The day Trump’s tariff threats turned into a harsh reality for CEOs and investors
Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. Poster board in hand, President Trump told the world the new price for doing business in America. And it was steep.
Stock market futures sank and the U.S. dollar slumped. Shares of some of America’s best-known businesses, from Apple and Nvidia to Nike and General Motors, sold off on fears that new trade barriers would swallow their profits and drive up prices to levels that would sap demand for their products.
As details of the announcement spread by text messages and tweets, executives started to realize that Trump’s tariff threats were becoming a harsh reality. Many executives and investors spent the hours after the Rose Garden ceremony trying to understand how far the contagion will spread. China and Europe were preparing their responses.
“It reminds me of trying to manage during Covid," said Austin Ramirez, chief executive of Husco, which makes parts for automakers and other manufacturers. “The managerial time-suck that Covid was, this strikes me as the same thing." Dan Ives, managing director of Wedbush Securities, also was hit with flashbacks to March 2020, when the onset of the Covid pandemic sent shock waves through Wall Street. “That almost looked like an Armageddon chart.
My initial reaction was, worse than worst case. This is going to be an all-time panic moment," said Ives. “I almost couldn’t breathe." Calls began pouring in after Trump’s press conference from investors in shock, Ives said, and after hours on the phone from Europe to the Middle East to Asia, he still needed to return some 50 calls.
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