Walmart boosted its outlook for the year on a solid start to the holiday season and strong demand from US consumers searching for value. Walmart shoppers spent more in each checkout, on average. Most of that growth was driven by consumers from upper-income households, or those earning $100,000 or more per year. That cohort made … Read More
“We never want to raise prices,” John David Rainey, the company’s CFO said in an interview with CNBC on Tuesday. “Our model is everyday low prices. But there probably will be cases where prices will go up for consumers…we want to work with suppliers and with our own private brand assortment to try to bring … Read More
The US Commerce Department has ratcheted up tariffs on Nippon Steel Corp. just as the Japanese steelmaker made an anti-import promise to gain support for its $14.1 billion takeover of United States Steel Corp. The Commerce Department imposed a dumping margin of 29% on Nippon Steel for selling hot-rolled steel in the US at prices … Read More
“The Mercedes-Benz will start building in the United States, and they have a little bit. But you know what they really are? Assembly, like in South Carolina,” he said. “They don’t build cars. They take them out of a box and they assemble them. We could have a child do it,” he said. Read the … Read More
Across industries, U.S. companies have been diversifying their supply chains away from China in recent years, prodded in part by tariffs implemented during Trump’s first term. The Biden administration left many of those levies in place and layered on some new ones, intensifying the pressure on companies to find alternatives. Hasbro’s shift away from China … Read More
In “A User’s Guide to Restructuring the Global Trading System,” Stephan Miran makes a compelling case that — contrary to popular belief — tariffs can achieve a multitude of aims without causing inflation or market volatility. Miran begins his case by stating that the U.S. dollar is heavily and consistently overvalued because “dollar assets function … Read More
Even if Trump pushed ahead with proposals to impose a 60% tariff on goods from China, and trading partners around the world retaliated in kind, the disruption would likely only cause a 0.2% hit to the UK economy by 2028, economist Dan Hanson said in a note published Thursday. Read the article.
Steve Madden, a $3 billion shoe company, announced Thursday that it would rapidly halve its Chinese production to avoid Trump’s tariffs. Those plans have been in place for a long time, in anticipation of a Trump victory, according to Steve Madden’s CEO Edward Rosenfeld. “We have been planning for a potential scenario in which we … Read More
Trump’s first administration kept farmers onside with generous subsidies to offset lost U.S. sales to China from the trade war. Soybean farmers received $5.4 billion more in aid than they lost in price impact, a University of California-Davis study found. “People on the other side are saying ‘Oh my god, he’s going to impose these … Read More
Only weeks after the release of a new study quantifying the high cost of Buy American Act protectionism, the Biden administration has decided the law isn’t protectionist enough. At least that’s the logical inference of a recently proposed rule change, which would drastically reduce the number of items exempted from the law due to their … Read More
