Good evening and welcome to Markets Desk, your end-of-day read on what's moving markets and the world behind them.
The Trump administration's trade posture remains front and center tonight. Despite Thursday's high-profile move to hold elevated tariffs in place against sixty economies, officials are signaling that more levies are still in the pipeline. Markets should not mistake a pause for a pivot — the broader trade architecture is still very much under construction.
Shifting to commodities, wheat gave back some of Thursday's overnight gains, with Chicago soft red winter contracts closing down as much as thirteen cents after touching multi-year highs. Kansas City hard red winter and Minneapolis spring wheat also retreated, though spring wheat held relatively firm. The complex remains elevated, and traders are watching supply fundamentals closely.
On the geopolitical front, Ukrainian drone strikes have dealt a significant blow to Wildberries, Russia's dominant e-commerce platform. Two distribution centers in St. Petersburg were destroyed Friday, with five additional facilities hit across the week. The attacks targeted infrastructure belonging to billionaire Tatyana Kim, raising serious questions about supply chain continuity inside Russia and the economic pressure campaign now extending well beyond the battlefield.
That's the tape. Markets Desk, signing off the floor.
