What's moving markets today: Uber IPO and tariffs

There was a lot of buzz on Wall Street about Uber’s (UBER) IPO on Friday. But investors on Main Street don’t seem as enthused.

Shawn Cruz, manager of trader strategies for TD Ameritrade, told me from the floor of the NYSE that he was seeing “decent demand” for Uber stock -- but not nearly as much as there was for Facebook (FB) and Alibaba (BABA) when they went public.

But that might be a good thing. Unlike Uber rival Lyft (LYFT), which raised its price range and then priced at the top end of it, Uber appears to be going public at a more reasonable valuation.

Uber vs. Lyft

Cruz added that Uber might fare better than Lyft — and not just because it is bigger.

Rapidly growing Uber Eats is a big selling point for Uber. Cruz thinks Uber deserves a valuation closer to delivery giant GrubHub (GRUB) as a result.

We're still waiting for Uber's first trade. What will it start at? This could be a hint.

Consumer price inflation for April stood at 2% year-over-year -- ticking up from 1.9% to match the Federal Reserve's inflation target, but undercutting expectations for 2.1% inflation.

President Donald Trump, who has been vocal about his wish the central bank would lower interest rates to stimulate the economy, called the CPI release "really good, very low inflation" in a tweet.

Still, market expectations and presidential hopes for an interest rate cut might be misplaced, according to James Smith, developed markets economist at ING.

According to Smith, the strength in wage growth will gradually put pressure on inflation as the tightness in the job market means companies are increasing pay to retain staff.

In its latest policy update, Fed Chairman Jerome Powell said a weakening in inflation was due to "transitory" factors. All eyes will now be on next month's numbers.

Travis Kalanick, Uber's co-founder and former CEO, was not part of the group of insiders that got to ring the opening bell at the New York Stock Exchange as the company made its Wall Street debut.

More than anyone else, Travis Kalanick built Uber (UBER) into a global force through a mix of aggressive fundraising and a take-no-prisoners approach to growth.

But Kalanick was ultimately ousted from his role as CEO in June 2017 after a series of PR crises at the company. He later clashed with members of Uber's board.

At Uber's IPO price, Kalanick's remaining stake in the company is worth $5.3 billion.

While Kalanick wasn't ringing the bell, he was still at the stock exchange. He watched the Uber festivities from the gallery, not the floor, leaving about an hour after markets started trading.

US stocks dropped at the open after additional tariffs on Chinese import goods climbed to 25% from 10% just after midnight.

Lyft (LYFT) rose 2.2% at the open, as investors are awaiting Uber’s first trade today. Uber (UBER) priced its IPO at $45 per share on Thursday.

Shares of Chinese e-commerce company JD.com (JD) rallied 9.6%, after the company reported better than expected earnings.

Uber and Lyft may look similar, but their ambitions are different. Lyft wants to be a consumer transportation company; Uber wants to be more like Amazon.

Like Amazon, Uber is trying to branch into a broad range of services. The short list includes ride hailing, meal deliveries, freight shipping and even renting out kitchen space. Uber has explored a wider, and arguably flashier, range of transportation options, including boats, helicopters and flying cars.

To help explain Uber's strategy, the company has repeatedly compared itself to Amazon: "Cars are to us what books are to Amazon," Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi said at one event last February.

A few months later, Khosrowshahi declared that Uber wants to be "the Amazon for transportation."

Uber ended up pricing its initial public offering more conservatively than expected in part because of the lackluster reception on Wall Street to its chief US rival, Lyft.

Lyft shares fell below its IPO price on its second day of trading and have continued to tumble since. The stock is now down nearly 25% from the IPO price in late March.

Dow futures are pointing to a lower open on Friday after the United States introduced additional tariffs on Chinese imports.

Stock futures for the Dow, S&P 500 and Nasdaq are all in the red, down around 0.5%. The S&P and Nasdaq have closed lower for the past four days in a row. For the week, the three stock indexes are all down more than 2.5%.

In the latest development in the China-US trade spat, American tariffs on $200 billion worth of Chinese goods increased from 10% to 25% at 12:01 am ET on Friday.

Beijing expressed "deep regret over the development" and reiterated that the possibility of retaliatory sanctions.

Read the whole story ahead of the market open here.

Uber just completed one of the largest technology IPOs ever. Here are the key numbers to know:

Read more here.