Brewing trouble: America's coffee addiction meets Trump's trade tariffs
The United States is the largest importer of coffee in the world, and its biggest supplier is Brazil. Earlier this month, US President Donald Trump threatened to impose 50% tariffs on Brazilian goods if President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva continued a legal inquiry on former Brazilian leader Jair Bolsonaro.
Here's a look at the value of the coffee trade, US coffee-drinking habits and why your cup of coffee could be more expensive very soon, if Trump goes ahead with his latest tariff plan.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
25 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Shopify Stock Is Soaring on Earnings. Should You Buy the SHOP Rally, or Is It Too Late?
Shopify (SHOP) shares closed more than 20% up on Wednesday after the e-commerce company reported significantly better-than-expected earnings for its second financial quarter. Investors cheered SHOP also because the management issued upbeat guidance for Q3, indicating confidence in the company's ability to navigate higher tariffs under President Donald Trump. More News from Barchart Supermicro's Earnings Selloff Explained: Should You Buy SMCI Stock Now? Amazon's $36M Bet on Quantum Computing: What Investors Need to Know Can SoundHound's Q2 Results Send the Stock Soaring on August 7? Markets move fast. Keep up by reading our FREE midday Barchart Brief newsletter for exclusive charts, analysis, and headlines. Shopify stock has been in a sharp uptrend over the past four months and is now up roughly 120% versus its year-to-date low in early April. Management Remains Bullish on Shopify Stock Other than the headline numbers, there was plenty in the management's commentary that warrants buying SHOP stock following its second-quarter financial release. For starters, executives confirmed that tariffs have not resulted in 'any drop in US demand, whether inbound, outbound, or local.' If anything, the market actually accelerated in the recently concluded quarter even in the wake of several Shopify merchants choosing to increase prices, added Jeff Hoffmeister, the firm's CFO. Shopify shares may be worth owning for the long term also because the e-commerce platform is aggressively spending on AI tools to attract and retain merchants. SHOP Shares Are Trading at a Premium Valuation While there was hardly anything in the quarterly release to discourage initiating a position in SHOP shares, investors are still recommended caution primarily due to valuation concerns. Shopify stock is currently going for a forward price-earnings (P/E) multiple of more than 120x, which is much higher than peers including Amazon (AMZN) and Etsy (ETSY), both of which are trading at around 30x only. That's why UBS analysts maintained their 'Hold' rating on the Canadian company last week, and left their $110 price target unchanged, signalling potential for nearly 30% downside from here. How Wall Street Recommends Playing Shopify Investors should remain wary of buying Shopify stock today since it's already trading significantly above Wall Street analysts' mean price target. According to Barchart, while the consensus rating on SHOP shares remains at 'Moderate Buy,' the average price target of about $119 only indicates potential downside of more than 20% from current levels. On the date of publication, Wajeeh Khan did not have (either directly or indirectly) positions in any of the securities mentioned in this article. All information and data in this article is solely for informational purposes. This article was originally published on
Yahoo
25 minutes ago
- Yahoo
On eve of US tariffs, Brazilian beef exports hit record high in July
By Roberto Samora and Ana Mano SAO PAULO (Reuters) -Exports of fresh beef from Brazil reached a record 276,900 metric tons in July, according to trade data on Wednesday, showing a steep rise before a hefty U.S. tariff applied on sales from the world's biggest exporter. July shipments exceeded those of the same month last year by nearly 17%, surpassing the previous monthly record from October 2024, when 270,300 tons of beef were shipped, the data showed. Some 12% of Brazil's beef shipments go the United States, its second most important importer after China. Other key markets for Brazil include Mexico and the Middle East. Brazilian exporter Astra, which sells 5% of its production to the U.S. from Parana state, said the company sent cargo this week to avoid the new duty, which is valid from today. Astra ships beef to practically every port in the United States. "We don't know what will happen," Diogo Oliveira, Astra's export coordinator, said in an interview. "My U.S. volume, although small, was consistent. And from September onward, I don't know if we'll have more business." Brazil's beef sales have steadily grown this year, with strong demand from major importers. In the first half, Brazil sent 181,400 tons of beef to the U.S. alone, which faces a persistent cattle shortage, and another 631,800 tons to the Chinese market. (By Roberto SamoraWriting by Ana Mano; Editing by Aurora Ellis) Sign in to access your portfolio
Yahoo
25 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Is the US headed toward a recession? Experts weigh in
A weak jobs report in recent days raised alarm among some analysts that the U.S. economy may be slipping toward a recession. Hiring slowed sharply over the summer, federal government data showed. The jobs report came days after fresh gross domestic product data indicated average annualized growth of 1.2% over the first half of 2025, well below 2.8% growth last year. Analysts who spoke to ABC News said the economy could dip into a downturn but the outlook remains uncertain. They differed sharply on the likelihood of a recession, ranging from dire warnings to skepticism about whether the recent data suggests significant cause for concern. "It's too early to see whether this is a trend," Harry Holzer, a professor of economics at Georgetown University and a fellow at the Brookings Institution, told ABC News. "The likelihood of a recession went up because of these job numbers, but it could be a one-time adjustment or a bump down that avoids negative growth." The economy added an average of about 35,000 jobs over three months ending in July, which marks a major slowdown from roughly 128,000 jobs added monthly over the prior three months, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data on Friday showed. Employers are hiring at their slowest pace since 2020. Hours after the release of the report on Friday, President Donald Trump fired BLS Commissioner Erika McEntarfer, an appointee of former President Joe Biden who was confirmed by a bipartisan vote in the Senate in 2024. In a social media post, Trump volleyed sharp criticism and baseless accusations at McEntarfer, claiming without evidence that the data had been "manipulated." The jobs report featured revisions of previous months' data, which is a routine practice. McEntarfer did not immediately reply to ABC News' request for comment. "It has been the honor of my life to serve as Commissioner of BLS alongside the many dedicated civil servants tasked with measuring a vast and dynamic economy," McEntarfer said in a social media post after her dismissal. "It is vital and important work and I thank them for their service to this nation." William Beach, a former commissioner of the Bureau of Labor Statistics, who was appointed by Trump, condemned the firing of McEntarfer. "The totally groundless firing of Dr. Erika McEntarfer, my successor as Commissioner of Labor Statistics at BLS, sets a dangerous precedent and undermines the statistical mission of the Bureau,' Beach posted on X. Trump, meanwhile, touted his economic performance in a social media post: "The Economy is BOOMING under 'TRUMP' despite a Fed that also plays games, this time with Interest Rates." Some analysts disagreed. The hiring cooldown hit a wide swath of industries, including manufacturing and the federal government. The overall unemployment rate of 4.2% continued to hover near a historically low level, but unemployment rose among Black workers, which can foretell job losses among other groups. "The risks are increasingly high that we're going into recession," Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody's Analytics, told ABC News. "We're not there yet – and maybe this thing gets turned around. But that's increasingly becoming hard to do with each passing week." Zandi largely faulted the rollout of Trump's tariffs for the apparent cooldown. In recent months, Trump has imposed a slew of far-reaching levies on dozens of countries and some specific products, such as steel, aluminum and cars. Tariffs place a tax burden on importers, raising their costs and risking elevated prices for consumers, Zandi said. "Tariffs weigh on economic growth," Zandi added. The Trump administration has touted tariffs as part of a wider set of "America First economic policies," which have "sparked trillions of dollars in new investment in U.S. manufacturing, technology, and infrastructure," according to the White House's website. The economy would likely need to slow further to be considered a recession. Many observers define a recession through the shorthand metric of two consecutive quarters of decline in a nation's inflation-adjusted gross domestic product. The National Bureau of Economic Research, or NBER, a research organization seen as an authority on measuring economic performance, uses a more complicated definition that takes into account several indicators that must convey "a significant decline in economic activity spread across the economy, lasting more than a few months," the group says. While acknowledging the tepid numbers, other analysts said warnings about a recession are premature. The economy has largely averted the type of widespread job losses that often accompany a recession. Consumer spending, which accounts for about two-thirds of economic activity, ticked higher over three months ending in June. Corporate earnings have remained robust. The jobs report sent stocks tumbling but markets have since recovered. "It seems to me people are anchoring on the jobs report and using it to telegraph a recession. I'm not sure it does that," Mark Blyth, a professor of political economy at Brown University, told ABC News. "Nobody knows and everybody is doing wish fulfillment," Blyth added. "If you don't like the administration's policies, you're willing it to be a recession and if you like them, you're saying, 'no.'" MORE: What $4 trillion in debt from Trump's spending measure could mean for future generations To be sure, recession forecasts are hardly bulletproof. A surge of inflation in 2021 -- and an interest-rate hike soon afterward -- unleashed a flood of recession warnings, but no downturn came to pass. More recently, Wall Street banks predicted a possible recession after Trump's "Liberation Day" tariff announcement, before pulling back their assessments after Trump dialed back the levies. "Recessions tend to be unforecastable," Claudia Sahm, chief economist at New Century Advisors and a former Fed official, told ABC News. "Often there's an event that causes people to lose confidence, change behavior and start a downward spiral. Those events are very hard to predict." Still, Sahm added, the available data indicates a weakened economy. "A slow-growing economy is not a good economy," Sahm said. "We want to avoid a recession but avoiding a recession is a low bar. We want an economy that's better than that." Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
