Markets plunged Tuesday morning after President Trump seemed to raise the stakes in U.S. trade relations with both France and China.
During the NATO summit in London, he doubled-down on threats to tax French goods in retaliation for the country's taxes on U.S. tech and also suggested the China trade deal may be delayed until after the 2020 election.
U.S. Trade Representative Robert E. Lighthizer announced that the administration is considering imposing $2.4 billion in tariffs on France in retaliation for its digital tax, which investigators found would harm American technology companies. The U.S. would target cheese, Champagne, handbags, and more with tariffs of up to 100 percent.
"The American companies — the tech companies — they're not my favorite people because they are not for me," Trump said to reporters while sitting next to French President Emmanuel Macron at a NATO meeting this morning. "We want to tax them [U.S. tech companies], that's not for someone else to tax."
Macron said he believed "we can settle this situation with President Trump."
"I'm not in love with those companies. If anybody is going to take advantage of our companies, it's going to be us," Trump said during the meeting that covered the British election, the U.S. impeachment inquiry, and Trump's support of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.
The two leaders spoke Tuesday at a summit meeting to mark the 70th anniversary of NATO — an alliance both have targeted in the past. Macron recently said NATO was experiencing "brain death," which Trump said was a "very, very nasty," and "insulting statement," though he once called NATO "obsolete."
Before the market even opened, futures were clearly taking a hit after Trump said there is "no deadline" on a trade deal with China. The S&P 500, Nasdaq, and the Dow were down more than 1 percent this morning.
"In some ways, I like the idea of waiting until after the election for the China deal," Trump said before the two-day NATO summit started this morning in London.U.S. tariffs on Chinese goods are set to rise on December 15 if a Phase 1 deal is not reached. Last month the administration indicated such a deal was close to being finalized, but after Trump signed off on legislation imposing sanctions on those who violate human rights in Hong Kong, it seemed the deal was off.
About 780,000 pressure washers sold at retailers like Home Depot are being recalled across the U.S. and Canada, due to a projectile hazard that has resulted in fractures and other injuries among some consumers.
Europeans upset with Elon Musk still aren’t buying his electric cars, adding to a long losing streak for his company.
President Donald Trump has fired one of two Democratic members of the U.S. Surface Transportation Board to break a 2-2 tie ahead of the board considering the largest railroad merger ever proposed.
Ford is recalling more than 355,000 of its pickup trucks across the U.S. because of an instrument panel display failure that’s resulted in critical information, like warning lights and vehicle speed, not showing up on the dashboard.
Nvidia reported a 56% increase in second-quarter revenue and a 59% rise in net income compared to a year ago.
The Rev. Al Sharpton is set to lead a protest march on Wall Street to urge corporate America to resist the Trump administration’s campaign to roll back diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives. The New York civil rights leader will join clergy, labor and community leaders Thursday in a demonstration through Manhattan’s Financial District that’s timed with the anniversary of the Civil Rights-era March on Washington in 1963. Sharpton called DEI the “civil rights fight of our generation." He and other Black leaders have called for boycotting American retailers that scaled backed policies and programs aimed at bolstering diversity and reducing discrimination in their ranks.
President Donald Trump's administration last month awarded a $1.2 billion contract to build and operate what's expected to become the nation’s largest immigration detention complex to a tiny Virginia firm with no experience running correction facilities.
Netflix CEO Ted Sarandos claims audiences don't want to watch Netflix movies in theaters, but that seems not to be the case recently.
Chipmaker Nvidia is poised to release a quarterly report that could provide a better sense of whether the stock market has been riding an overhyped artificial intelligence bubble or is being propelled by a technological boom that’s still gathering momentum.
Cracker Barrel said late Tuesday it’s returning to its old logo after critics — including President Donald Trump — protested the company’s plan to modernize.
