President Trump today paused the sweeping reciprocal tariffs he had imposed this week on most countries, with one notable exception.

The impact: Stocks skyrocketed.

• The Dow soared nearly 8%, topping 40,000 points again.
• The S&P 500 index ballooned by more than 9%, with 10 stocks up more than 20% and only four down more than 1%.
• The tech-heavy Nasdaq closed up 12%, it's biggest one-day gain in 24 years.

The reaction in the bond market was more muted, however. Yields on 10-year Treasuries slipped following the announcement but remained higher on the day, at 4.35%.

Between the lines: "Although President Donald Trump was able to resist the stock market sell-off, once the bond market began to weaken too, it was only a matter of time," noted Paul Ashworth, the chief North America economist at Capital Economics.

• The so-called "Trump put" — the notion from Trump's first term that he would change policy if stocks or bonds had a bad reaction — is alive and well, Axios' Ben Berkowitz writes.

Yes, but: Even with today's rally, the S&P 500 is still down over 4% from where it closed on April 2, before Trump announced the specific tariff rates from the Rose Garden.

• And stocks are down for the year, with the S&P 500, Nasdaq, Dow and Russell 2000 indexes still all in the red.

Trump didn't back off fully with today's pause, keeping 10% baseline tariffs in place while "bespoke" negotiations take place with individual countries.

• Tariffs on China, meanwhile, were increased to 125%, with Trump blasting the country for retaliating to his initial levies.

The big picture: The president's global trade war has shifted, for the time being, to a U.S.-China trade war, though Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent declined to call it that when asked outside the White House.

Today's tariff pause was a big win for Elon Musk.

• Zoom in: The Tesla CEO and Trump confidante had become increasingly public in his opposition to tariffs in recent days. Besides their impact on the broader market, the levies had helped bludgeon Tesla's stock in recent weeks.

The impact: Tesla's stock went on a blistering rally immediately after Trump's announcement today, closing up more than 22% at $272.20.

• The stock has gained well over $100 billion in market capitalization since Tuesday, though it's still down about 28% year-to-date.

Go deeper

🚢 The White House reportedly reversed plans to put export restrictions on Nvidia's cutting-edge H20 chips. The move came after the chip giant pledged more U.S. AI data center investments. (NPR)

✈️ Delta Air Lines reported disappointing bookings as confidence wanes among consumers and companies. CEO Ed Bastian earlier today called Trump's tariffs "the wrong approach." (CNBC)

🧱Lego opened a long-planned factory in Vietnam. CEO Niels Christiansen said the company doesn't anticipate tariffs disrupting its supply chain: "We'll probably be able to cope pretty well." (Bloomberg)

Way back this morning, when widespread tariffs were sending companies and investors into a panic, the country's largest retailer vowed to hold the line on prices.

• "We believe we play an important role in society to keep prices low," said John Furner, Walmart's U.S. CEO, responding to a question about its plans, as Axios' Kelly Tyko reported from the company's investment community meeting in Dallas.

Context: Hours earlier Walmart had triggered headlines by stating the "range of outcomes for Q1 operating income growth has widened" due to several factors, including "the desire to maintain flexibility to invest in price as tariffs are implemented."

• For what it's worth, Walmart had maintained its guidance for full-year sales and operating income growth, and said its Q1 sales outlook of 3% to 4% growth remained on track.

The bottom line: This morning was a long time ago.