AP PHOTOS: The Black hair industry imports products from China. Here's what tariffs mean
Black women are starting to pay more for their hair care because of the Trump administration's tariffs on goods imported from China.
Many Black women have hair types and workplace-favored styles that require careful attention. They can spend hundreds of dollars at salons each month on extensions, weaves, wigs and braids.
Most hair salon tools and packaging is imported from China.
Stylists are considering raising their prices while the the U.S. and China negotiate new trade agreements. But many dread what price increases will do for clients who are lower income and already strained by months of inflation on virtually everything else.
This is a photo gallery curated by AP photo editors.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Daily Mail
22 minutes ago
- Daily Mail
Donald Trump's Treasury secretary has the last laugh as he tears apart CBS host's question on inflation
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent appeared to dismantle a seasoned CBS anchor's prior warnings about inflation during a national TV interview on Sunday, brushing aside months of skepticism on Trump's economic policies. Appearing on Face the Nation, Bessent faced questions from anchor Margaret Brennan about the Trump tariffs and their threat to Americans' wallets. Brennan had posed similar questions months earlier as she told how economists were forecasting prices to skyrocket and inflation to surge. But during Sunday's interview, Bessent gleefully appeared to bat such concerns away. 'Margaret, when we were here in March, you said there was going to be big inflation. There hasn't been any inflation,' Bessent fired back, smirking. Bessent took what many are calling a victory lap after the Labor Department reported that consumer price increases had cooled to its lowest level in over four years. The consumer price index showed a mere 2.3% year-over-year rise for April, down from 2.4% in March - a stunning development considering the alarm bells economists had sounded when Donald Trump rolled out his aggressive new tariffs earlier in April Bessent's smirk at the low inflation figures said it all. Months earlier Brennan had pressed him hard about warnings from institutions like the Peterson Institute, which predicted Trump's tariffs would ignite runaway inflation. But on Sunday Bessent managed to turn the tables. 'Actually, the inflation numbers are the best in four years. So why don't we stop trying to say this could happen, and wait and see what does happen,' Bessent said. Bessent calmly brushed aside a reference to a Wall Street Journal column by Republican strategist Karl Rove warning how tariffs could damage the GOP's prospects in the next election. Citing a South China Morning Post report, Bessent told how Chinese suppliers are now eating up to 66% of the tariff burden, blunting the effect on US consumers. 'What we are trying to do is to de-risk,' he explained. 'We do not want to decouple, Margaret, but we do need to de-risk.' His remarks reflect a broader shift in the Trump administration's trade policy - an effort to reduce reliance on China for critical industries like semiconductors and pharmaceuticals. 'What China is doing is they are holding back products that are essential for the industrial supply chains of India, of Europe, and that is not what a reliable partner does,' Bessent said. Pressed on the risks of escalating trade tensions, Bessent was unflinching. Last week, he acknowledged that talks with China had 'been a bit stalled,' but added that the White House remains confident that President Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping will soon iron out their differences with the expectation being the two leaders will speak directly. On the looming issue of the US debt ceiling, Bessent was equally blunt. 'The United States of America is never going to default. That is never going to happen. We are on the warning track and we will never hit the wall,' he said. Bessent also took aim at Wall Street's warnings, brushing off JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon's prediction of a bond market crisis. 'I've known Jamie for a long time, and for his entire career he's made predictions like this. Fortunately none of them have come true. That's why he's a great banker - he tries to look around the corner,' Bessent quipped. On tariffs, Bessent remained bullish, despite concerns about their impact on industries like construction. 'So is it going to impact the construction industry? Maybe,' Bessent conceded. 'But it's going to impact the steel industry in a great way.'
Reuters
26 minutes ago
- Reuters
Wanda lights up China's great property firesale
HONG KONG, June 2 (Reuters Breakingviews) - China's great property firesale continues. Wang Jianlin, chair of Dalian Wanda and once the richest man in the People's Republic, is offloading 48 giant shopping malls known locally as Wanda Plazas to a consortium led by Asian buyout fund PAG. The acquirors appear to be picking up another bargain from one of the country's biggest operators of commercial real estate. Details of the deal have dripped out over the past month. According to The Paper, a state-run news portal, PAG will set up a fund worth 50 billion yuan ($7 billion) for the acquisition comprising the busiest shopping landmarks in top cities including Beijing and Guangzhou. Internet giants Tencent ( opens new tab and ( opens new tab as well as insurer Sunshine Life also form part of the syndicate. These are Wang's 'old friends'. PAG led a group last year to acquire a 60% stake in Wanda's property management arm for $8.3 billion. That purchase brought in Gulf sovereign funds, Abu Dhabi Investment Authority and Mubadala, as new investors. In 2018, Tencent and JD were among investors who paid $5.4 billion for a 14% stake in Wanda's mall unit. Like PAG did in its previous deal, the Chinese technology companies may be rolling some of their previous investment, opens new tab into the new one. Wang has been selling dozens of malls, each for about 1.5 billion yuan, roughly $210 million, according, opens new tab to Bloomberg Intelligence. The latest sale values these properties, where young Chinese taste Starbucks (SBUX.O), opens new tab or go on their first date, at just 1 billion yuan each. Similarly, the implied enterprise value on PAG's previous deal with Wanda in late 2023 and early 2024 was around half the sum, opens new tab the business was valued at three years prior. For its part, Wanda has sold more than $30 billion in assets since 2016 including hotels and movie theatres per Dealogic. The severity of the parent group's liquidity crunch is unclear but recent bond documents show that Wanda's commercial management unit alone had up to 40 billion yuan of debt maturing this year. Its dealings spotlight the enduring weakness in commercial property despite government stimulus aimed at restoring confidence. The proportion of distressed deals remains high and activity continues to decline, MSCI warned in its 2024 review. Yet if the discount is large enough, investors like PAG, opens new tab are among a small group still willing to make large bets.
Reuters
28 minutes ago
- Reuters
Playing it smart: Five questions for the ECB
LONDON, June 2 (Reuters) - The European Central Bank is tipped to cut interest rates on Thursday, its eighth move this cycle, with traders sensing a pause will then follow as the economy holds up better than anticipated and longer-term inflation worries creep back. U.S. tariff uncertainty, heightened further by a court plot twist, makes the backdrop challenging as the ECB weighs any near-term hit to business activity against implications for inflation further out. "The last thing the ECB wants is to be unnecessarily drawn back to a world with limited policy room," said PIMCO portfolio manager Konstantin Veit. Here are five key questions for markets: 1/ What will the ECB do on Thursday? A rate cut will come as no surprise to markets, which price in a quarter point reduction of the deposit rate to 2% as inflation eases and U.S. tariffs cast a shadow over the euro area. The economy is still just limping along and latest surveys point to only lukewarm optimism among firms as services also appear surprisingly weak. "A rate cut is a done deal," said ING's global head of macro Carsten Brzeski. "Even the hawks have not been very outspoken." 2/ And after June? There's a growing consensus that the ECB will pause in July, with one more rate cut anticipated by year-end. ECB chief Christine Lagarde is unlikely to give traders the confirmation they are looking for, stressing data-dependency. In the near-term, inflation could drop further and even undershoot the bank's 2% target, bolstering the case for another cut. But factors including increased government spending and tariffs could exacerbate price pressures in the longer term. ECB board member and policy hawk Isabel Schnabel already favours a pause, saying that tariffs may be disinflationary near-term but pose upside risks further out. Chief economist Philip Lane says the ECB needs to find a "middle path." Swiss Re's head of macro strategy Patrick Saner said the ECB will probably want to reassess over the summer. "We're looking at a cautious easing cycle, not a sprint," Saner added. 3/ What does U.S./EU trade tension means for the ECB? Additional uncertainty. The European Union has won a reprieve from U.S. President Donald Trump's threatened 50% tariffs. But it remains unclear how the bloc will square its push for a mutually beneficial trade deal with U.S. demands for steep concessions. "If tariffs end up to 10-20%, as we expect, I don't think it will be a major issue (for economic growth), and the ECB probably won't react that much," said David Zahn, head of European fixed income at Franklin Templeton, adding that a strong euro should limit inflationary impact by dampening import prices. PIMCO's Veit added that the picture was less clear if a full-blown confrontation prompts aggressive EU retaliation, creating an "inflationary problem" for the ECB. 4/ What will the latest ECB forecasts show? Small downward revisions to 2026 inflation estimates are anticipated as a stronger euro and weaker oil prices pull down inflation. The trade-weighted euro is up around 3.5% so far this year , oil prices have fallen almost 15% . Economists anticipate small downward revisions to the 2025 growth estimates given near-term growth risks caused by tariff uncertainty. Economists polled by Reuters expect 0.9% growth this year, unchanged from the ECB's previous forecast. Goldman Sachs expects the ECB to reduce 2026 projections for headline and core inflation by 0.2 percentage points each to 1.7% and 1.8% respectively, and marginally lower 2025 growth forecasts. Data on Tuesday is expected to show headline inflation eased to 2% in May. 5/ Is the ECB worried about rising long-term borrowing costs globally? Market watchers suspect so, but say Lagarde is likely to stress the bloc's resilience to market turbulence. Weak demand at recent Japanese and U.S. bond sales and Moody's decision to strip the U.S. of its last triple-A credit rating have returned focus to high government debt, a pressure point for bond markets. "Higher long-term yields add a layer of fragility, particularly for highly indebted countries," said Swiss Re's Saner. "While this is certainly not a key reason for easing policy, it's part of the background music."
