By Jamie McGeever

ORLANDO, Florida (Reuters) - TRADING DAY

Making sense of the forces driving global markets

By Jamie McGeever, Markets Columnist

There was plenty of meaty news for investors to get their teeth into on Thursday - U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese Premier Xi Jinping's long-awaited phone call, a rate cut and guidance from the European Central Bank, and more soft U.S. labor market data. But the biggest market-mover of all? The public 'bromance' break up between Trump and Tesla CEO Elon Musk.

In my column today I look at Wall Street's remarkable recovery from the post-'Liberation Day' depths of despair. The headwinds haven't gone away, but the 'hopium' rally could still have room to run. More on that below, but first, a roundup of the main market moves.

If you have more time to read, here are a few articles I recommend to help you make sense of what happened in markets today.

1. Trump threatens Musk's government deals as feud explodesover tax-cut bill 2. U.S. stocks heal from tariff pain but trade news to keepmarkets edgy 3. Franc leading Swiss back to deflation vortex, assetstockpiling: Mike Dolan 4. Big central banks' forecasting lens gets fogged by U.S.tariffs 5. The world's auto supply chain is in the hands of a fewChinese bureaucrats

Today's Key Market Moves

* Tesla shares sink 14% after Trump lashes out at Musk,escalating a public spat between the two. Tesla shares are nowdown 33% this year. * The Nasdaq slides 0.8% and the S&P 500 falls 0.5%. * The dollar hits a 7-week low on an index basis. It's nowa whisker from taking out April's low and plumbing depths notseen in three years. * Sterling rises above $1.36 for the first time sinceFebruary 2022. * Silver hits a 13-year high of $36/oz, and platinum jumpsaround 5% to a 3-year high of $1,145/oz.

Trump-Musk feud sinks stocks

So, the Trump-Xi call to defuse trade tensions finally took place. The cynical view would be that it yielded nothing concrete other than an agreement to keep talking, suggesting China is standing firm and Trump may be forced into another major climbdown.

The more optimistic take, which investors initially adopted, is that the talks were constructive and cordial, evidenced by the tone of Trump's social media post and the fact that the two invited each other to visit.

But that's pretty thin gruel, and it wasn't enough to support Wall Street's initial gains. After hitting a record high for a second day, the MSCI All Country index ended the session flat.

Investor sentiment was soured by the latest weekly jobless claims figures, the second warning from the labor market in 24 hours after Wednesday's ADP private sector employment report. If these trends are reflected in May's nonfarm payrolls on Friday, markets could be in for a rocky ride.