Trump trade war drives uncertainty across several industries

Al Jazeera

24-04-2025

Businesses across multiple sectors have cut financial guidance amid growing uncertainty as United States President Donald Trump's trade war pushes up costs, upends supply chains and stirs concerns about the global economy.
Thursday's earnings made it clear that corporations around the world ran into a wall of uncertainty in the first quarter, as executives found themselves navigating the Trump administration's constantly shifting stance on trade.
Comments from the biggest packaged food companies also underscored worries among businesses and investors that Trump's tariffs and his attacks on US Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell will hurt confidence on Main Street.
'Some political decisions, economic decisions taken have rather undermined already soft consumer confidence,' Nestle CEO Laurent Freixe told reporters in an earnings call.
Dove soap maker Unilever, which was also reporting earnings, described 'declining consumer sentiment' in its North American markets.
Stocks drifted on Thursday, and a rebound in the dollar fizzled out as investors tried to pick through the Trump administration's fast-changing announcements on tariffs and the leadership of the Fed, the US central bank.
While most of the tariffs have been paused for 90 days until July 8, a 10-percent universal rate and additional duties on aluminium, steel and car imports remain in place, as do eye-popping levies on goods imported from China, to which Beijing has responded in kind.
The Trump administration will look at lowering tariffs on imported Chinese goods pending talks between the two countries, a source told Reuters on Wednesday.
With the first-quarter earnings season entering its second busy week, companies were counting the costs of the chaos and setting out how they plan to stem the fallout.
Procter & Gamble, soda and snacks giant PepsiCo and medical equipment maker Thermo Fisher Scientific became the latest companies to cut annual profit forecasts, citing the trade turmoil. American Airlines withdrew its 2025 financial guidance, mirroring its peers.
Thermo Fisher also warned of the impact of the Trump administration's proposed cuts to academic research funding.
Hyundai Motor said it had launched a task force to handle its response to the tariffs and moved production of some Tucson crossover vehicles from Mexico to the US.
'We expect a challenging business outlook to continue due to intensifying trade wars and other various unpredictable macroeconomic factors,' it said.
The carmaker is also considering whether to move production of some US-bound cars from South Korea to other locations, it said as it reaffirmed its annual earnings targets.
Hyundai and affiliate Kia, which together are the world's third-biggest automaking group by sales, generate about one-third of their global sales from the US market, and imports account for roughly two-thirds of their US car sales.
Chinese e-commerce giant JD.com said nearly 3,000 firms have already made enquiries about its 200 billion yuan ($27.35bn) fund, announced on April 11, to help exporters sell their products domestically over the next year.
Consumer sentiment tumbles
Adding to worries about economic weakness, the German government cut its 2025 growth forecast on Thursday and now sees stagnation instead of a 0.3 percent expansion as uncertainty from global trade disputes hobbles growth and dampens investment.
And in another sign of ebbing consumer confidence, Essity's CEO, Magnus Groth, told Reuters the Swedish tissue maker had seen a drop in demand for hygiene products from hotels and restaurants in North America because people are eating out less and may not be travelling.
That echoed a warning from Chipotle Mexican Grill late on Wednesday that Americans are spending less on dining out due to elevated economic uncertainty, prompting the food chain to cut its sales outlook.
Telecoms equipment maker Nokia flagged a short-term disruption from the US tariffs, while Dassault Systemes, which sells software to carmakers, aeroplane manufacturers and defence companies, cut its forecast profit margin due to tariff-related market volatility, knocking its shares.
Nestle and Unilever delivered better-than-expected quarterly sales, but they and their big-brand rivals are easing US price increases to avoid losing US shoppers to retailers' less expensive private-label brands.
That may help soothe concerns that tariffs will fuel a spike in inflation and slow the US economy, although other companies, including Ray-Ban maker EssilorLuxottica, LG Electronics and Interparfums, have said they are hiking US prices or may do so.
'As we look ahead, we expect more volatility and uncertainty, particularly related to global trade developments, which we expect will increase our supply chain costs,' PepsiCo Chairman and CEO Ramon Laguarta said on Thursday.
'At the same time, consumer conditions in many markets remain subdued and similarly have an uncertain outlook.'