Due to Trump's frequent release of market-influencing news on weekends, Wall Street traders generally choose to hedge on Fridays.

On May 16, according to an analysis by Barclays Plc, the demand for Friday's portfolio rebalancing was enough to make it 31% more expensive to trade high-grade corporate bonds on Friday than at other times. Impax's Trzcinka said: "We did notice more market activity on Friday and you don't know what's going to happen over the weekend." In recent years, Friday used to be the cheapest day of the week to buy and sell bonds, but that has now been reversed. Barclays analysts Zornitsa Todorova and Andrea Diaz Lafuente wrote in a note that in March and April, investment-grade corporate bonds traded 18% of weekly volume on the last trading day of the week, up from 16% in 2023 and 2024. Since Mr. Trump's return to the White House, there has been a broader jump in activity across the market, with his often surprising policy decisions on tariffs, immigration and foreign affairs disrupting the economic outlook, as part of which Friday's quickened pace. Analysis by Bloomberg Intelligence analyst Athanasios Psarofagis shows that the average number of shares traded in the stock market per week in 2025 will increase by 37% compared to the previous four years, while stock volume on Friday jumped by 42%. At the end of last week, the reason for the jump was revealed, as Mr. Trump and his Treasury secretary released news on trade in quick succession, and by Monday, more official announcements were made and market conditions changed dramatically. The S&P 500 surged 3.3%, the Nasdaq 100 returned to bull market, and credit markets showed a sharp decline in investors' fears of default. Mark Clegg, a senior fixed income trader at Allspring Global Investments in Milwaukee, said Bascent's move was just the latest lesson in the importance of reducing portfolio risk ahead of the weekend. "No one wants to come in on Monday morning after a huge change in the market and try to correct a mistake," he said. He used Friday to "get rid of any extra risk". However, the increase in transaction speed and volume has not reduced transaction costs, especially for asset managers, who have been in a hurry to deal in recent weeks as the weekend approaches. David Schiffman, portfolio manager at Cantor Fitzgerald Asset Management, said: "Portfolio managers are forced to sell what they can, not what they want to sell. The lack of direction and certainty on an almost daily basis is close to the most extreme I've seen in my career." (Golden Ten)