC is seeking to break up the Facebook-owner, arguing that its acquisitions of Instagram and WhatsApp gave it an illegal monopoly on sharing with friends and family. Zuckerberg disputed the FTC’s allegations, arguing that Meta competes with a wider range of social media companies.

Movie and TV filming in the greater Los Angeles area declined 22% in the first quarter, reflecting a worldwide slump in production and California’s continued loss of business to other areas. Television production, the biggest part of the industry, fell 31%, while feature film production was down 29%. The size of the decline lays bare Hollywood’s retrenchment in recent years. TV production peaked in Los Angeles in 2021 at 18,560 annual shoot days. Since then, production has shrunk by more than half.

What You’ll Need to Know Tomorrow