Wall Street Rattled as Trump’s Trade Gambit Roils Global Markets
The specter of “Liberation Day” ignites volatility, inflation fears, and a crisis of confidence from New York to Tokyo.
Trump’s Tariff Confession, Buried in a Leaked Call, Shatters His Own Economic Myth
Trump’s latest tariff move undercuts his own economic rhetoric, revealing a chaotic agenda that harms the very American manufacturing future he claims to champion.
Deadly Bird Flu Strain ‘Could Make COVID Seem Like A Walk In The Park,’ Expert Says
A dangerous strain of bird flu has spread to U.S. dairy cows, raising fears of a new endemic threat with pandemic potential.
The Economy Holds Its Breath as Trade Tensions Cast a Long Shadow
U.S. and global economies are showing signs of slowing as trade tensions, led by impending U.S. tariffs, fuel uncertainty and dampen business and consumer confidence.
Trouble at Tesla and Protests against Trump’s Tariffs Suggest Consumer Boycotts are Starting to Bite
By Erin O’Brien and Justine Coneybeer
When the United States starts a trade war with your country, how do you fight back? For individuals, one option is to wage a personal trade war and boycott products from the U.S.
President Donald Trump has said no nation will be exempt from his tariffs, and this includes both Australia and New Zealand. His tariffs on all steel and aluminium imports, in particular, could hurt the sector in Australia, while New Zealand’s meat and wine exports to the U.S. could also feel the effect.
So far, political leaders have responded differently. Canada, Mexico, and the European Union have imposed reciprocal tariffs on the U.S., while Australia has indicated it will not retaliate.
But whether governments choose to push back or not, citizens in those and other countries are making their own stands. This includes artists such as renowned pianist András Schiff, who has cancelled his upcoming U.S. tour.
Most notably, collective outrage at the U.S. president has led to a growing global boycott of Elon Musk’s Tesla due to his role in the Trump administration. Sales of new Tesla vehicles are down 72% in Australia and 76% in Germany. The share price has dropped by more than 50% since December 2024, with calls for Musk to step down as chief executive.
Some governments are even encouraging consumer boycotts. The Canadian government, for example, has urged citizens to “fight back against the unjustified U.S. tariffs” by purchasing Canadian products and holidaying in Canada.
Canadians are clearly embracing this advice. Road trips to the U.S. have dropped by more than 20% in the past month, and U.S. liquor brands have been removed from some Canadian stores altogether.
This rise in calls for boycotts of American brands and companies is unsurprising in the Trump 2.0 era, where the lines between government and corporate America have become increasingly blurred.
Political change by proxy
When people want to protest a government policy but have no political leverage because they’re not citizens of that country, boycotting corporations or brands gives them a voice. These actions are sometimes called “surrogate” or “proxy” boycotts.
This form of “political consumerism,” where individuals align their consumption choices with their values, is now one of the most common forms of political participation in western liberal democracies.
When France opposed the war in Iraq in 2003, U.S. supporters of the war aimed boycotts at French imports. Consumers in the U.S., the United Kingdom, and elsewhere have boycotted Russian goods over the invasion of Ukraine and targeted Israel over its military action and policies in Gaza and the West Bank.
Most famously, protests against the apartheid regime in South Africa from the 1950s through to the 1990s helped isolate and eventually change its government.
The current boycotts are not just protesting Trump’s trade war, of course. They are also about the role of unelected leaders from the corporate world, such as Musk and the heads of the Big Tech and social media companies, and their perceived self-interest and influence.
Trump has responded angrily to consumer boycotts, calling the actions against Tesla “illegal,” which they are not. Indeed, political leaders like Trump often argue that consumer action, rather than government regulation, should be relied on to ensure corporations conform to social expectations.
How to wage a personal trade war
Consumer boycotts do create change under certain conditions – typically when there is a contained problem that the targeted corporation has the power to solve.
For example, consumer boycotts against Nestlé in the 1970s over false and dangerous marketing of powdered milk for infants led to changes in the firm’s marketing approaches. Boycotts of Nike products over sweatshop conditions for workers had a direct impact on the company’s bottom line and led to improvements.
Things may still need to improve at Nestlé and Nike, but these boycotts show consumer pressure can catalyse corporate action. However, it is much harder – though not impossible – for boycott campaigns to succeed when the target is a government.
Consumers boycotting American products can amplify the impact of their protest by also lobbying retailers. For example, if enough consumers stop buying a bottle of soft drink from the U.S., major supermarkets like Woolworths and Foodstuffs will stop buying thousands of bottles.
There are also other ways to “vote with your wallet.” People can engage in “political investorism” by using their power as a shareholder, bank customer, or pension-fund member to express their political views.
After Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, for example, investors sought to divest from Russian companies, and superannuation funds were pressured by their members to do the same.
As consumers and investors, individuals can wage a personal trade war, sending a clear message. Trump may not be willing to listen to the leaders of allied nations, but if consumer and investor pressure is sustained and spreads globally, he may yet hear the voice of corporate America.
This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article.
SEC Crypto Task Force to Host Four More Roundtables
Washington D.C.—The Securities and Exchange Commission’s Crypto Task Force announced today it will hold four more roundtables in its ongoing series discussing crypto asset regulation. The dates and topics for each roundtable are as follows:
April 11, 2025 – Between a Block and a Hard Place: Tailoring Regulation for Crypto Trading
April 25, 2025 – Know Your Custodian: Key Considerations for Crypto Custody
May 12, 2025 – Tokenization – Moving Assets Onchain: Where TradFi and DeFi Meet
June 6, 2025 – DeFi and the American Spirit
Each roundtable will be open to the public at SEC’s headquarters (100 F Street, N.E., Washington, D.C.) and streamed live on SEC.gov. For in-person attendance, please click on the specific roundtable above and then click the registration button. Please note that space may be limited, and visitors will be subject to security checks. For virtual attendance, there is no need to register, and a recording will be posted on SEC.gov at a later date. For more information about each session including the agenda and speakers, which will be posted as they are available, or to communicate directly with the Crypto Task Force on any of the roundtable topics or other crypto-related issues, please visit the Crypto Task Force webpage.
“The Crypto Task Force roundtables are an opportunity for us to hear a lively discussion among experts about what the regulatory issues are and what the Commission can do to solve them,” said Commissioner Hester M. Peirce, leader of the Crypto Task Force.
Launched on January 21 by Acting SEC Chairman Mark T. Uyeda, the Crypto Task Force was established to help the Commission draw clear regulatory lines, provide realistic paths to registration, craft sensible disclosure frameworks, and deploy enforcement resources judiciously.
If you are interested in being considered as a panelist for one of the upcoming roundtables, please email crypto@sec.gov with the subject line “Potential Panelist.” Due to expected demand, the Crypto Task Force will not be able to accommodate all requests.
Canada Freezes Rebate Payments to Tesla, Bans it from Future Rebate Programs Due to Tariffs
(Reuters) – Canada has frozen all rebate payments for Tesla and banned the electric-vehicle maker from future EV rebate programs, Transport Minister Chrystia Freeland said on Tuesday.
No rebate payments will be made until each claim is individually investigated and determined to be valid, Freeland said in an emailed statement shared by her office.
Freeland also directed the transport department to revise eligibility requirements for future iZEV programs to ensure that Tesla vehicles are not eligible as long as the “illegitimate and illegal U.S. tariffs are imposed against Canada.”
Tesla did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.
U.S. President Donald Trump has imposed a slew of new tariffs, with the bulk due in early April, in the form of steep 25% taxes on most goods from Canada and Mexico. Trump on Monday said automobile tariffs are coming soon, although not all of his threatened levies would be enforced on April 2.
Canada has frozen C$43 million ($30.11 million) of rebate payments for Tesla. The order to stop the payments came before Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney announced a general election on April 28, according to the Toronto Star, which reported the news earlier.
The Star reported earlier this month that Tesla filed an extraordinary number of EV rebate claims in the final days of the program in January, with a single Tesla dealership in Quebec City claiming nearly C$20 million in public subsidies by documenting more than 4,000 electric vehicle sales over a single weekend.
Toronto stopped providing financial incentives for Tesla vehicles purchased as taxis or ride shares because of trade tensions with the U.S. earlier this month.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk, a close ally of Trump, has been leading the White House effort to shrink the federal government and budget as the head of the so-called Department of Government Efficiency.
($1 = 1.4279 Canadian dollars)
(Reporting by Juby Babu in Mexico City and Ismail Shakil in Ottawa; Editing by Alan Barona)
Wall Street Sees Signs That Worst of U.S. Stock Selloff Is Over
(Bloomberg) — Traders battered by one of the fastest U.S. stock slides on record may be poised for a reprieve.
Equity strategists at firms including JPMorgan Chase & Co., Morgan Stanley, and Evercore ISI are advising clients that the worst of the recent downturn is likely behind them, citing metrics from investor sentiment and positioning to favorable seasonality.
Major American stock indexes bounced back Monday after reports that President Donald Trump plans to take a more targeted approach with the tariffs he will roll out on April 2, easing some concerns that his escalating trade war will fan inflation and stall the economy.
Those worries — along with lingering fears that the artificial intelligence-fueled Big Tech rally had run too far — had knocked stocks down sharply since mid-February, sending the S&P 500 Index into its seventh-fastest 10% drop from a record high in nearly a century and erasing over $5.6 trillion from the index’s market capitalization, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
JPMorgan said the bulk of that came from a cohort of momentum stocks, the 50 names with the strongest price performance in the S&P 500, which had erased two years of gains in three weeks. But the selloff also eased the crowding in the segment that had built up during the previous rally.
“As a result, the risk of another violent unwind should be low in the short term,” JPMorgan strategists led by Dubravko Lakos-Bujas said in a March 21 note to clients.
On Monday, pockets of the market that were hardest hit recently saw the biggest recoveries. A gauge of so-called Magnificent Seven stocks jumped 3.4%. Tesla Inc. soared 12% in the largest one-day gain since Nov. 6, the session directly after Election Day. The broader S&P 500 advanced 1.8%.
Morgan Stanley’s Michael Wilson joined Lakos-Bujas in striking a more optimistic tone, indicating that seasonal factors, a falling U.S. dollar, Treasury yields, and ultra-pessimistic sentiment and positioning are paving the way for a “tradeable rally in the near term.” And at Evercore ISI, chief equity and quantitative strategist Julian Emanuel said rhetoric on the economy by the Trump administration “has reset the bar such that sentiment is so negative right now.”
“We think the two steps backward portion we lived through is in the process of resolving itself, and you’re likely to get three steps forward toward higher prices,” he said.
The selloff has left Wall Street conflicted about whether the time has come to buy the dip, however, as the market continues to be shadowed by trade-policy uncertainty and concerns that the enthusiasm about artificial intelligence pushed tech valuations too high. While strategists see a period of calm ahead, they’ve largely avoided giving clients a resounding all clear to pile into U.S. equities for now.
That’s in significant part because Trump’s planned announcement of universal, reciprocal trade tariffs next month may again alter investors’ expectations about the economic fallout.
Evercore’s Emanuel said it’s the next catalyst for the market. Morgan Stanley’s Wilson says he’s also watching employment and manufacturing data along with earnings revisions as “signposts for a more durable rally.”
At 22V Research, chief market strategist and president Dennis DeBusschere on Monday said that market internals have improved in a way that suggests the U.S. economy is not moving into a recession. The unusually low investor sentiment — given the still solid economic data — suggests “stronger than normal returns” in the one-, three-, and six-month periods if the impact of tariffs wind up being minor. But like others, he’s waiting for more clarity around the levies to firm up his views.
“Assuming tariffs are not a major headwind to growth, fundamental factors should rebound throughout 2025,” he said. But “our conviction that tariffs will not lead to deeply negative outcomes is low, which is why we will wait until the April 2 announcement to press this longer-term view.”
With assistance from Matt Turner.
Is Moderna Stock a Sell as RFK Jr. Reportedly Mulls A Massive Funding Pull?
Moderna (MRNA) stock is under pressure, again, as new Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. reportedly mulls pulling the company’s federal funding to develop a bird flu vaccine.
Chief Executive Stephane Bancel said recently that Moderna would work “productively” with the Trump administration.
“Vaccines are a very important piece of keeping people healthy and we look forward to having those discussions,” Bancel said on the company’s Feb. 14 earnings conference call with analysts.
But reports emerged recently that the Department of Health and Human Services it considering pulling the $590 million contract Moderna received in late January to develop a bird flu vaccine. The funding came from the Center for Biological Advance Research and Development Authority, a division of HHS. The funding was awarded several weeks before Kennedy was confirmed as the HHS secretary. Kennedy is a widely known vaccine skeptic who has called into question their safety.
The Food and Drug Administration also unexpectedly canceled the annual meeting scheduled for March to select the strains to target in this year’s flu vaccines. Moderna is testing a standalone flu shot in a two-season test that could wrap this year.
Moderna also reported steep losses for the fourth quarter, but topped sales expectations. The company kept its sales outlook for 2025.
So, all in all, is Moderna stock a buy or a sell today?
During the fourth quarter, Moderna lost $2.91 per share on $966 million in sales. Losses flipped from a year-earlier gain of 55 cents and missed forecasts for a narrower loss. Sales beat forecasts, but fell 66% year over year.
Both its products — Covid vaccine Spikevax and the respiratory syncytial virus vaccine called mResvia — beat sales projections. Spikevax generated $923 million in sales, ahead of calls for $909 million, while mResvia brought in $15 million in sales. Analysts polled by FactSet forecasted $13 million.
Moderna kept its outlook for 2025. It expects $1.5 billion to $2.5 billion in sales this year. The midpoint of the guidance is far below analysts’ call for $2.32 billion.
“While the third quarter represented an encouraging start to the company’s redesigned path on the cost-cutting side, today’s updates seemingly cloud the trajectory,” William Blair’s Minter said in a Jan. 13 report to clients following Moderna’s presentation at the J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference.
Moderna stock fell by 17% that day.
The company is working hard to expand its portfolio.
Moderna’s technology focuses on helping the body create specific messenger RNA, or mRNA. When the mRNA sees a specific target in the body — like the spike protein on the coronavirus that causes Covid — it latches on, preventing the virus from spreading in the body.
Moderna expects the FDA to make an approval decision on its next-generation Covid vaccine in late May. The company is also working to expand its RSV vaccine to adults younger than age 60 and expects to have pivotal test data from its norovirus vaccine later this year.
Further, Moderna is working on a cancer vaccine in partnership with Merck (MRK). In this case, the mRNA grabs onto a specific target bespoke to each patient’s cancer. The companies are testing the cancer vaccine in combination with Merck’s blockbuster drug, Keytruda. Moderna stock surged more than 8% after Oracle (ORCL) Chairman Larry Ellison said in January that mRNA-based cancer vaccines could be developed in under 48 hours with the help of artificial intelligence.
But sales are expected to hit a floor this year. Analysts don’t expect Moderna to become profitable, on a strict, as-reported basis, until 2029.
Further, the company’s cytomegalovirus vaccine study missed its mark in a recent study. Cytomegalovirus, or CMV, doesn’t usually carry symptoms. But it can cause fever, sore throat, swollen glands, stomach pain and jaundice.
Moderna Stock’s Bearish Ratings
Moderna stock is showing bearish fundamentals and technicals.
First, shares are trading below their 50-day and 200-day moving averages, according to MarketSurge. Second, the stock is not forming a base for investors to watch. Even if it does, it will likely face a ceiling at its key moving averages.
Shares also have a poor IBD Digital Relative Strength Rating of 6. This means Moderna stock ranks in the bottom 6% of all stocks when it comes to 12-month performance. Moderna shares also have a low Composite Rating of 17, putting them in the bottom one-fifth of all stocks when it comes to technical and fundamental measures.
Its EPS Rating is its highest rating at a still-low 28. And Moderna is on track for years of losses. The company is working on cutting its costs and now expects to reduce its costs by $1 billion this year and $500 million next year.
Moderna stock peaked at 497.49 in August 2021, at the height of the Covid pandemic. Since then, the stock has fallen precipitously, down more than 93% over the past four years.
Despite a promising move after Ellison noted the potential for AI in cancer vaccine development, Moderna stock isn’t a buy.
In fact, shares were definitively a sell on Jan. 13 when they tumbled below their 50-day line. Though shares have made moves to retake their key line, Moderna stock has mostly closed below its 50-day moving average this year.
It could take several years for Moderna’s pipeline to really pan out, analysts say. In the meantime, its Covid vaccine has yet to hit a bottom and its RSV vaccine is coming from behind in competition with Pfizer (PFE) and GSK (GSK).
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Follow Allison Gatlin on X/Twitter at @AGatlin_IBD.
