In this podcast, Motley Fool analyst Asit Sharma and host Dylan Lewis discuss:
- The Trump administration’s plans for tariffs on imports from Canada, Mexico, and China, and the de minimus exemption on imports below $800.
- How businesses like cross-border railroad Canadian Pacific Kansas City are responding to tariffs potentially affecting the flow and volume of goods.
- OpenAI and Softbank‘s latest set of announcements — a $3 billion enterprise contract and joint venture to bring artificial intelligence offerings to Japanese businesses.
In the week before President Donald Trump’s inauguration, the FDA announced that Zyn, the nicotine pouch, would be allowed to stay on the market. Motley Fool host Mary Long talks with analyst Nick Sciple about what regulatory changes mean for big tobacco’s “smoke-free” future.
To catch full episodes of all The Motley Fool’s free podcasts, check out our podcast center. To get started investing, check out our beginner’s guide to investing in stocks. When you’re ready to invest, check out this top 10 list of stocks to buy.
Dylan Lewis: We’re going Global, checking in on trade and AI investments. Motley Fool Money starts now. I’m Dylan Lewis, and I’m joining over the airwaves by Motley Fool senior analyst Asit Sharma. Asit, thanks for joining me today.
Asit Sharma: Dylan, happy Monday.
Dylan Lewis: As we check the news, it’s clear the Trump administration focusing on trade today, catching a lot of headlines, and affecting the markets a little bit. Lots to unpack there. So let’s dive right in. Over the weekend, President Trump implementing a 25% additional tariff on imports from Canada, also from Mexico, and then a 10% additional tariff on imports from China. This all tied to the administration’s efforts to tighten up border and security work. The market processed this very quickly and swiftly with some red Asit. We saw this hit the major indices, but also companies that are in a lot of the categories you would expect to be affected by tariffs.
Asit Sharma: Yes, Dylan, so it feels a little broad based here, and you see some darker red ink spilled in industries that have more of an impact. Think about the auto industry in the US, companies like GM, obviously, with this supply going through Canada, the United States, Mexico, to build an automobile. That makes a lot of sense. I think you saw also just on a more global basis, that the idea of surprise as you alluded to. Because we’ve been through this route before with the previous Trump administration, and the sense coming away from that was that tariffs would be implemented a little more gradually and they’re also unpredictable when they come from the Trump administration. So just the swiftness and I think the big numbers, the 25% numbers on imports from Canada and Mexico took investors a little bit by surprise. I think took companies by surprise, too, because I didn’t see much movement of inventory, people trying to get stuff into the United States before tariffs went into effect, even though the Trump administration had said, Look, it’s going to be very soon after Trump assumes office. So we have on many levels, I think investors trying to sort out what this means, as well as businesses trying to understand the implications going forward.
