Nokia Posts Quarterly Profit Miss, Flags Disruption from Trump's Tariffs
Nokia reported first-quarter profit well below market expectations on Thursday and flagged a short-term disruption from US tariffs with an estimated impact of between 20 million and 30 million euros to its second-quarter profit.
Comparable operating profit fell to 156 million euros ($176.9 million) in the first quarter of 2025, a 36% miss against the average forecast of 243.83 million euros by analysts surveyed by LSEG.
A one-time charge in its mobile networks division had an impact of 120 million euros on quarterly margins, the company said.
Nokia's sales in North America have been growing steadily despite losing market share to Nordic rival Ericsson, reflecting a renewed market strength after years of weakness, Reuters reported.
But now the sweeping tariffs imposed by US President Donald Trump could counter this trend, as companies might pause orders fearing price increases.
The Finland-based company also announced a strategic multi-year extension of its partnership with T-Mobile in the US to expand the carrier's 5G network coverage.
"Telecommunications is not a place where customers tend to change their expenditures," Nokia's CEO Justin Hotard told reporters.
Its quarterly net sales totalled 4.39 billion euros, down 3% on a constant-currency basis compared to a year earlier and a notch lower than the 4.41 billion euros expected by analysts.
Nokia confirmed its outlook for the rest of the year, which now includes the acquisition of Infinera, but said achieving the top-end of the range for operating profit would be more challenging than initially expected.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Asharq Al-Awsat
7 hours ago
- Asharq Al-Awsat
US Fed Set to Hold Rates Steady in the Face of Trump Pressure
The US central bank is expected to keep interest rates unchanged for a fourth straight policy meeting this week, despite President Donald Trump's push for rate cuts, as officials contend with uncertainty sparked by the Republican's tariffs. While the independent Federal Reserve has started lowering rates from recent highs, officials have held the level steady this year as Trump's tariffs began rippling through the world's biggest economy. The Fed has kept interest rates between 4.25 percent and 4.50 percent since December, while it monitors the health of the jobs market and inflation. "The hope is to stay below the radar screen at this meeting," KPMG chief economist Diane Swonk told AFP. "Uncertainty is still very high." "Until they know sufficiently, and convincingly that inflation is not going to pick up" either in response to tariffs or related threats, "they just can't move," she said. Since returning to the presidency, Trump has slapped a 10 percent tariff on most US trading partners. Higher rates on dozens of economies are due to take effect in July, unless an existing pause is extended. Trump has also engaged in a tit-for-tat tariff war with China and imposed levies on imports of steel, aluminum and automobiles, rattling financial markets and tanking consumer sentiment. But economists expect it will take three to four months for tariff effects to show up in consumer prices. Although hiring has cooled slightly and there was some shrinking of the labor force according to government data, the unemployment rate has stayed unchanged. Inflation has been muted too, even as analysts noted signs of smaller business margins -- meaning companies are bearing the brunt of tariffs for now. At the end of the Fed's two-day meeting Wednesday, analysts will be parsing through its economic projections for changes to growth and unemployment expectations and for signs of the number of rate cuts to come. The Fed faces growing pressure from Trump, citing benign inflation data, to lower rates more quickly, a move the president argues will help the country "pay much less interest on debt coming due." On Wednesday, Trump urged Fed Chair Jerome Powell to slash interest rates by a full percentage point, and on Thursday, he called Powell a "numbskull" for not doing so. He said Powell could raise rates again if inflation picked up then. But Powell has defended US central bank independence over interest rates when engaging with Trump. - 'Cautious patience' - For their part, Fed policymakers have signaled "little urgency" to adjust rates, said EY chief economist Gregory Daco. He believes they are unwilling to get ahead of the net effects from Trump's trade, tax, immigration and regulation policy changes. Powell "will likely strike a tone of cautious patience, reiterating that policy remains data dependent," Daco said. While economists have warned that Trump's tariffs would fuel inflation and weigh on economic growth, supporters of Trump's policies argue the president's plans for tax cuts next year will boost the economy. On the Fed's path ahead, HSBC Global Research said: "Weak labor market data could lead to larger cuts, while elevated inflation would tend to imply the opposite." For now, analysts expect the central bank to slash rates two more times this year, beginning in September. The Fed is likely to be eyeing data over the summer for inflationary pressures from tariffs, said Ryan Sweet, chief US economist at Oxford Economics. "They want to make sure that they're reading the tea leaves correctly," he said. Swonk warned the US economy is in a different place than during the Covid-19 pandemic, which could change how consumers react to price increases. During the pandemic, government stimulus payments helped households cushion the blow from higher costs, allowing them to keep spending. It is unclear if consumers, a key driver of the economy, will keep their dollars flowing this time, meaning demand could collapse and complicate the Fed's calculus. "If this had been a world without tariffs, the Fed would be cutting right now. There's no question," Swonk said.
Arab News
13 hours ago
- Arab News
Trump pocketed over $57 mn from crypto coin sales
NEW YORK: US President Donald Trump pocketed more than $57 million from token sales by the crypto venture he and his sons helped launch last year, according to federal financial disclosure forms released by the White House. The more than 230-page document issued by the Office of Government Ethics, dated Friday, lists the US president's holdings including stocks, dividends, real estate and investment portfolios. It showed that Trump, who during his first presidential election campaign in 2016 broke with the long tradition of candidates publishing their income tax returns, raked in $57.4 million from the sale of World Liberty Financial tokens. Trump and his sons helped launch the cryptocurrency investment and lending platform ahead of last year's election, raising conflict of interest concerns especially after he went on to win. He lent his name to this new company and launched a 'Trump' memecoin in January, just hours before his inauguration. World Liberty Financial had issued 100 billion tokens, of which some 22.5 billion were allocated to the Trump-affiliated company DT Marks Defi. Once hostile to the crypto industry, Trump has since returning to power enthusiastically embraced the sector, taking significant steps to clear regulatory hurdles and making large-scale investments. Trump has, among other moves, appointed crypto advocate Paul Atkins to head the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). He has also established a federal 'Strategic Bitcoin Reserve' aimed at auditing the government's bitcoin holdings, which were mainly accumulated by law enforcement from judicial seizures. Cryptocurrencies now have 'a champion and an ally' in the White House, Vice President JD Vance said last month during a bitcoin conference in Las Vegas. The document also provides an overview of the royalties that Trump has received through the sale of branded products and licensing agreements around the world. For instance, he earned $2.8 million from watches and $2.5 million from perfumes and sneakers. His Mar-a-Lago club in Florida also generated over $50 million in income for the president. Trump's golf courses around the world also helped pad his coffers, allowing him to pocket $29.1 million from the one in West Palm Beach, and $110.4 from the one in Miami. The president also received a monthly retirement payment of $6,484 from the Screen Actors Guild (SAG).
Asharq Al-Awsat
21 hours ago
- Asharq Al-Awsat
Trump Reports More Than $600 Million in Income from Crypto, Golf, Licensing Fees
Donald Trump reported more than $600 million in income from crypto, golf clubs, licensing and other ventures in a public financial disclosure report released on Friday that provided a glimpse of the vast business holdings of America's billionaire president. The annual financial disclosure form, which appeared to cover the 2024 calendar year, shows the president's push into crypto added substantially to his wealth but he also reported large fees from developments and revenues from his other businesses. Overall, the president reported assets worth at least $1.6 billion, a Reuters calculation shows. While Trump has said he has put his businesses into a trust managed by his children, the disclosures show how income from those sources still ultimately accrue to the president - something that has opened him to accusations of conflicts of interest. Some of his businesses in areas such as crypto, for example, benefit from US policy shifts under him and have become a source of criticism. 'President Trump, Vice President Vance, and senior White House staff have completed required ethics briefings and financial reporting obligations," White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in an emailed statement to Reuters. "The Trump Administration is committed to transparency and accessibility for the American people." The financial disclosure was signed on June 13 and did not state the time period it covered. The details of the cryptocurrency listings, as well as other information in the disclosure, suggest it was through the end of December 2024, which would exclude most of the money raised by the family's cryptocurrency ventures. Given the speed at which the Trump family has made deals during his ascent to the presidency, the filing is already a time capsule of sorts, capturing a period when the family was just starting to get into crypto but was largely still in the world of real estate deals and golf clubs. A meme coin released earlier this year by the president - $TRUMP - alone has earned an estimated $320 million in fees, although it's not publicly known how that amount has been divided between a Trump-controlled entity and its partners. In addition to the meme coin fees, the Trump family has raked in more than $400 million from World Liberty Financial, a decentralized finance company. The Trump family is involved, also, with a bitcoin mining operation and digital asset exchange-traded funds. In the disclosures, Trump reported $57.35 million from token sales at World Liberty. He also reported holding 15.75 billion governance tokens in the venture. TRUMP MEDIA The wealth of the Republican businessman-turned-politician ranges from crypto to real estate, and a large part on paper is tied up in his stake in Trump Media & Technology Group, owner of social media platform Truth Social. Besides assets and revenues from his business ventures, the president reported at least $12 million in income, including through interest and dividends, from passive investments totaling at least $211 million, a Reuters calculation shows. His biggest investments were in alternative fund manager Blue Owl Capital Corp and in government bond funds managed by Charles Schwab and Invesco. The disclosure often only gave ranges for the value of his assets and income; Reuters used the lower amount listed, meaning the total value of his assets and income was almost certainly higher. The disclosure showed income from various assets including Trump's properties in Florida. Trump's three golf-focused resorts in the state - Jupiter, Doral and West Palm Beach - plus his nearby private members' club at Mar-a-Lago generated at least $217.7 million in income, according to the filing. Trump National Doral, the expansive Miami-area golf hub known for its Blue Monster course, was the family's single largest income source at $110.4 million. The income figures provided are essentially revenues, not net profits after subtracting costs. The disclosure underlined the global nature of the Trump family business, listing income of $5 million in license fees from a development in Vietnam, $10 million in development fees from a project in India and almost $16 million in licensing fees for a Dubai project. Trump collected royalty money, also, from a variety of deals - $1.3 million from the Greenwood Bible (its website describes it as "the only Bible officially endorsed by Lee Greenwood and President Trump"); $2.8 million from Trump Watches, and $2.5 million from Trump Sneakers and Fragrances. Trump listed $1.16 million in income from his NFTs - digital trading cards in his likeness - while First Lady Melania Trump earned around $216,700 from license fees on her own NFT collection.
