Trump Tariff Announcement | Live Special 'Balance of Power' (youtube.com)
Initially a slight rally, upon talk of 10%, but then higher tariffs were explained, and no exemptions, which reversed and it was down a bit.
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Apr2, ‘Liberation Day’
Trump tariffs spark global sell-off (youtube.com)
Some of this must be more-expensive red, but a lot is uncertainty red. No one has any idea what this means, how its going to play out, how serious the tariffs are, if they'll be modified and if so raised or lowered.
Only Utilities and Consumer Defensive sectors were green. Telecom was alright, insurance.
European markets down by around 2%. Japan down two and a half. Hang Seng -1.5. Shanghai only down -.25. Taiwan slightly up.
Anecdotally, Becky talked about a friend of hers who moved her high end sweater company out of China to Cambodia, but now there's tariffs there. Apple moved out of China to India, Vietnam, etc.
A lot of garment manufacturers have shifted out of China in the past couple years. But China has a 54% tariff ostensibly now, while Vietnam is 46% and Cambodia is 49%. It takes a company 3-5 years to make that move. So if they're going to move again, they would need to know what tariffs would be like in 3-5 years.
35% of footwear sold in the US is made in Vietnam, second behind China.
On CNBC there was some argument among the hosts, where some were saying how the US consumer was the consumer of the world's goods, but that was because Americans have the money, partially because the other countries don't have the money and don't make choices about their purchased except what is cheapest. But importing cheaper goods always had a price in the US, which was paid by the lower working class, who didn't make money from production of the goods consumed. The K-mart class. Santelli ended with ‘Let people buy American' nomatter what. Other hosts brought up good points too, but I think this has always been correct and known but preffered to ignore because that's not where the big money is, and maybe that's not where the global domination is.
Lutnick argued that all the countries charge a VAT or consumption charge, but then if they turn around and sell really cheap energy to their steel companies, then their steel companies outcompete US ones and US ones fold or flail and can't defend the US in a war, or they give it back as a subsidy to the car manufacturers there which means US can't compete. It's not just about tariffs.