In This Article:
As world officials react to the Trump administration's newest tariffs that put 25% levies on imports from Canada and Mexico along with a 10% tax on Chinese imports, how is Corporate America responding to these trade policies?
Market Domination host Julie Hyman lays out the mentions top CEOs have made about President Trump's tariffs in recent earnings calls, including comments from Target (TGT) Brian Cornell, Best Buy (BBY) Corie Barry, AutZone (AZO) CFO Jamere Jackson, and MASCO (MAS) CFO Richard Westenberg.
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This post was written by Luke Carberry Mogan.
Well, as tariffs have officially gone into effect today, companies across the country began to warn of the impact. According to AlphaSense, the number of mentions on of tariffs on earnings calls has skyrocketed this quarter and they track, even if it's just one mentioned during a call, they count that as one. They don't count it as you as many times as you say it on a call, but obviously, it is much more a to topic of discussion. And we were just discussing this with Libby Cantrell. Are companies going to pass it through to customers? Target chief executive officer Brian Cornell telling reporters following results today that, quote, "depending on the level of tariffs, we're going to have to take some level of action." Presumably that action would in part be raising prices. Another example, after reporting an earnings beat this morning, Best Buy CEO Corie Barry, she warned as well about tariffs saying that they expect to see an impact moving forward and that the vast majority of the product assortment that we have in some way shape or form right now is subject to some level of tariffs. She talked about the China and Mexico are the top two sources of imports of products for her company, and she said, uh, it's highly likely that there will be, um, an increase in prices because of the increase in tariffs. Then there's AutoZone, the CEO CFO there, Jamere Jackson, saying on the call that there are several tariff-related outcomes that could impact their goals. He said to be clear, we intend to maintain our margin profile post tariffs and we expect the entire industry will behave in a rational way as our historical experience has shown and that again implies some pass-through in the home improvement sector, goes on and on here. Masco CFO Richard Westenberger saying at a conference to, quote, expect that you'll see associated price increases appropriate and necessary to help mitigate the tariff implications. You get the picture. Many companies in different sectors in this country are bracing for these tariffs and are preparing potentially to raise prices as a result.
