Tracking Trump's Tariffs and Turbulent Trade Talks

Welcome to the Precious Metals Bug Forums

Welcome to the PMBug forums - a watering hole for folks interested in gold, silver, precious metals, sound money, investing, market and economic news, central bank monetary policies, politics and more.

Why not register an account and join the discussions? When you register an account and log in, you may enjoy additional benefits including no Google ads, market data/charts, access to trade/barter with the community and much more. Registering an account is free - you have nothing to lose!

searcher

morning
Moderator
Benefactor
Messages
27,011
Reaction score
4,832
Points
288

Trump says ‘extremely hard’ to make a deal with China’s Xi as trade stalemate fuels calls for leaders to talk​

  • U.S. President Donald Trump said on Wednesday that China’s President Xi Jinping was “extremely hard” to make a deal with.
  • A senior White House official told CNBC earlier on Monday that Trump and Xi are likely to speak this week.
  • China’s foreign minister Wang Yi called on the U.S. to “meet China halfway.”
U.S. President Donald Trump said Wednesday that it was “extremely hard” to make a deal with his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping, at a time when the White House has been suggesting the two leaders could talk this week amid rising trade tensions.

Scott Bessent, U.S. treasury secretary, said Thursday stateside that trade talks were “a bit stalled,” and the two countries’ leaders would likely need to weigh in. On Monday, a senior White House official told CNBC that Trump and Xi were likely to speak this week.

It remained unclear whether such a call had been arranged.

More:

 
Weekly scrap metal report

Copper Prices Soar 17% as Trump Doubles Down on Metal Tariffs | Scrap Market Alert​

Check Scrap Prices: https://iScrapApp.com/ - Join us as we break down the major market moves in scrap metal for the week of June 4, 2025. With copper continuing its upward momentum and steel under the policy spotlight, there’s no shortage of developments scrappers need to watch.
Read more: https://iscrapapp.com/blog/weekly-scr...

27:35
 

75% of Companies Have Already Raised Prices in Response to Tariffs, Fed Survey Finds​

Early signs indicate that many businesses are quickly raising prices for shoppers to cover most of the higher costs from sweeping U.S. tariffs on imported goods.

Among businesses that are facing higher operational costs due to President Donald Trump’s aggressive tariff policies, roughly 75% are imparting at least some of the their cost increases on consumers, according to an analysis released Wednesday of the New York Fed’s Regional Business Survey of firms in the New York and Northern New Jersey region.

More:

https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/mar...fed-survey-finds/ar-AA1G5yrT?ocid=socialshare
 

Trump speaks with Xi, will resume talks between U.S. and China over tariffs​

  • President Donald Trump spoke with Chinese President Xi Jinping.
  • Trump and Xi said that trade officials from the U.S. and China will be meeting soon at a to-be-determined location.
  • The call came amid an ongoing trade war between Washington and Beijing.
President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping spoke Thursday and agreed that officials from the U.S. and China will meet soon for more talks to resolve an ongoing trade war.

Trump said he had a “very good” call with Xi for about 90 minutes, which focused “almost entirely” on trade.

More:

 

‘That’s not going to happen’: Kevin O’Leary shoots down Trump’s plan for retailers to eat the cost of tariffs​

Kevin O’Leary seems to have changed his tune on President Trump’s tariffs.

In a recent interview with NewsNation’s The Hill, the Shark Tank star expressed his doubts on whether retailers would be willing to absorb the rising costs of imported goods thanks to Trump’s tariff war.

“We’re at the beginning of a negotiation,” O’Leary said, predicting that retailers would lobby the government to help reduce the impact of tariffs on their bottom lines.

O’Leary previously advocated for a bully approach to tariffs on China. During an appearance on the Laura Coates Live podcast in April 2025, O’Leary had this to say. “Let’s just level the playing field. The [Chinese] government cheats, steals, robs, and does not play by any rules. I don’t think 125% is enough — 400%!”

More:

https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/sma...-cost-of-tariffs/ar-AA1GaFcE?ocid=socialshare
 

GM to invest $4 billion in U.S. manufacturing plants amid tariffs​

  • GM plans to invest $4 billion in several American plants, including adding production of two popular Chevrolet vehicles that are currently built in Mexico.
  • The Detroit automaker announced the plans Tuesday, as there have been few indications of progress in trade talks between the Trump administration and Mexican leaders.
  • The investment and moves will likely be hailed as a win for Trump’s policies and automotive tariffs, which took effect for imported vehicles in April and many auto parts in May.
DETROIT — General Motors plans to invest $4 billion in three American assembly plants, including moving or increasing production of two Mexican-produced vehicles to U.S. plants.

The Detroit automaker announced the plans Tuesday, as there have been few indications of progress in trade talks between the Trump administration and Mexican leaders. Earlier this year, President Donald Trump implemented 25% tariffs on imported vehicles and 25% tariffs on many auto parts imported into the U.S.

More:

 

These researchers are tracking the impact of tariffs on prices in real-time. Here’s how retailers are responding.​

Researchers are tracking the impact of tariffs on consumer prices in real time — and even as trade policy is seemingly continuously tweaked, prices are mostly heading higher.

Alberto Cavallo, the founder of the data company PriceStats and a professor at Harvard Business School, examined with two researchers data that was updated as recently as last week.

They scraped data from “four large” U.S. retailers that they didn’t name, matched products to universal product codes on some 308,000 products, and then ran generative AI models on products where they didn’t have UPCs. The AI model achieved accuracy rates of 88% in classifying products as domestic or imported in a test, and accuracy of 85% in classifying country of origin.

More:

https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/mar...s-are-responding/ar-AA1GuZir?ocid=socialshare
 

Stock futures fall as Trump threatens unilateral tariffs: Live updates​

Stock futures fell early Thursday as U.S. President Donald Trump threatened setting unilateral tariffs on trading partners in two weeks.

S&P 500 futures lost nearly 0.3%, while Nasdaq 100 futures were down 0.2%. Futures tied to the Dow Jones Industrial Average were also lower by 179 points, or 0.4%.

Dow component Boeing lost more than 5% in premarket trading after an Air India Dreamliner 787 crashed after takeoff with 242 passengers on board. Shares of Oracle surged more than 9% after the company reported fiscal fourth-quarter results that beat on the top and bottom lines and indicated more cloud growth ahead.

More:

 

Trump’s Tariff Clock Is Ticking After G-7 Fails to Yield Deals​

KANANASKIS, Alberta—Leaders from some of America’s biggest trading partners traveled to the Group of Seven industrial nations summit in Canada this week hoping for deals with President Trump. They left empty-handed.

A meeting with Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba ended with a pledge for more talks. After discussing trade with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, Trump said he didn’t think the bloc was offering a fair deal. Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney set a new 30-day timeline for a trade deal but couldn’t ink an agreement.

More:

https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/mar...s-to-yield-deals/ar-AA1GUo6m?ocid=socialshare
 

More

Businesses challenge Trump’s tariffs before Supreme Court

Citing the “paralyzing uncertainty” created when tariffs are “added and subtracted at will,” two small businesses came to the Supreme Court on Tuesday asking the justices to quickly weigh in […]
www.scotusblog.com
 

From cans to cartons: how Trump's metals duties affect packages on shelves​

By Jessica DiNapoli and Emma Rumney

NEW YORK/LONDON (Reuters) -Andy Russick, who sells canned fruit and tomatoes to top U.S. grocers like Kroger, hospitals and schools, shares the stated aim behind U.S. President Donald Trump's trade war - fighting cheap Chinese imports.

Yet when U.S. tariffs on imported steel and aluminum doubled to 50% on June 4, his company, canned-food maker Pacific Coast Producers, became collateral damage in the crossfire of Trump's erratic trade policies.

The problem is that since 2017, Chinese fruit cocktails, vegetables and similar canned-food imports from across Southeast Asia and Europe have been flooding the shelves of U.S. supermarkets, undercutting the price of comparable products from the United States.

More:

https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/com...S&cvid=e8d2e00ff65a46d7a46002c4c1000050&ei=17
 
searcher said:
Click to expand...

More

Trump ends all U.S. trade talks with Canada over digital services tax​

  • President Donald Trump said the United States is immediately “terminating ALL discussions on Trade with Canada.”
  • Trump said on Truth Social that he made the decision in response to Ottawa imposing a digital services tax on U.S. tech firms.
  • “We will let Canada know the Tariff that they will be paying to do business with the United States of America within the next seven day period,” Trump added.
President Donald Trump on Friday said the United States is immediately “terminating ALL discussions on Trade with Canada” in response to Ottawa’s decision to impose a digital services tax on American tech firms.

Trump’s surprise announcement on Truth Social accused Canada of “copying the European Union” with the “egregious” tax.

Read it all:

 

S&P 500 closes at a record Friday, overcoming even more trade angst: Live updates​

The S&P 500 hit fresh records on Friday as traders managed to look past new comments from President Donald Trump tied to U.S.-Canada tariffs. The broad market index’s rise to new highs marks a sharp turnaround from the lows seen in April during the height of trade policy tensions.

The benchmark added 0.52% and closed at a record of 6,173.07. Earlier in the session, the S&P 500 rose as much as 0.76% to a high of 6,187.68, taking out its previous record of 6,147.43. The Nasdaq Composite, which also hit an all-time high and closed at a record, rose 0.52% to 20,273.46. The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 432.43 points, or 1%, settling at 43,819.27.

More:

 

Canada rescinds Digital Services Tax after Trump cuts off U.S. trade talks​

  • The move comes after Trump announced over the weekend that he will be “terminating ALL discussions on Trade with Canada.”
  • The first payments from Canada’s digital services tax were initially set to be collected Monday.
  • The tax would have applied to both domestic and foreign tech companies with a 3% levy.
Canada has walked back on its digital services tax “in anticipation” of a mutually beneficial comprehensive trade arrangement with the United States, Ottawa announced Sunday night, just one day before the first tax payments were due.

The move comes after U.S. President Donald Trump announced over the weekend that he will be “terminating ALL discussions on Trade with Canada” in response to Ottawa’s decision to impose a digital services tax on American tech firms.

More:

 
I've moved posts related to tariffs and trade talks to this dedicated thread from the commodities thread as it is too broad in scope and hard to follow this topic within it.

~~~


Threat of more tariffs hangs over countries negotiating trade deals with the US

Discussions have been slowed as Trump threatens to impose more tariffs even before the deadline. Read more at straitstimes.com. Read more at straitstimes.com.
www.straitstimes.com

Less than two weeks until the July 9 deadline, but I think we all know that deadline is more a suggestion than a hard rule. Either way, there could be a lot of turmoil in the near future as negotiations progress.
 

Switzerland faces downside risks if full US tariffs bite, IMF says​

By John Revill

BERN (Reuters) -The Swiss economy faces significant downside risks if the country is hit by the full force of looming U.S. tariffs, the International Monetary Fund said on Tuesday.

The IMF expects the Swiss economy to grow by 1.3% this year, down from a previous 1.7% forecast. In its first forecast for 2026, the fund said it expects the Swiss economy to grow by 1.2%.

More:

https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/mar...fs-bite-imf-says/ar-AA1HKNtH?ocid=socialshare
 

Powell says Trump's tariffs have delayed lower rates but won’t rule out July cut​

Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said Tuesday that the central bank likely would have lowered interest rates by now if not for President Donald Trump’s tariffs, but he suggested he still expects to cut rates sometime this year.

Speaking on a panel in Portugal alongside other global central bank heads, Powell didn’t entirely rule out the possibility of a rate cut as soon as this month, saying the Fed’s moves would depend on the incoming data.

More:

https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/mar...ule-out-july-cut/ar-AA1HLZun?ocid=socialshare
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Menu
Log in
Register
Cookies are required to use this site. You must accept them to continue using the site. Learn more…