Welcome back to The Daily Courant, your afternoon dispatch featuring Puck’s best new reporting.

First up today, William D. Cohan reveals how Wall Street insiders are processing Trump’s whiplash tariff reversals, the convoluted and contradictory public statements from his advisors, and the real existential question of the moment: Is there actually light at the end of the tariff tunnel?

Plus, below the fold: Leigh Ann Caldwell chronicles the decline of Elon Musk’s influence on Capitol Hill. Marion Maneker assesses the increasingly frothy market for David Hockney artworks. Dylan Byers reveals what John Malone’s departure from the WBD board portends for David Zaslav’s business. And Sarah Shapiro investigates the latest Gen Z retail trends and a curious Apple Pay casualty.

Meanwhile, on the pods: Matt Belloni welcomes music industry insider Dave Brooks on The Town to break down Coachella’s financials. On The Varsity, John Ourand and UTA’s Jerry Silbowitz illuminate how next-gen sports talking heads are cribbing from the Pat McAfee playbook. And on The Powers That Be, Peter Hamby gets Jon Kelly on the horn to dissect how tariffs are roiling the media business.

WALL STREET

Despite Friday’s modest market rebound, investor confidence remains shaky due to Trump’s on-again, off-again trade wars, with contradictory messaging from his economic team and flashing signals from the bond market compounding the uncertainty. But as Bill reveals, not all financial insiders are getting yippy, including Trump’s first-term commerce secretary Wilbur Ross, who frames the current volatility as part of a historic, if painful, realignment. Meanwhile, Chicago Fed president Austan Goolsbee offered a more cautious assessment at the Economic Club of New York, highlighting tariffs’ ability to foment a “stagflationary shock” that worsens both inflation and unemployment, presenting the Fed with an “Iron Triangle of Uncertainty” on whether to raise interest rates, lower them, or hold steady. Read Now

WASHINGTON

Elon Musk’s powers as a D.C. kingmaker appear to have deteriorated following his $20 million failure to put a Republican candidate on Wisconsin’s Supreme Court. Recent data also appears to support Musk’s waning political influence, with his unfavorability numbers rising across multiple polls. While some on the Hill remain loyal to DOGE’s chief architect, his declining mojo has helped catalyze a subtle but significant Republican resistance to Trump’s agenda on multiple fronts, from backing congressional control over tariffs to withholding support for proposed tax cuts. Read Now

ART

With the ambitious new exhibition David Hockney 25 opening at the Fondation Louis Vuitton in Paris, the 87-year-old artist has accomplished something rare: securing a second major museum spotlight just a few years after his career-defining 2017 Tate Britain retrospective. As curator Norman Rosenthal draws parallels between Hockney’s evolving career and that of Pablo Picasso, Marion examines the ties between the two artists’ markets. While Picasso’s $208 million in sales in 2024 dwarfs Hockney’s $150 million, the breadth and depth of Hockney’s work on display in Paris suggests he might be on the precipice of new heights. Read Now

MEDIA

A curious wrinkle emerged at Warner Bros. Discovery on Friday, with the announcement of cable cowboy John Malone’s shift from the company board of directors into a chairman emeritus role. Meanwhile, Malone’s mentee, WBD C.E.O. David Zaslav, saw his annual compensation increase to $51.9 million last year, even as the company is significantly less valuable than at the time of the 2022 WarnerMedia–Discovery merger. As Dylan notes, this dynamic offers unique insight into Malone’s methodology, which prioritizes support in his organizational operators, not stock performance. So what does his decision to step back from the business signal portend about Zaz’s stewardship of WBD? Read Now

FASHION

In this roundup of fashion intel, Sarah dives into two trends that are top of mind for retailers: the surprising comeback of trucker hats, and the gradual decline of traditional wallets. As Sarah notes, the trucker hat phenomenon, riding the wave of the Southern sorority aesthetic, is intermeshed with a rising consumer desire for customization. Meanwhile, the dominance of tap-to-pay digital wallets is affecting the sales of physical ones, with stores repurposing wallet display cases in favor of scarves and bag charms. These two developments underscore the larger impact of Gen Z on the retail landscape, whose tastes and preferences remain essential bellwethers for consumer behavior in every form and fashion. Read Now

HOLLYWOOD

It’s Coachella weekend, so Matt is joined by Dave Brooks, the senior director of touring at Billboard, to discuss all things music festivals. David gives us the latest on Coachella: how it’s been doing lately, how much money headliners make, and whether it’s still the most culturally relevant music festival in the world. They then go through a music festival power ranking, discussing which are on the rise, how the economics have changed, and where things are going. Listen Now

SPORTS

Jerry Silbowitz, the co-head of UTA Sports, joins John to discuss how next-gen talent are following the McAfee playbook—leveraging platforms like YouTube and TikTok to skip the corporate development ladder and connect directly with younger audiences—and how broadcasters like ESPN are reinventing themselves to get a piece of the action. Listen Now

MEDIA

Jon Kelly returns to chat with his great pal Peter about the impacts of tariffs on the media business—particularly the second-order effects on the S.V.O.D. industry. They also discuss CNBC’s moment and what it actually articulates about… Bloomberg’s business. Listen Now

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