Business/Markets/Stocks/Economics Random, Random

[ti-amie]

Tariff delay for auto industry won’t stop Ontario countermeasures, Ford’s office says
By Joshua Freeman
Published: March 05, 2025 at 10:21AM EST

Premier Doug Ford’s office says he will not be pausing or changing any tariff countermeasures in response to a one-month tariff delay for the auto industry.

Those measures include ripping up a $100 million deal with Elon Musk’s Starlink internet service, removing U.S. alcohol from LCBO shelves, blocking U.S. companies from participating in billions of dollars-worth of provincial procurement, and going through existing contracts “with a fine-tooth comb” to see what other deals with U.S. companies can be cancelled.

Ford has also threatened to slap a 25 per cent export tax on the electricity that Ontario sends to three U.S. states as soon as possible. That electricity powers 1.5 million homes and businesses in New York, Michigan and Minnesota.

Ford said Wednesday afternoon the province is unwilling to accept any tariffs on Canadian-made goods.

“I spoke to the Prime Minister earlier. We’re on the same page, zero tariffs, and we are not going to budge,” Ford said. “We aren’t going to buckle down. Let’s move forward to the USMCA deal, or CUSMA deal, or NAFTA, whatever you want to call it, and let’s start moving forward. But we will not budge. Zero tariffs. And that’s it.”

He made the comment following a cabinet meeting at Queen’s Park.

At about the same time, the White House confirmed that the U.S. government will give a one-month exemption on any autos coming into the country under the USMCA agreement negotiated by Trump in his first term.

However the relief is temporary and does nothing to remove the tariffs placed on the rest of the Canadian economy. The White House also confirmed that further retaliatory tariffs will go into effect on April 2.

Asked about the pause for the auto industry, Ford expressed skepticism, saying it could just be time for Trump to plan his next move.

“As all we all know, what the President says today may change tomorrow. We’ve seen this pattern, the goal post change constantly,” Ford said.

He added that “there’s no such thing as half pregnant” when it comes to having tariffs or not.

Ford said he believes that talk about the countermeasures has been effective at getting Washington’s attention.

“I think the American people are closest allies. They’re voicing their opinion. They’re frustrated, the CEOs, the market tanked. That’s what really caught his (Trump’s) attention,” Ford said. “I think the electricity (threat) definitely got more of the world’s attention, not just down there, but just being persistent.”

On his way into the meeting, Ford said he had a “good conversation” with U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick last night and that people should “stay tuned” for further developments in the trade war.

In an interview with ABC News, Ford said he feels Lutnick understands Canada’s position on the unfolding trade war between the two countries and the “chaos” it could bring.

That came after Lutnik told Bloomberg that there could be carve-outs for some industries.

“First of all, Secretary Lutnick is a super bright individual. He understands markets, he understands business,” Ford told ABC News Wednesday morning. “And it (the tariffs) turned the U.S. and Canada into mass chaos over the last couple days. You know, the market tanked $3 trillion. I know it’s coming back up a little bit, but they want certainty, and that’s all I was telling to the secretary. You know, don’t attack your closest friend and ally.”

Ford said that all Canada wants is a fair trade agreement and added that Lutnick understands.

“That’s what my message to him was, and he understands. He’s actually, he’s a good man.”

Sources told CTV News Toronto Tuesday that Ford and Lutnick had a “tough and aggressive” conversation in which Lutnick asked the premier to back off his threats about retaliatory measures.

Ford refused, as long as the U.S. measures are in place, but emphasized it’s not what he wants to do.

Ford told reporters Wednesday afternoon that it would be “pretty accurate” to characterize the conversation as tense. He confirmed that Lutnick asked him to tone down his talk about countermeasures and he refused.

In his interview with ABC, Ford also said that behind closed doors, Republican politicians agree that the trade war makes no sense for the economy in either country.

He reiterated that he has little desire to hit back at the U.S. economically, but will do so if need be.

“Canadians love Americans and they love the U.S.,” Ford said. “It’s unfortunate one person – it’s not the people of America, it’s not the elected officials – it’s one person that’s caused this this issue, and that was President Trump. And you know, we have to retaliate as much as we don’t want to, to our closest friends and allies.”

Ford did not offer further specifics on his threat to impose export tariffs, or even altogether cut off electricity that Ontario sends down south to power 1.5 million U.S. homes.

He said that retaliatory tariffs threatened by Trump would only worsen the situation.

“If he does that, it just goes back and forth, and it just hurts Americans and Canadians,” Ford said.

In a separate interview Wednesday with Bloomberg, Lutnick said he thinks a compromise of some sort may emerge eventually.

“My thinking is, it’s going to be somewhere in the middle,” Lutnick said. “So not 100 per cent all products, and not none. Somewhere in the middle because I think Mexico and Canada are trying their best and let’s see where we end up. So I do think somewhere in the middle is a likely outcome.”

-With files from CTV Toronto’s Siobhan Morris

https://www.ctvnews.ca/toronto/article/ ... od-enough/

[ti-amie]

Updated Thu, Mar 6 20255:15 PM EST

Dow tumbles 400 points, Nasdaq enters correction as trade policy fatigue ignites sell-off: Live updates
Alex Harring

Stocks resumed their steep pullback on Thursday as the latest concessions from the White House on President Donald Trump’s controversial tariff policies failed to calm rattled investors.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average
slid 427.51 points lower, or 0.99%, to 42,579.08, after falling more than 600 points at session lows. The S&P 500
tumbled 1.78% to 5,738.52. The Nasdaq Composite
dropped 2.61% to 18,069.26, officially closing in correction territory, which is when an index falls 10% from a recent high.

Thursday’s declines come as U.S. tariffs on Canadian, Mexican and Chinese imports have rocked financial markets after taking effect this week. Canada and China each responded with retaliatory levies of their own, while Mexico said it would unveil measures over the weekend. The Nasdaq has dropped more than 4% week to date, while the Dow and S&P 500 have slid around 2.9% and 3.6%, respectively. All three are on pace for their worst week since September 2024.

Thursday brought a return to selling after the White House’s announcement of a one-month delay for tariffs on automakers that sell cars that comply with the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement spurred a recovery rally on Wednesday. That gave hope to investors expecting the levies to be further walked back, in turn mitigating the expected hit to the U.S. economy.

Trump on Thursday announced that more Canadian and Mexican goods made in accordance with the USMCA agreement would receive a one-month extension on the taxes. But that news did not deliver the same upward momentum in the market seen in the prior session as uncertainty around the policy swirled.

Concerns mounted on Thursday afternoon after Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent argued in favor of tariffs, leaving investors questioning how far the White House would be willing to go in making compromises on the embattled policy over the long term. Investors appeared fatigued by the barrage of statements from administration members and changes to tariff policy in recent days.

“To the extent that another country’s practices harm our own economy and people, the United States will respond,” Bessent said during an Economic Club of New York event. “This is the America-first trade policy.”

Bessent also described Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau as a “numbskull,” while saying the administration was focused more on Main Street than Wall Street. The S&P 500 hit its lowest point since early November in the session.

“You’re just having confusion,” said Keith Lerner, chief market strategist at Truist. “That confusion is permeating into the day-to-day swings of the market.”

A continued unwind of the popular artificial intelligence trade that has boosted the market for more than a year also hurt stocks on Thursday.

Notably, chipmaker Marvell Technology dropped nearly 20% after the company issued mixed first-quarter guidance. Other semiconductor builders such as ON Semiconductor, Taiwan Semiconductor and Nvidia also slid.

On top of that, a string of recent economic reports raised alarm that Trump’s policies could hinder the U.S. economy. Those came ahead of Friday’s closely watched jobs report.

The Federal Reserve’s Beige Book and the Institute for Supply Management’s manufacturing reading both indicated fear of rising input costs because of the tariffs. Data from Challenger, Gray & Christmas released Thursday showed layoff announcements soared to 2020 highs, which the outplacement firm found was driven by Trump and billionaire Elon Musk’s efforts to shrink the federal government’s workforce.

https://www.cnbc.com/2025/03/05/stock-m ... dates.html

[ti-amie]

So today it's walk back the tariffs day? What'll it be tomorrow?

[ti-amie]

Financial Times
‪@financialtimes.com‬

Follow
Fund managers have said that Trump’s Make America Great Again agenda has instead unleashed a Make Europe Great Again trade that is reordering global financial markets. www.ft.com/content/2e81...

[ti-amie]

George Conway
‪@gtconway.bsky.social‬
TRUMP TARIFF CHESS

Feb 1: announces tariffs on
Feb 3: pauses tariffs on
Feb 27: announces tariffs on
Mar 4: imposes tariffs on
Mar 5: delays car tariffs
Mar 6: pauses tariffs on USMCA-compliant goods
Mar 7: threatens tariffs on dairy (250%) and lumber

[ponchi101]

That's not chess. That's craps.

[Owendonovan]

And why is no one blasting the insanity of this?

[dave g]

That's not chess. That's craps.

Or poker. Actually, I think it is "Which of my supporters do I need to please the most?"

[ti-amie]

White House downplays economic ‘blips’ as stock market tumbles
The sell-off comes amid economic uncertainty and after President Donald Trump declined to rule out the possibility of a recession.

Updated
March 10, 2025 at 4:04 p.m. EDT today at 4:04 p.m. EDT


Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange on March 7. (Charly Triballeau/AFP/Getty Images)

By Jeff Stein, Shannon Najmabadi and Aaron Gregg
President Donald Trump’s senior advisers downplayed fresh economic turbulence Monday as the administration’s escalating trade war deepened a sell-off on Wall Street and renewed fears about the stability of the U.S. economy.

As all three major U.S. stock indexes slumped, Trump’s team projected confidence that the volatility would prove temporary and that an economic boom set off by tax cuts would follow later this year. But investors have been unsettled by Trump’s willingness to impose tariffs that go even beyond his sweeping campaign promises, with hundreds of billions in new import duties already levied and trillions more poised to take effect on April 2. The federal government could shut down this weekend, too, if Congress doesn’t extend federal funding — a possibility Trump acknowledged to reporters on Sunday night.

The growing conviction that Trump will stick by massive new tariffs regardless of the economic fallout — amplified by the president’s refusal to rule out a recession on Sunday — fueled the drop across equity markets. The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed down 890 points, or 2.1 percent, while the S&P 500 fell 2.7 percent and the Nasdaq composite index plummeted 4.0 percent.

“There are a lot of reasons to be extremely bullish about the economy going forward. But for sure, this quarter, there are some blips in the data,” White House National Economic Council Director Kevin Hassett told CNBC on Monday. “What’s going to happen is the first quarter is going to squeak into the positive category, and then the second quarter is going to take off as everybody sees the reality of the tax cuts.”

Hassett’s comments appeared not to immediately persuade investors who have grown increasingly skittish about the impact of Trump’s tariff policies in his first weeks in office. The president last week implemented 25 percent duties on all imports from Canada and Mexico — the nation’s two biggest trading partners — before paring back those plans so they don’t affect goods imported under the North America trade pact reached during Trump’s first term. Trump added another 10 percent to tariffs on all Chinese products last week, bringing the total tax on some imports from China to 45 percent.

Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan Chase last week both downgraded their forecasts for first-quarter economic growth, citing tariffs and broader uncertainty surrounding the Trump’s administration’s economic policies.

BNP Paribas said it anticipates “lasting damage to global economic activity” even if the recently imposed tariffs are removed, with substantially greater damage to be priced into the market the longer tariffs stay in effect.

Worries among Americans that their household financial situations would deteriorate rose considerably in February to the highest level since November 2023, according to a Federal Reserve Bank of New York report out Monday.

“What’s happening is very straightforward: Tariffs are what is causing the sell-offs across markets, and the risk of a slower pace of growth in the U.S. economy,” said Joe Brusuelas, chief economist at tax and consulting firm RSM US.

During Trump’s first term, his administration repeatedly backed off new tariffs when they led to a decline in the stock market. But the president has gone out of his way in recent days to suggest that will not be the case in his second term. He said Thursday that he is not looking at the stock market, and said in an interview broadcast Sunday that it will take “a little time” before Americans see a payoff from his policies.

Trump also declined to rule out a recession.

“I hate to predict things like that,” Trump said. “There is a period of transition, because what we’re doing is very big. We’re bringing wealth back to America.”

It was the second time the White House imposed stiff tariffs only to quickly reverse course, leading to wild ups and downs on Wall Street. Last week, the S&P 500 and Nasdaq tumbled 3 percent and 3.4 percent, respectively, while the Dow dropped 2.3 percent.

Uncertainty in the market extended to the tech sector, where growth-oriented stocks linked to artificial intelligence and chips could see a shake-up as the Trump administration imposes harsh new duties on China, said Wedbush senior analyst Dan Ives. Apple closed down nearly 4.9 percent on Monday, while Nvidia lost 5.1 percent.

“The Street can’t take not knowing the rules of the game under Trump with recession fears growing, and this is causing a mini panic for tech investors,” Ives said in an email.

Tech stocks’ historically strong performance — particularly among a handful of top-performing “Magnificent Seven” stocks that includes Apple and Nvidia — has led market growth in recent years.

The recent sell-off might reflect investors’ desire to “lock in gains” in those areas, and a retrenchment from the more speculative, future-growth stocks on the Nasdaq toward more stable offerings, like utilities, said Mark Mahaney, managing director and the head of the internet research at Evercore.

In a sign of the increased turmoil, the Cboe volatility index, known as Wall Street’s “fear gauge,” jumped 19.5 percent by the end of the trading day. Investors will be closely watching the inflation report coming Wednesday, analysts said.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/business ... all-trump/

[Owendonovan]

Damn immigrants.

[ti-amie]

US stocks register heavy falls as White House tries to talk up Trump tariffs
Dow, S&P 500 and Nasdaq all down by at least 2% and Tesla shares fall 15% for worst day since September 2020

Lauren Aratani in New York
Mon 10 Mar 2025 16.18 EDT

The US stock market continued to drop on Monday as the White House denied that Donald Trump’s trade policies were causing lasting chaos within the economy.

The S&P 500 fell 2.7%, the Dow Jones dropped 2%, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq dropped 4% as investors sold shares in the so-called “magnificent seven” – Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, Microsoft, Meta, Nvidia and Tesla. Tesla’s shares had their worst day since September 2020, falling 15%.

The fall came a day after Trump skirted around questions about a potential recession on Sunday. Asked if he expected a recession, Trump said: “There is a period of transition, because what we’re doing is very big … It takes a little time, but I think it should be great for us.”

Kevin Hassett, the head of the national economic council, told CNBC on Monday that any uncertainty around Trump’s trade policies would be resolved by early April and that the policies were “creating jobs in the US”.

“It’s starting to have the intended effect of onshoring in the US,” Hassett said, citing recent job figures that showed an increase of 10,000 manufacturing jobs in February. For context, the increase represents about a 0.08% increase in manufacturing jobs, of which there are about 12.7m in the US.

Hassett insisted: “There’s a lot of reasons to be extremely bullish going forward,” saying that the Trump administration was still aiming for “the biggest tax cuts in history, massive deregulation and a productivity boom from artificial intelligence”.

“Everyone is talking about uncertainty. Surely there’s uncertainty in exactly how the trade policy will work itself out, but the tax policy is almost sure to work,” Hassett said.

Over the last week, as the US stock market has slumped, Trump and his administration have been busy working the talkshow circuits trying to allay growing concerns of a recession and continue to push for his trade policies.

Since coming into office, Trump has started a trade war with America’s three largest trading partners. Trump has increased tariffs on China, first by 10% and now by 20%. He has pulled back on 25% tariffs against goods from Mexico and Canada, though he is still threatening to impose the tariffs against the two countries next month.

Atlanta Federal Reserve’s closely followed GDP Now tracker – which forecasts US economic growth – is suggesting the economy could contract in the first three months of the year, largely due to an outsized drag from net trade.

Trump has repeatedly balked at the idea that his trade policies have caused uncertainty.

Howard Lutnick, Trump’s commerce secretary, told NBC’s Meet the Press: “There’s going to be no recession in America,” comparing doubts about Trump’s trade policies to previous skepticism over Trump winning the election.

“You are going to see over the next two years the greatest set of growth coming from America,” Lutnick said.

https://www.theguardian.com/business/20 ... ck-markets

[Owendonovan]

Tesla stock December 17, 2024, $479. Today's price, $222.

Seems like a good stock to game if you game it the right way. Someone is.

[ti-amie]

‪Rob Reiner Fan‬ ‪@rob-reiner-fan.bsky.social‬
·
Trump has declined to rule out a recession this year. Ten of the eleven U.S. recessions between 1953 and 2020 began under Republican presidents. You voted for this, MAGA.

[ti-amie]

[Suliso]

Also you need to look how quickly markets recovered. By that measure 1929 was way more important than 1987 and 2020.