It’s a tug of war today between joy over Apple’s earnings beat and fears the Trump administration may jack up its proposed tariffs on Chinese imports.

The Fed’s afternoon policy signals will likely yank around markets as well. Then Tesla’s TSLA, +1.95% earnings will get all sorts of attention after the market’s close.

And that brings us to our chart of the day, which illustrates how Elon Musk has gone from widely hailed to widely assailed.

“Over the last three and a half years, there’s been a slow decline in sentiment,” HodlBot’s Xie writes. Anthony Xie/Hacker Noon

The chart comes from Anthony Xie, founder of cryptocurrency company HodlBot. It shows how sentiment on Reddit has turned against the guy behind Tesla, SpaceX, the Boring Company and more.

“Perhaps Musk’s descent into infamy is self-inflicted. For too long, he has over-promised and under-delivered, and now his critics have come home to roost,” Xie writes in a post at Hacker Noon.

“Or maybe we are treating Musk like we treat every celebrity. The combination of our obsession for news and drama and the echo-chamber of social-media groups turns every tidbit of controversy into an avalanche,” he says.

Don’t miss:Tesla earnings — gear up for more drama after Model 3 production burst

And see:This stock looks like a promising bet on electric cars — and it’s not Tesla

Whatever the reasons, there has been a drop in the good vibes around MarketWatch’s CEO of the Year for 2013. The past three months have been particularly negative for Musk, Xie notes. He says he used a framework for analyzing social-media sentiment that is dubbed VADER (Valence Aware Dictionary and sEntiment Reasoner), aiming its Jedi powers at Reddit because that site is “often considered a trend-setter on the internet.”

So is the only way up at this point? Xie doesn’t go there, saying “only time will tell if this trend will continue.”

Go here to read his full Hacker Noon post.

Read more:Tesla shareholders, buckle up — given how Musk is driving the company

Also:Ex-SolarCity workers claim Tesla created fake sales accounts

Tesla’s stock has fared better than that sentiment gauge for Musk since 2015.

Key market gauges

Futures for the Dow US:YMU8 and S&P 500 US:ESU8 are flat to lower, while those for the Apple-heavy Nasdaq-100 US:NQU8 are higher. That’s after the Dow DJIA, +0.19% , S&P SPX, +0.29% and Nasdaq Composite COMP, +0.36% rallied yesterday.

Europe SXXP, -0.03% is mostly down, after Asia closed mixed. Oil US:CLU8 and gold US:GCZ8 are losing ground, as the dollar index DXY, +0.10% rises. Bitcoin BTCUSD, -0.06% is changing hands around $7,500.

See the Market Snapshot column for the latest action.

The call

Is the bottom in for platinum?

Buying platinum PPLT, +1.57% could be smart right now, because the metal may rally to $880 an ounce, says technical analyst Mark Arbeter for our call of the day.

“It appears that platinum is tracing out a double bottom or inverse head-and-shoulders bottom,” the Arbeter Investments president writes over at SeeItMarket, referring to chart formations that many technicians love to see. “There is little technical resistance until the $880 area.”

As the metal US:PLU8 wallows around its lowest levels in nearly a decade, readings on how traders are positioned look encouraging, he adds.

“Commercial hedgers have an extremely bullish position in platinum when adjusting for open interest (OI), while large speculators (not so smart money) have a very small position,” Arbeter writes.

Check out:How platinum is starting to shine for bargain hunters

And see:Platinum, key in catalytic converters, dives on car-tariff risks

The quote

An engineer holds a pistol made from plastic parts forged with a 3D printer. AFP/Getty Images

“The NRA can oppose 3D guns quite easily because they don’t benefit its primary constituency — gun manufacturers. Keep your eye on the ball, follow the money.” — Bruce Bartlett, who worked in the Reagan and Bush 41 administrations, tweets about the National Rifle Association’s stance on a hot issue.

The NRA just said it supports an old law that has banned “undetectable plastic guns.” That comes after President Trump said he had spoken with the group, and 3D-printed guns don’t seem to make much sense.

Such guns are making headlines again after a judge blocked the release of blueprints for making them.

The buzz

Apple’s stock AAPL, +1.02% is rising 4.5% premarket after the company’s earnings and outlook topped forecasts yesterday. The results show why you can expect more $1,000 iPhones.

The “lift in the share price required to hit that trillion-dollar level shouldn’t be so tough achieve after a set of figures like that,” says London Capital Group’s Jasper Lawler.

Meanwhile, Tim Cook’s company has fallen behind China’s Huawei in terms of global market share for smartphones. It already was behind Samsung, so it’s now No. 3.

In trade-tension news, some Trump administration advisers are pushing the president to apply 25% tariffs on $200 billion of Chinese imports, up from an original proposal for 10%. China reportedly says the tariff pressure won’t work, as it promises to retaliate.

The Federal Reserve is likely to signal this afternoon that more interest-rate hikes are coming, though it won’t actually raise rates.

Opinion:QE gave us little bang for the buck

The world’s biggest tech loser right now is not Facebook, but Tencent 700, -0.29% .

Japan’s 10-year government bond yield TMBMKJP-10Y, 0.011% looks set to post its biggest climb in two years, following the Bank of Japan’s decision to affirm its easy-money policies.

Daniel Loeb’s Third Point has taken a $300 million stake in Campbell Soup CPB, +3.60% .

The companies that posted earnings before the open included Anthem ANTM, +1.24% , Humana HUM, +0.41% , Molson Coors TAP, -0.09% and Sprint US:S .

ADP’s jobs report hit before the open and showed strong hiring, whetting appetites for Friday’s data on nonfarm payrolls. Once trading is underway, watch for releases on manufacturing from Markit and ISM, as well as for figures on construction spending. Plus, monthly car sales are rolling in.

Check out:MarketWatch’s Economic Calendar

What’s the last thing that you’d want to hear from your fund manager? How about this gem from Greenlight Capital’s David Einhorn: “Over the past three years, our results have been far worse than we could have imagined, and it’s been a bull market to boot.”

Random reads

An Embraer plane crashed in Mexico, and everyone on board survived.

The Mets just suffered their worst loss in franchise history.

A conference tied to cryptocurrency Ripple says Bill Clinton will give its keynote.

North Korea handed over only one dog tag as it provided remains of U.S. war dead.

“The Story of Babar” — why that classic children’s book is messed up.

The world’s largest colony of king penguins has collapsed by almost 90%.

This Army veteran thought he’d never ride again:

Paraplegic Veteran Gets His Wheels Back

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