CNBC TechCheck Evening Edition: May 27, 2025
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Fox News
an hour ago
- Fox News
Trump blasts 'nasty' question from Oval Office reporter on whether he always 'chickens out' on tariffs
President Donald Trump ripped a reporter in the Oval Office Wednesday for asking a "nasty question" about his tariff deals. "Mr. President, Wall Street analysts have coined a new term called the TACO trade. They're saying, 'Trump Always Chickens Out' - on your tariff threats. And that's why markets are higher this week. What's your response to that?" CNBC White House correspondent Megan Casella asked during a brief gaggle. "Oh, isn't that nice. 'Chicken out.' I've never heard that," Trump responded. "You mean because I reduced China from 145% that I set down to 100 and then down to another number? I said, 'You have to open your whole country.'" He went on, "And because I gave the European Union a 50% tariff? And they called up, and they said, 'Please, let's meet right now.' And I said, 'Okay, I'll give you until June.' I actually asked them, I said, 'What's the date?' Because they weren't willing to meet. And after I did what I did, they said, 'We'll meet anytime you want.' And we have an end date of July 9. You call that chickening out? Because we have $14 trillion now invested, committed to investing when Biden didn't have practically anything." Trump contrasted the situation with the Biden administration, saying the U.S. was "stone-cold dead" six months ago. "We had a dead country. We had a country people didn't think was going to survive. And you ask a nasty question like that? It's called negotiation," Trump said. Trump said lowering the number was part of an ongoing "negotiation" with China and attacked the question. "Don't ever say what you said. That's a nasty question. To me, that's the nastiest question," Trump said before calling another reporter. Casella later reported on the event while appearing on CNBC's "The Exchange." "He did not like this question, I can tell you," Casella said. She also joked that the "nasty" jab was a "badge of honor" of sorts. After announcing several widespread tariffs in April, the Trump administration announced a pause on all tariffs except China until July to negotiate better deals. Earlier this month, Trump agreed to a temporary reduction of China's tariff rates from 145% to approximately 30% as negotiations continued.
CNBC
an hour ago
- CNBC
JD Vance at Bitcoin 2025: Crypto finally has a champion in the White House
CNBC's MacKenzie Sigalos joins 'Squawk Box' from the Bitcoin 2025 conference in Las Vegas with the latest news.
CNBC
2 hours ago
- CNBC
Everyone is talking 'TACO' trade. Investors say don't count on Trump chickening out
"Trump Always Chickens Out," or TACO, is a gibe that has ruffled the U.S. president's feathers, and investors have, by now, seen it happening enough times to know his playbook. The phrase, coined by a Financial Times columnist, refers to Donald Trump's pattern of threatening steep tariffs that rattle markets, only to ease or postpone them after a sharp market sell-off, prompting a recovery. "Trump's style in negotiating deals is he huffs and he puffs, but he doesn't blow the house down," Ed Yardeni, president of Yardeni Research, told CNBC. In February, Trump announced a 25% tariff on imports from Canada and Mexico, before swiftly putting them on a 30-day pause just days later. And in early April, Trump slapped tariffs on more than 180 countries while escalating a tariff tit-for-tat with China, sending shock waves across financial markets. Global equities had a bloodbath in the days that followed. The U.S. benchmark S & P 500 fell about 12% between April 2 and April 8, and the MSCI world index excluding the U.S. fell over 8% in the same period. U.S. government bonds had a sell-off too. Yields on the benchmark 10-year yield jumped 10 basis points between April 2 and April 8, and the 20-year yield rose around 20 basis points, according to data on LSEG. Three stages of market reactions Then, on April 9, the president surprised markets yet again by cutting tariffs to 10% for nearly all U.S. trading partners for 90 days, leading to one of the biggest rallies on Wall Street . More recently, Trump announced 50% tariffs on goods from the European Union last Friday, sending investors trembling during the long holiday weekend, before walking back on the decision Sunday evening. U.S. equities rallied the following Tuesday, the week's first day of trading after a holiday. Trump has realized that the stock and bond markets can have a powerful influence on his decision-making, Yardeni said, adding that the bond market had "forced" the president's hand to postpone "reciprocal tariffs" by 90 days. "He bullies, he threatens. But there are checks and balances to what he can do as President," Yardeni said. The U.S. federal court ruled on Wednesday that Trump overstepped his legal authority in imposing "reciprocal" tariffs. There are three distinct stages of market reactions when it comes to TACO, said Aberdeen Investments' Ray Sharma-Ong, head of multi-asset investment solutions in Southeast Asia. First, an initial aggressive Trump policy rollout is accompanied by a sharp risk-off sentiment. That's followed by a policy walkback and a consequent rebound in equities. The last stage is a "post-walkback ambiguity," in which investors adopt a wait-and-see approach after the initial market rebound, attempting to price in Trump's next move, Sharma-Ong said. Trust issues with Trump That uncertainty makes TACO a problematic bet, market watchers said. "One day tariffs go up, the next they're 'negotiable.' It's very difficult to build conviction-based positions when the policy direction keeps shifting," said Brian Arcese, portfolio manager at Foord Asset Management. Trump's approach is also denting traders' confidence in U.S. policy and U.S. assets, said UBP's head of equity research in Asia, Calder Kieran. That was the case in April, when a U.S. asset exodus occurred, leading to a weakening of the dollar and a spike in U.S. Treasury yields. While those pullbacks create attractive opportunities to allocate or enter a position in certain stocks, investors reiterated that they are sticking with the fundamentals. "There certainly is a pattern here but I would not always count on the 'Trump put' to happen," said Kai Wang, Morningstar's Asia equity market strategist, suggesting that investors stick with high-quality stocks with less drawdown during bear markets. TACO is essentially a punchier version of the Wall Street coinage, "Trump put" — in other words, when markets start to fall and Trump acts to turn them around. "It may be dangerous to believe that a Trump put is set in stone," said Nomura's head of global macro research, Rob Subbaraman. That's because his administration's negotiating power weakens as markets and foreign governments increasingly believe in the Trump put, making it a less viable strategy for him to employ, Subbaraman explained. Billy Leung, investment strategist at Global X, is, likewise, skeptical about the long-term viability of the Trump put. "The market's reaction to tariffs has evolved. It's not just a fade-the-headline play anymore. The Trump put has weakened," he said. Investors should therefore move away from import-dependent names and toward companies that are actively rerouting supply chains and accelerating investment in reshoring sensitive sectors, Leung added. "Corporates are not waiting for clarity," he said.
