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Yahoo
01-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Trump Tariffs Threaten $8.2 Billion American Dairy Exports
(Bloomberg) -- President Donald Trump's trade war is threatening US dairy exports just as the industry needs new markets for its booming production. What Frank Lloyd Wright Learned From the Desert Gold-Rush Fever Returns to Historic New Zealand Mining Town Bank Regulators Fight for Desks as OCC Returns to New York Tower London Clears Final Hurdle for More High-Speed Trains to Europe Local Governments Vie for Fired Federal Workers America exported about $8.2 billion of dairy products last year, the second-highest on record, according to the US Department of Agriculture. Companies have built and expanded factories with the hope of shipping even more. China and Canada have already imposed retaliatory tariffs on some dairy from the US, raising the risk of crippling the industry's overseas prospects. 'The US market could not absorb that additional production coming online, particularly if you're talking about a pullback of exports,' said Shawna Morris, the National Milk Producers Federation's executive vice president of trade policy and global affairs. Shipments abroad 'will only continue to get more and more important.' More than half of US dairy exports are shipped to Mexico, Canada and China, which have all been targeted by Trump's tariff policies. Canada's package of retaliatory tariffs already includes 25% tariffs on American cheese, butter and dairy spreads, while China has placed 10% duties on some milk products. Trump is expected to announce so-called reciprocal tariffs on trading partners on Wednesday, while delayed 25% tariffs on goods under the US-Mexico-Canada trade agreement are also expected to come into effect. But while retaliatory tariffs are 'top of mind,' the dairy industry is also 'interested to see how the president might be able to use the leverage here, the threat of further actions, to drive real changes,' Morris said. Canada, for example, has a system limiting the amount of dairy imports under low tariffs that US producers have long considered unfair. Prices for dairy contracts through June have already slumped, factoring in 'sluggish sales' because of tariff threats and slow overall restaurant activity, said Corey Geiger, the lead dairy economist at farm lender CoBank's research arm. Milk futures traded in Chicago last month dropped to the lowest level since April 2024, while whey prices reached a five-month low. There are also concerns that proposed fees on Chinese-operated ships would 'substantially increase the cost of dairy exports, placing American dairy producers and exporters at a sharp disadvantage,' the US Dairy Export Council and the National Milk Producers Federation said in a letter to the US Trade Representative. Nearly 40% of American dairy exports are waterborne, according to the letter. LA Fire Victims Are Betting on a Radical Idea to Help Them Rebuild Trump's IRS Cuts Are Tempting Taxpayers to Cheat Google Is Searching for an Answer to ChatGPT Israel Aims to Be the World's Arms Dealer It's Nonstop Disaster Planning on College Campuses ©2025 Bloomberg L.P. Sign in to access your portfolio
Yahoo
01-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Nasdaq 100's Worst Quarter in Years Sealed by AI Bubble Fears
(Bloomberg) -- In a quarter marred by tariff uncertainty, US government spending cuts and the threat of recession, it is fears about a bubble brewing in artificial intelligence that have dealt the latest blow to the Nasdaq 100. What Frank Lloyd Wright Learned From the Desert Gold-Rush Fever Returns to Historic New Zealand Mining Town Bank Regulators Fight for Desks as OCC Returns to New York Tower London Clears Final Hurdle for More High-Speed Trains to Europe The tech-heavy benchmark posted its worst quarter in nearly three years, down 8.3%, after a pair of warnings last week fanned anxieties about a possible pullback in the hundreds of billions of dollars flowing into data center infrastructure. The renewed selling stamped out a nascent rebound and left investors ducking for cover, yet again. Listen to the Here's Why podcast on Apple, Spotify or anywhere you listen The damage is piling up among the stocks that had, until recently, been the market's biggest drivers. Chipmaker Nvidia Corp. has seen its shares tumble 28% from a January peak. Broadcom Inc. is down 33% from a record in December. Microsoft Corp., Inc. and Alphabet Inc. and Meta Platforms Inc. have all fallen 20% or more from their own records. The Nasdaq 100 closed almost unchanged on Monday after falling as much as 2.5% earlier in the day amid worries that President Donald Trump's anticipated tariff rollout on Wednesday will deal a blow to the economy. 'The questions about AI are coming at a time when there's increased uncertainty overall, and at a time when they were priced for perfection, or close to it,' said Michael Mullaney, director of global market research at Boston Partners. 'That makes them an extremely obvious place for investors who are broadly nervous to take profits.' Tech behemoths led US stocks higher for most of the past two and a half years on excitement about AI and the future profits it would bring. The companies building AI models are making huge investments in the chips and data centers needed to train and operate their models. At its peak in February, the Nasdaq 100 had more than doubled from a December 2022 low. While the average valuation in the index has fallen to 24 times estimated profits from 27 times last month, prices still remain elevated relative to the average over the past two decades, which sits around 20 times, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. The latest round of hand-wringing on AI was set off last week when Alibaba's co-founder said the rush to erect new facilities is getting ahead of demand for AI services. That was followed a day later by an analyst report about Microsoft — which alone has earmarked $80 billion for data center spending this year — walking away from new projects in the US and Europe due to oversupply. The warnings came not long after the emergence of advanced AI models out of China that were trained with fewer computing resources. Those models have challenged assumptions about the resources the US tech giants will need to assure their dominance. Doubts linger even though the four biggest spenders — Microsoft, Alphabet, Amazon and Meta — remain committed to capital expense plans that are expected to exceed $300 billion in their current fiscal years. Even a small pullback in that spending would have big implications for companies like Nvidia that have benefited from the flood of money flowing into everything from chips and servers to energy and networking gear. Meanwhile, there are growing questions about how soon AI tools will start to get broader uptake in corporate America. 'If the return on investment was more apparent, there'd be less worry about whether the hyperscalers will continue to invest the way they have been,' said Barry Knapp, managing partner at Ironsides Macroeconomics. The selloff has left many AI related stocks looking attractive to bulls, who expect the spending to continue as demand for the underlying services remains strong. OpenAI is reportedly expecting its revenues to triple this year and it is in talks to raise as much as $40 billion from Softbank Group Corp. and other investors. The pricing of Nvidia at 23 times profits expected over the next 12 months is looking 'defensive,' according to Melius Research analyst Ben Reitzes. However, the prevailing sentiment on Wall Street right now is clearly one of gloom. That was palpable in the initial public offering market where cloud-computing provider CoreWeave Inc.'s highly anticipated debut last week turned out to be a dud. The Nvidia-backed company, which provides AI computing services, has seen its shares fall about 7% since the offering priced well below its initial target. To Kim Forrest, chief investment officer at Bokeh Capital Partners, the whole picture shows how nervous investors have become about a slowdown in AI spending. 'It would have been a feeding frenzy in June of last year,' Forrest said of the CoreWeave debut. 'All of this adds up to too many dollars chasing too little computing center demand.' Top Tech News Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick has signaled he could withhold promised Chips Act grants as he pushes companies in line for federal semiconductor subsidies to substantially expand their US projects, according to eight people familiar with the matter. Xiaomi Corp. confirmed that one of its SU7 electric vehicles was involved in an accident on an expressway in China. Local media reported that three people died in the incident that's likely to spark scrutiny over the smart driving software deployed in many of today's cars. SoftBank Group Corp. is seeking a loan of as much as $16.5 billion to help fund artificial intelligence investments in the US, according to people familiar with the matter, in what would be the tech investor's largest-ever facility denominated solely in dollars. Intel Corp. Chief Executive Officer Lip-Bu Tan said the chipmaker will spin off assets that aren't central to its mission and create new products including custom semiconductors to try to better align itself with customers. Samsung Electronics Co. said on Tuesday that TM Roh, the head of its mobile business, will temporarily step into a new role to oversee its consumer and smartphone businesses. Bloomberg News is launching a new one-stop-shop wrap with all you need to know before the opening bell on Wall Street, including the biggest news breaking overnight, market insight and strategy, analyst actions, earnings previews and more. Click here to subscribe. Earnings Due Tuesday Postmarket nCino --With assistance from Carmen Reinicke and Subrat Patnaik. (Updates with tech news and earnings sections.) LA Fire Victims Are Betting on a Radical Idea to Help Them Rebuild Trump's IRS Cuts Are Tempting Taxpayers to Cheat Google Is Searching for an Answer to ChatGPT Israel Aims to Be the World's Arms Dealer How a US Maker of Rat-Proof Trash Bins Got Boxed in by Trump's Tariffs ©2025 Bloomberg L.P. Sign in to access your portfolio
Yahoo
01-04-2025
- Automotive
- Yahoo
US automakers make mad dash to persuade Trump to temper tariffs
(Bloomberg) — US automakers are making a last-ditch effort to sway the Trump administration on tariffs set to take effect this week, contending that levies on the thousands of parts they source abroad could have catastrophic effects on the industry. What Frank Lloyd Wright Learned From the Desert Gold-Rush Fever Returns to Historic New Zealand Mining Town Bank Regulators Fight for Desks as OCC Returns to New York Tower Ford Motor Co. (F), General Motors Co. (GM) and Chrysler parent Stellantis (STLA, are lobbying the administration to exclude certain low-cost car components from the planned tariffs, according to people familiar with the matter. Executives have met with the White House, the Commerce Department and the office of the US Trade Representative to discuss the exclusion, said the people, who asked not to be identified revealing internal discussions. President Donald Trump's levies, aimed at bolstering the American auto industry, stand to have ripple effects for the US carmakers that have increasingly turned to low-cost countries for the many parts that make up a modern automobile. The administration plans to tax auto components on top of the planned 25% tariffs on fully built vehicles, which are set to start April 3. Detroit's automakers have conceded that they're willing to pay tariffs on completed cars and large components like engines and transmissions, the people familiar with the matter said. But representatives for the companies have told the administration that levies on parts would drive up costs by billions of dollars, leading to layoffs and profit warnings that would run counter to Trump's goal of building up the industry, one of the people said. Representatives for the companies declined to comment. Trump on Monday declined to say whether the administration is considering exempting some car parts from the tariffs. He said he had already given automakers 'a break' by pushing off tariffs for a month. The US companies are seeking exemptions on low-value parts like sheaths of electrical wiring that course through modern cars, which are labor intensive to produce and tend to be made in Mexico and other low-wage countries. They argue that the combined levies would send car prices soaring and depress demand from American consumers, who are already confronting average prices approaching $50,000. The semiconductor shortage that roiled the auto industry just after the pandemic exposed the fragility of the global ecosystem for vehicle parts, said Jessica Caldwell, head of insights for automotive researcher 'Automakers are understandably concerned that tariffs on all parts could trigger similar issues,' Caldwell said. 'Considering the vast number of parts in a vehicle, such disruptions seem almost inevitable. Increased pressure on these smaller suppliers could lead to business failures, potentially causing significant chaos in vehicle production.' In the last few weeks, many automakers stockpiled cars in the US to avoid the tariff impact and car buyers flocked to dealerships to make purchases before the levies took effect. Speaking about the tariffs over the weekend, Trump told told NBC News that he 'couldn't care less if they raise prices because people are going to start buying American cars.' As the tariff deadline approaches, the automakers have sent their top brass to Washington in recent days to lobby directly with the administration, according to the people familiar with the matter. Trump on Monday said he met with Stellantis Chairman John Elkann. Ford Executive Chair Bill Ford, great-grandson of founder Henry Ford, met last week with Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick. GM Chief Executive Officer Mary Barra, Chief Financial Officer Paul Jacobson and other executives have been meeting with administration officials since the president announced the tariffs, people familiar said. While Trump's executive order calls for the 25% tariffs on fully built cars to start on April 3, the levies on major parts such as engines, transmissions and electrical systems would begin May 3. The president also is planning to announce reciprocal tariffs on multiple countries on April 2. It's unclear whether those milestones represent deadlines for when a deal must be reached on auto parts. The automakers sense there is an opening to get tariff relief on parts because that section of Trump's executive order came together late, as the document was being drafted on March 26, one of the people said. Since then, executives and their lobbyists have been working to educate the administration on the economics of the complex global web of auto parts production. For example, low-cost commodity parts, like video screens, are made almost exclusively overseas where wages are lower. If all auto parts made abroad were subject to import levies, there would be few, if any, tariff-free cars for sale in the US market, the person said. To try to win over Trump, the auto representatives have emphasized that they support his goals to build more automobiles in the US and to expand America's manufacturing base. They've pledged to make plans to do so, but they're aiming to get the break on parts first. —With assistance from Josh Wingrove, Gabrielle Coppola and Jennifer A. Dlouhy. LA Fire Victims Are Betting on a Radical Idea to Help Them Rebuild Trump's IRS Cuts Are Tempting Taxpayers to Cheat Google Is Searching for an Answer to ChatGPT Israel Aims to Be the World's Arms Dealer How a US Maker of Rat-Proof Trash Bins Got Boxed in by Trump's Tariffs ©2025 Bloomberg L.P. Sign in to access your portfolio
Yahoo
31-03-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Newsmax Founder Christopher Ruddy, Ex-NY Post Journalist, Is Now Billionaire
(Bloomberg) -- Newsmax Inc.'s debut as a public company has given founder and Chief Executive Officer Christopher Ruddy a fortune of about $3.3 billion after its shares surged 735%. What Frank Lloyd Wright Learned From the Desert Gold-Rush Fever Returns to Historic New Zealand Mining Town Bank Regulators Fight for Desks as OCC Returns to New York Tower The conservative cable news network sold $75 million of shares at $10 each in Monday's initial public offering. The stock closed at $83.51 after repeated trading pauses due to volatility. Ruddy's 39.2 million class A shares, owned through a revocable trust, have 10 votes each, giving him control of 81% of the company's votes. He didn't sell any shares in the New York Stock Exchange offering. Ruddy, 60, declined to comment. Other investors include Interactive Brokers Group Inc. founder Thomas Peterffy, who owns 23 million shares worth $1.9 billion through Conyers Investments LLC; Sheikh Sultan bin Jassim Al-Thani, a Qatari royal whose investment firm, Heritage Advisors, owns 19.7 million shares; and Vadim Shulman, a Ukrainian industrialist. Newsmax's share price gives the company a market value of more than $10.7 billion. The Boca Raton, Florida-based firm lost $72 million last year on revenue of about $171 million. Fox Corp., which is worth almost $25 billion and operates competing network Fox News, reported net income of $2.4 billion on $6.5 billion of revenue in the same period. Rupert Murdoch, who is chairman emeritus of Fox Corp., is worth $15.2 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. Ruddy founded Newsmax in 1998 as a conservative news website after previously working as a journalist at the New York Post and Pittsburgh Tribune-Review. The company launched a cable news channel in 2014. The son of a police officer, Ruddy grew up on Long Island, New York. After studying history at St. John's University, he earned a master's degree in public policy from the London School of Economics. He lives in West Palm Beach, Florida, although Newsmax also makes a corporate apartment in New York available to him. --With assistance from Bailey Lipschultz. (Updates with Ruddy declining to comment in paragraph four) Trump's IRS Cuts Are Tempting Taxpayers to Cheat Google Is Searching for an Answer to ChatGPT LA Fire Victims Are Betting on a Radical Idea to Help Them Rebuild Israel Aims to Be the World's Arms Dealer How a US Maker of Rat-Proof Trash Bins Got Boxed in by Trump's Tariffs ©2025 Bloomberg L.P. Sign in to access your portfolio
Yahoo
31-03-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Wells Fargo Sees Dollar Rallying as Trump Trade War Plays Out
(Bloomberg) — Wells Fargo & Co.'s currency strategists say the US dollar stands to be one of the market winners from President Donald Trump's trade war. What Frank Lloyd Wright Learned From the Desert Gold-Rush Fever Returns to Historic New Zealand Mining Town Bank Regulators Fight for Desks as OCC Returns to New York Tower Concerns about the fallout from his plan to keep raising tariffs has unsettled financial markets worldwide — dragging the dollar down along with stocks so far this year amid worries it could rekindle inflation and stall the US economy. But Wells Fargo strategists including Aroop Chatterjee said the currency's slide will likely be temporary: They said in a note to clients Monday that the dollar may rise anywhere from 1.5% to 11%, depending on various models of how high the US raises tariffs and how other countries respond. The main reason is that the US tariffs would weaken demand for overseas goods, dragging down foreign currencies. On top of that, the inflationary impacts will likely drive the Federal Reserve to keep interest rates elevated. The biggest gains, according to Wells Fargo, would come if other governments don't retaliate, with smaller gains depending on the degree of the response. 'The combination of competitiveness issues driving the stronger dollar plus monetary policy expectations driving the dollar — that's kind of how you end up with the strong dollar on tariffs,' Chatterjee said in an interview. The forecast comes after the US dollar slipped against most of its significant counterparts during the first three months of the year on concern Trump's policies could stall the economy. On Monday, world markets were whipsawed by fresh bouts of volatility as traders waiting for Trump's next tariff announcement on Wednesday. But the 'the global spillover effects from all this policy uncertainty and actual tariff increases are being significantly underpriced,' Chattterjee said. 'And that's kind of where we probably disagree with how the markets are currently positioned.' Trump's IRS Cuts Are Tempting Taxpayers to Cheat Google Is Searching for an Answer to ChatGPT LA Fire Victims Are Betting on a Radical Idea to Help Them Rebuild Israel Aims to Be the World's Arms Dealer How a US Maker of Rat-Proof Trash Bins Got Boxed in by Trump's Tariffs ©2025 Bloomberg L.P.
