Evelyn Reynolds

President Trump on Sunday said that he would impose a 25 percent tariff on all foreign steel and aluminum imports into the United States as of Monday and would soon announce reciprocal tariffs on America’s trading partners.Speaking from Air Force One en route to the Super Bowl, the president said his metal tariffs would apply to “everybody,” including Canada and Mexico, America’s allies and its largest trading partners.“Any steel coming into the United States is going to have a 25 percent tariff,” Mr. Trump said. “Aluminum, too.”Mr. Trump’s decision to tax foreign metals and impose reciprocal tariffs comes in the wake of several other trade threats he has made since winning the White House.Since taking office, Mr. Trump has imposed an additional 10 percent tariff on all products from China, and came within hours of imposing sweeping tariffs on Canada and Mexico that would have brought U.S. tariff rates to a level not seen since the 1940s.Mr. Trump has also said in recent days that he planned to impose tariffs on Europe, Taiwan and other governments, as well as on a variety of critical industries like copper, steel, aluminum, pharmaceuticals and semiconductors.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

President Trump on Sunday said that he would impose a 25 percent tariff on all foreign steel and aluminum imports into the United States as of Monday and would soon announce reciprocal tariffs on America’s trading partners.Speaking from Air Force One en route to the Super Bowl, the president said his metal tariffs would apply to “everybody,” including Canada and Mexico, America’s allies and its largest trading partners.“Any steel coming into the United States is going to have a 25 percent tariff,” Mr. Trump said. “Aluminum, too.”Mr. Trump’s decision to tax foreign metals and impose reciprocal tariffs comes in the wake of several other trade threats he has made since winning the White House.Since taking office, Mr. Trump has imposed an additional 10 percent tariff on all products from China, and came within hours of imposing sweeping tariffs on Canada and Mexico that would have brought U.S. tariff rates to a level not seen since the 1940s.Mr. Trump has also said in recent days that he planned to impose tariffs on Europe, Taiwan and other governments, as well as on a variety of critical industries like copper, steel, aluminum, pharmaceuticals and semiconductors.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

President Trump announced potentially crippling tariffs against Canada, only to suspend them for 30 days. What will satisfy him remains unknown.When I returned to Windsor, Ontario, the day before President Trump was set to impose potentially devastating tariffs on exports from Canada, fear was the city’s prevailing mood. A week later, following Mr. Trump’s suspension of a 25 percent tariff on most exports and 10 percent on oil, the mood has shifted more toward anger and the nation’s focus has moved toward alternatives to the United States.The Ambassador Bridge between Windsor, Ontario, and Detroit.Ian Willms for The New York TimesWhether Mr. Trump will impose the tariffs in early March remains unknown. But Matina Stevis-Gridneff and I found that whatever happens, relations between Canada and the United States have undergone a profound shift.[Read: Betrayed: How Trump’s Tariff Threats Tore the U.S.-Canada Bond]If the tariffs do come into effect, Windsor will be hit particularly hard. It has been nearly 60 years since Canada and the United States started integrating their automotive industries through a trade deal known as the auto pact. The North American Free Trade Agreement then brought Mexico into the mix.A 25 percent tariff would immediately make the movement of both finished vehicles and parts unprofitable, potentially leading to layoffs of thousands of people in Windsor.[Read: Across Border From Detroit, Bafflement and Anger Over U.S. Tariffs][Read: Trump’s Canada and Mexico Tariffs Could Hurt Carmakers]We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

President Trump indicated he was ready to broaden his trade war on Friday, saying that he would announce reciprocal tariffs on other countries next week.Such a measure would raise the levies the United States charges on imports to match what other countries charge on American products, a move that could trigger new trade fights.Speaking to reporters before a meeting with Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba of Japan at the White House, Mr. Trump said that the tariffs would restore fairness to trading relationships and eliminate U.S. trade deficits.Making trade more reciprocal, Mr. Trump said, would ensure “that we’re treated evenly with other countries; we don’t want any more, any less,” he added.It’s the latest indication that Mr. Trump is willing to use tariffs broadly and unsparingly. He has already imposed an additional 10 percent tariff on all products from China, in addition to the levies on hundreds of billions of dollars of goods in his first term.Over the past week, the president came within hours of imposing sweeping tariffs on Canada and Mexico, America’s largest trading partners, saying those countries were sending drugs and migrants to the United States. He ultimately paused those measures for 30 days after the countries offered him some concessions.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

U.S. employers added 143,000 jobs last month, somewhat fewer than forecast, while unemployment fell to 4 percent and hourly earnings rose.Can a labor market be hot and cool at the same time? That’s the picture painted by the latest federal hiring figures, which show a step down in job creation last month — as well as a drop in joblessness.Employers added 143,000 jobs in January, slightly fewer than expected, the Labor Department reported on Friday. But with large upward revisions to the prior two months and a decline in the unemployment rate to 4 percent, American workers still appear to be in good shape.“We have robust fundamentals, and relatively moderate hiring, but it’s very judicious,” said Gregory Daco, the chief U.S. economist with the accounting firm EY-Parthenon. “The unemployment rate is historically low, but frozen in the sense that you’re not seeing much churn — businesses are being cautious as to how they manage their work force.” More

The University of Michigan consumer survey showed that respondents expect inflation a year from now to be 4.3%, a 1 percentage point jump from January and the highest since November 2023.
Worries over inflation dovetailed with lower optimism overall, as the headline index fell to 67.8, a one-month drop of 4.6% and an 11.8% move lower from the same month a year ago.

People shop at a Whole Foods store on Feb. 3, 2025 in New York City.
Michael M. Santiago | Getty Images

Consumers grew dramatically more worried about near-term inflation as President Donald Trump pushed aggressive tariffs against major U.S. trading partners, a closely watched survey showed Friday.
The University of Michigan consumer survey for February showed that respondents expect the inflation rate a year from now to be 4.3%, a 1 percentage point jump from January and the highest level since November 2023.

Though Trump postponed tariffs against Canada and Mexico, the looming threat of price pass-throughs to consumers shook sentiment. China has levied retaliatory tariffs following Trump’s move. The survey window ran from Jan. 21, the day after Trump took office, to Feb. 3.
“Many consumers appear worried that high inflation will return within the next year,” said Joanne Hsu, the survey’s director. “This is only the fifth time in 14 years we have seen such a large one-month rise (one percentage point or more) in year-ahead inflation expectations.”
Longer-run expectations weren’t hit as much, with the five-year outlook drifting up to 3.3%, a 0.1 percentage point gain.
Worries over inflation dovetailed with lower optimism overall, as the headline index fell to 67.8, a one-month drop of 4.6% and an 11.8% move lower from the same month a year ago. Economists surveyed by Dow Jones had been looking for a reading of 71.3.
The survey sometimes is influenced by shifting political winds. However, Hsu noted that declining sentiment was “pervasive, with Republicans, Independents, and Democrats all posting sentiment declines from January, along with consumers across age and wealth groups.”

Stocks turned lower after the report, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average initially off nearly 300 points.
“Higher prices from tariffs are the number one financial concern for Americans, as the weight of inflation is still oppressive to family budgets, especially among those with lower incomes,” said Robert Frick, corporate economist at Navy Credit Union. “Even slight increases in prices, especially in top pain points such as food, shelter, and transportation, would be acutely felt by millions.”
Hsu said overall declines in the various survey indexes reflect “a perception that it may be too late to avoid the negative impact of tariff policy.”
The current conditions index also slumped, down to 68.7, or 7.2% lower than January and down 13.5% from a year ago. Expectations declined to 67.3, for a respective drop of 2.9% and 10.5%.

Don’t miss these insights from CNBC PRO More

The unemployment rate for Black men spiked in January, but so did the percentage of eligible adults looking for jobs.
Asian Americans were the only other cohort to see a rise in jobless rates last month.
However, economist Elise Gould cautioned that a change in survey tools at the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics makes it difficult to compare January’s data with previous months.

Jobseekers talk to recruiters during the New York Public Library’s annual Bronx Job Fair & Expo at the Bronx Library Center in the Bronx borough of New York, US, on Friday, Sept. 6, 2024.
Yuki Iwamura | Bloomberg | Getty Images

Unemployment among Black men surged in January as the number of those looking for work increased, according to data released Friday by the Department of Labor.
In January, Black workers saw their jobless rate edge higher to 6.2% from 6.1% in the month prior. This trend bucked the overall unemployment rate for the country, which ticked down to 4.0% in January from 4.1% in December. Asian Americans were the only other demographic to see a rise in jobless rates to 3.7% from 3.5%.

On the other hand, unemployment for white and Hispanic workers followed the overall trend and fell in January from the prior month. For the former, it decreased to 3.5% from 3.6%. For the latter, it fell to 4.8% from 5.1%.
But Black men experienced the biggest month-to-month spike in unemployment, with their jobless rates surging to 6.9% from 5.6%. On the other hand, the unemployment rate held steady at 5.4% for Black women.

While Hispanic men also saw their jobless rate hold steady at 4.0%, unemployment rates for their female counterparts dropped to 4.5% from 5.3%. The unemployment rate also fell for white men to 3.1% from 3.3% and marginally decreased to 3.3% from 3.4% for white women. The data breakdown by sex was not readily available for Asian Americans.
While the spike in unemployment rate for Black male workers certainly looks alarming on the surface, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics made some changes to their population controls and survey tools in January that makes it hard to compare the data to previous months, according to Elise Gould, senior economist at the Economic Policy Institute. Gould also potentially attributed the surge to standard data volatility.
“I think you would need to see a few months of that elevation, and not just a blip in the data, to think that there was something sinister going on,” she told CNBC. Still, “obviously, just the simple fact that it’s so much higher than other groups is a systemic problem in and of itself.”

Gould added that part of the rise in unemployment rate for Black men could be due to the fact that more of the cohort joined the job market in January.
Last month, the labor force participation rate — the percentage of the population that is either employed or actively seeking work — ticked higher to 62.6% from 62.5%.

Among black workers, the rate rose to 62.5% from 62.4%. The rate jumped to 69% from 68.2% for Black men, while slightly increasing to 62.5% from 62.4% for Black women.
“When the unemployment rate rises, but there’s also an increase in participation, that can often mean that people are more optimistic or coming back in the labor market looking for jobs,” Gould added.
Among white workers, the labor force participation rate rose to 62.3% from 62.2%. Within Asian workers, the participation increased to 64.7% from 64.3%, and slipped among Hispanic workers to 66.8% from 67.5%.
– CNBC’s Gabriel Cortes contributed to this report. More

Minneapolis Federal Reserve President Neel Kashkari said Friday he expects to see interest rates lower this year if the economic data continue to move in the same direction.
Kashkari’s colleagues in recent days have expressed some concern over what fiscal policy could do to the inflation picture.

Minneapolis Federal Reserve President Neel Kashkari said Friday he expects to see interest rates lower this year if the economic data continues to move in the same direction.
In a CNBC interview, the central bank official expressed confidence that inflation will continue to drift down to the Fed’s 2% target, while Friday’s nonfarm payrolls report showed the labor market continues to look strong.

“Ultimately, our job is maximum employment and stable prices. If we see very good data on the inflation front while the labor market stays strong, then I think that would move me towards supporting easing further,” Kashkari said on “Squawk Box.” “I don’t know why we’d have to keep rates where they were if we really saw inflation coming down quickly.”
Headline inflation in December ran at a 2.6% annual rate, according to the Fed’s preferred personal consumption expenditures price index. Excluding food and energy, core inflation was a bit higher, at 2.8%.
That’s still considerably above the central bank’s 2% goal, though Kashkari said he expects housing-related data, particularly on rents, to ease through the year and eventually bring prices back to target. Kashkari is not a voter this year on the rate-setting Federal Open Market Committee but will vote in 2026.
“We will get inflation down to 2%. We’re committed to that,” he said.
However, Kashkari’s colleagues in recent days have expressed some concern over what fiscal policy could do to the inflation picture. President Donald Trump has pushed aggressive tariffs against the largest U.S. trading partners, and some economists worry that they could reignite inflation if they trigger a trade war.

“We’ll have to see where what that uncertainty looks like. What’s the range of the negotiation that’s taking place?” he said. “Obviously tariffs are hard, because it’s not simply what we do in America, it’s how other countries respond and the back and forth.”
Markets largely expect the Fed to be on hold until at least June. The Fed at its meeting in late January voted to keep its benchmark borrowing rate steady after a full percentage point of cuts in 2024.
“My colleagues and I basically have said we need to wait and see. We don’t know enough information about what’s going to be announced,” Kashkari said. “The good news is … the economy is in a good place. So, we’re in a very good place to just sit here until we get a lot more information on the tariff front, on the immigration front, on the tax front, etc. All of those are going to be important.”

Don’t miss these insights from CNBC PRO More