When the Covid pandemic hit, factories in China shut down and global shipping traffic slowed. Within a matter of a few weeks, products began disappearing from U.S. store shelves and American firms that depend on foreign materials were going out of business. A similar trend is beginning to play out, but this time the catalyst…
The two largest U.S. oil companies reported their lowest first-quarter profits in years on Friday as they braced for the economic fallout from President Trump’s trade war, which has weakened consumer confidence and pushed oil prices down. U.S. crude prices slipped below $60 a barrel this week, a threshold below which many companies cannot make…
One hundred days of President Trump. Seventy days of whipsaw trading in financial markets. Thirty-two days of losses. More than $6.5 trillion wiped from the value of public companies. For financial markets, the 7 percent drop in the S&P 500 is the worst start to a presidential term since Gerald R. Ford took over from…
President Trump’s tariffs have roiled financial markets and upended global trading patterns. Now they are disrupting measures of economic growth as well. U.S. gross domestic product, adjusted for inflation, declined at an 0.3 percent annual rate in the first three months of the year, the Commerce Department said Wednesday. It was, on the surface, a…
Cutting federal funding for scientific research could cause long-run economic damage equivalent to a major recession, according to a new study from researchers at American University. In recent months, the Trump administration has sought to cancel or freeze billions of dollars in grants to scientists at Columbia, Harvard and other universities, and has moved to…
President Trump signed an executive order on Tuesday that will walk back some tariffs for carmakers, administration officials said, removing some levies that Ford, General Motors and others have complained would backfire on U.S. manufacturing by raising the cost of production and squeezing their profits. The changes will modify Mr. Trump’s tariffs so that carmakers…
UPS said on Tuesday that it would cut 20,000 jobs this year as part of a long-term plan to reduce costs and bolster profit. The cuts come as President Trump’s tariffs are prompting some UPS customers to ship fewer goods. The company said “macroeconomic uncertainty” prevented it from updating its forecasts for revenue and profits…
President Trump has expressed little interest in fighting climate change. One of his key cabinet officials has even sought to evaluate whether humanity benefits from a warming climate, in a bid to undermine environmental rules. Yet even as he works to accelerate oil and gas production, Mr. Trump’s economic approach may inadvertently reduce greenhouse gas…
General Motors is abandoning a previous forecast for solid profit growth this year as a result of the uncertainty created by President Trump’s trade policies, the automaker said on Tuesday. The Trump administration imposed a 25 percent tariffs on imported cars this month and has said it will impose a 25 percent duty on imported…
The Trump administration said it plans to announce measures as early as Tuesday to ease the impact of tariffs on imported cars and car parts to give automakers more time to relocate production to the United States. Tariffs of 25 percent on imported vehicles and on auto parts will remain in place. But the tariffs…