Europe Lines Up Behind Powerful Trade Tool in US Fight
It would seem Europe is taking him at his word. A French-led charge to deploy the bloc's so-called anti-coercion instrument is said to be backed by more than half a dozen European capitals. Benjamin Haddad, France's minister for European affairs, said earlier this week that the response from Brussels should include the option of using the tool, which gives officials broad powers to take retaliatory action. Those measures could include new taxes on US tech giants or targeted curbs on US investments in the EU.
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This CEO explains how the trade war upends global supply chains
Tariff uncertainty has companies doubling down on supply chains. Eric Clark, CEO and president of supply-chain technology provider Manhattan Associates (MANH), joins Market Catalysts to discuss how companies are leaning into supply chain technology to navigate uncertainty and maintain strategic operations. To watch more expert insights and analysis on the latest market action, check out more Market Catalysts here. Supply chain technology provider Manhattan Associates reporting second quarter results earlier this week boosted by demand for its cloud services. Joining me now is Eric Clark, Manhattan Associate CEO and president. Good to see you, Eric. Thank you for joining us. Before I sort of dive into your numbers, I do want to talk about tariffs and the trade war because obviously, your clients are sitting at the intersection of all of those cross currents. What are you hearing from clients right now as to sort of how they're navigating the tariffs? Yeah. Well, first of all, thanks for having me. And what we're seeing is early days when these tariffs were announced right after Liberation day, lots of customers maybe went into a little bit of a pause mode to try to predict what was going to happen or to try to understand the uncertainty. Since then, I think people have understood that this isn't going to be quick, and some of these deadlines are going to move. And it's going to take some time. So the forward leaning companies are really getting back to their strategies and executing their strategies. And I think it's not too dissimilar to what we've seen with other supply chain disruptions like COVID and bridge collapses, et cetera. While there's a little bit of a pause in the beginning, I think it very quickly confirms the fact that supply chain is mission critical software. And this is not an area that companies are going to pause or delay for a long time. This is an area that they consider not only mission critical, but strategic. At the beginning of the year, we were also seeing not just some contracts being paused, but the opposite in some cases, right? Orders coming in to try to sort of front run the tariffs to build up inventory. Is that inventory now? Has it been worked down? Are we how, in other words, I guess right now, how would flows compare to normal conditions? Yeah, it varies across industry, and, you know, what we're seeing from our customers is they're trying to be prepared for whatever might come next. And from a software perspective, that's what we do. You know, we can help them be prepared and make sure that they can react and have their correct strategies and agility so that they can do the things that they need to do in real time. And so when it comes to your business, I know that a lot of the contracts that you all sign are sort of longer term contracts, right? Have you seen any disruption to that? Have you seen any of your customers sort of pulling back on spending amidst all of this? You know, it's interesting, as you mentioned, we announced earnings earlier this week, and we had a strong Q2 and a strong first half. It was a beaten raised quarter, and with really strong margin expansion. And when you look at, you know, the difficult and uncertain macroeconomic environment, the past three quarters at Manhattan have been our strongest bookings, sales quarters in the history of the company. So you can argue that all three of those quarters were, if not challenging, at least changing macro environment, and we continue to do well from a bookings performance. And not only that, but new logo bookings has been the strength of our bookings performance. So we're able to actually go out there and take market share from our competitors. And you know, that also gives us opportunity to continue to expand and cross-sell into those customers in the future. So we're feeling really good about the commitments that our customers are making and that customers in the supply chain space are making with their supply chain software. And Eric, would you say I think sort of during the pandemic, we all paid a lot more attention to supply chains than we ever had, of course, because they were affecting us directly. But there was also a lot of discussion about how antiquated the systems were, both the actual physical infrastructure, but also sort of the things that you help people do now, right? That that stuff was sort of obsolete in many cases. Where are we now? And how much further does supply chain modernization need to go? Well, I think we're in the early days of supply chain modernization. And at Manhattan, I think we're rated a leader across our product portfolio, and I think we're really the only true cloud-based SAS provider across the supply chain space. And that's why we continue to have high win rates in the market, and that's why we continue to drive that expansion with these strong bookings quarters. Again, I point to with this uncertainty in the market, it is confirming the fact that this is mission critical software and confirming the fact that this needs to be part of the strategy. And that's why people are really leaning into the modern technology that we can offer. Eric, thanks so much for joining us. Appreciate it. Yeah, thank you. Related Videos BlackRock's Rick Rieder: I Think Rates Can Come Down Elon Musk's 'master plan': Is Tesla an EV maker or AI play? How meme stock mania is a 'sign of the times' 'We ask for more data' than FICO: VantageScore CEO 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
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5 minutes ago
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U.S. slaps 20.56% anti-dumping duties on Canadian softwood lumber
The U.S. Commerce Department has decided to hike anti-dumping duties on Canadian softwood to 20.56 per cent, with B.C. lumber organizations calling them unjustified, punitive and protectionist. The hiked softwood lumber duties come amid the growing trade war between Canada and the U.S., and represent the latest blow to B.C.'s beleaguered forestry industry. B.C. Forests Minister Ravi Parmar described the long-awaited rate hike as a "gut punch" for B.C.'s forestry industry which has seen thousands of workers laid off over the last few years. "U.S. President Donald Trump has made it his mission to destroy Canada's economy, and there is no sector that has faced more of that than the forestry sector," he told CBC News. "This is a big deal for our workers. This is going to have a significant impact. It will lead to curtailments," he added. The B.C. government has been urging the federal government to prioritize the softwood lumber industry in trade discussions with the U.S., and Parmar said the hiked duties would also impact U.S. homeowners needing lumber to rebuild or renovate their homes. "This is going to mean that Americans, in particular middle-class Americans, are going to be paying more to the tune of $15,000 to $20,000 more USD to purchase or to build a home." The B.C. Lumber Trade Council says in a statement that if the U.S. department's pending review on countervailing duties is in line with its preliminary results, the combined rate against Canadian softwood shipped to the United States will be well over 30 per cent. In April, the preliminary combined rate on Canadian softwood lumber was reported to be 34.45 per cent, up from the previous 14.54 per cent. Friday's decision is a final determination, with Parmar saying it would go into effect in the U.S. Federal Register shortly.U.S. lumber producers have long maintained that Canadian stumpage fees, for harvesting on Crown land, are an unfair government subsidy. B.C.'s Independent Wood Processors Association says in a statement that the U.S. Commerce Department's decision this week to raise duties also includes a requirement for Canadian companies to retroactively remit duties for products shipped to the United States since Jan.1, 2023. WATCH | B.C. premier urges feds to prioritze lumber deal: Association chair Andy Rielly says in a statement that the requirement to pay duties on products shipped in the last 31 months could not only force small B.C. producers to shut down, but may also threaten operators' personal assets as they may have to risk using their homes as collateral to secure bonds to pay. Prime Minister Mark Carney said earlier this month that a future trade agreement with the United States could include quotas on softwood lumber, an area that has caused friction between the two countries for years before the latest trade war. Producer urges province to change conditions The United States has long been the single largest market for B.C. lumber exports, representing over half the market for the approximately $10-billion industry. But amid a series of challenges for the province's forestry industry — including a mountain pine beetle infestation that has killed hundreds of thousands of trees — mills have been closing around the province in recent years, and major forestry companies are opening up new mills in the United States. In 2023, numbers from Statistics Canada showed B.C. had lost more than 40,000 forest-sector jobs since the early 1990s. Kim Haakstad, the CEO of the B.C. Council of Forest Industries, said the B.C. government should work to improve the production environment in the province to prevent future mill closures. In a statement, the council said that by activating timber sales, fast-tracking permits and cutting through regulatory gridlock, the province could send a signal that it is serious about rebuilding a sustainable forest argued that if the industry could get production levels back to historic levels, it could help keep forestry-dependent communities vibrant into the future. "That will bring more than $300 million to the provincial government, as well, to help address the deficit situation we're in," Haakstad said. Kurt Niquidet, the president of the B.C. Lumber Trade Council, highlighted that Trump also has initiated a federal investigation into the U.S. imports of lumber and timber citing "national security," which could further impact B.C.'s forestry industry when combined with the tariffs. "Softwood lumber is quite important for the United States. They can only supply about 70 per cent of their softwood lumber demand, and they're importing 30 per cent from elsewhere," he told CBC News. "25 per cent of that's really coming from Canada, and British Columbia is the largest softwood lumber producer within Canada."
Yahoo
5 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Uncertainty is 'here to stay': What that means for markets
PIMCO chief investment officer core strategies Mohit Mittal joins Market Domination with Josh Lipton and Hennion & Walsh chief investment officer Kevin Mahn to discuss President Trump's upcoming August 1 tariff deadline, the uncertainty that comes with it, and why "the balance of risk" is shifting to the downside. To watch more expert insights and analysis on the latest market action, check out more Market Domination here. Joining us now is Mohit Mittal, he's chief investment officer, core strategies at Pimco. That firm has more than two trillion dollars in assets under management. Mohit, it is great to see you on the show. Maybe start, Mohit, with what we were just talking about there: trade tensions, tariffs. We have August 1st that is circled on our calendars. As investors we're all waiting for it. I'm curious to think about how are you thinking through that deadline? As a CIO, what are you telling clients? Thanks for having me, Josh. Yes, so, I think the way we are thinking about this, even if we take a step back from that one immediate deadline, what we are observing is a broad, somewhat slowdown in the data. Add to it the incredible amount of uncertainty that is being created by these broad tariff policies. And those uncertainties are not going to go away on August 1st. Meaning that there might be some extensions, there might be some deals, but those uncertainties are here to stay. And what that means is that that uncertainty feeds into corporate sentiment. That uncertainty feeds into consumer sentiment. Which means that, you know, as we go forward towards the end of the year or next year, growth continues to slow down towards, say, 1%. And then add to it the context around earnings expectations. So when you look at the earnings expectations for this year, they are in the high single digits, same for next year. So the balance of risk in our mind, given kind of these uncertainties and in the context of expectations which are quite optimistic, the balance of risk seems to be towards kind of under-delivering relative to expectations. So is your point, and I'm just looking at the popular average here, we are, you know, agreeing across the board. Again, Mohit, is your point that you think investors are being a bit complacent here? Absolutely. I think that's kind of the view here that investors are being complacent in, say for example, kind of the equity markets, even in lower quality segments of the credit markets where valuations are near historic types. And when we contrast that to higher quality fixed income where investors can get, call it, six percent yield in a very, very high quality manner. That looks like a very attractive alternative in this kind of environment of elevated uncertainty and ongoing complacency. Kevin, bring you in here as well. Mohit's point is well taken. To the extent, Kevin, I wonder whether you get nervous when nobody else seems to be nervous. Absolutely, and I think what we need to understand is that we're pretty far along this bull market run. Through the first 73 trading days of 2025, the S&P 500 was down 10.2%, the fifth worst start in history. Now we've seen a significant move higher since day 74. How much longer can that run last? So I would anticipate some more short-term bouts of volatility ahead, whether it's due to the lack of trade agreements being announced, perhaps tariffs being more severe than when originally anticipated, or the Fed staying on pause for even longer than many are currently forecasting right now. That could all create more volatility. But I think each part of that volatility brings more investors back into the market. Mohit, what do you say to those folks who come on the show and they're, they're bulled up, they're more constructive. And honestly, Mohit, I think they basically tell me, 'Listen, Josh, just don't overthink this. The reason the market's higher is because the fundamentals look good: solid earnings, solid economic data, and a Fed that seems to want to cut later in the year.' What is your response to that? I think there's a lot of merit to that and that certainly can hold that we can continue to see, you know, equity markets do well. We continue to see credit markets do well. But I think what is also interesting is that in the last, call it, 15, 17 years, post the GFC, generally buying the dip has always worked out. And I think many factors have been behind it, but one of the factors continues to be around ongoing large fiscal deficits, as well as a strong monetary policy support through quantitative easings. Whenever there has been a big stress, you have seen both the fiscal authorities as well as monetary authorities come to the rescue. I think where we are, as we think about kind of where we are, we recognize that because of high debt to GDP for the US federal government, you have some constraints at the fiscal level in order to be able to address the next crisis with larger fiscal deficits. Same thing, you know, with the Central Bank. I think the QE would be somewhat less easier to do next time around, given the prior inflation or concerns around inflation that the prior QEs may have created. So in that context, we recognize that I think certainly you could have an environment where earnings continue to deliver and equities do well, but the balance of risk seems to have shifted to the downside. And I think the last point I would highlight also is that a lot of optimism is being built around the idea that we will realize the productivity enhancements because of all the investments in AI related chips, energy, all of that. In a scenario we don't realize those productivity enhancements, I think certainly the balance of risk again shifts a little bit to the downside. Related Videos Mortgage rates steady, Trump says no capital gains on home sales Why bitcoin could hit $300,000 next year 4 advantages give Alphabet a 'strategic position' in AI race Pharma sector outlook as Trump's drug tariff deadline looms Sign in to access your portfolio
