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ANYONE WANT to buy a used social network? One careful Chinese owner, 170m users in America and revenue there of $12bn last year, predicted to rise this year by a fifth. The White House is running a chaotic auction for TikTok, a Chinese-owned app that Congress has ordered to find a non-Chinese owner or else face a ban. On April 4th, on the eve of the cut-off for the app’s sale, President Donald Trump announced that he was extending the deadline by another 75 days. More

Tariffs would drive up costs of key aerospace parts, making it more expensive for Boeing and even foreign companies with U.S. factories to produce planes.
The tariffs are set to hit an aerospace supply chain still in recovery from the Covid-19 pandemic.
The duties would also upend nearly half a century of mostly duty-free aerospace trade.

The production line for the Boeing P-8 Poseidon maritime patrol aircraft is pictured at Boeing’s 737 factory in Renton, Washington, November 18, 2021.
Jason Redmond | Reuters

President Donald Trump’s sweeping tariffs are set to drive up the cost of Boeing and Airbus planes, GE Aerospace engines, and hundreds of other aerospace and defense products, threatening an industry that helps soften the U.S. trade deficit by more than $100 billion a year.
“It certainly makes things more expensive for the industry,” Dak Hardwick, vice president of international affairs at the Aerospace Industries Association, which represents Boeing, GE Aerospace, Airbus and dozens of other aerospace and defense companies, said of the tariffs.

The industry group said it is asking the Trump administration to uphold provisions in a nearly half-century old trade agreement that allows for duty-free trade of civilian aircraft and imports tied to defense and national security.
“The line is certainly long” for requests to the White House, Hardwick said.

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Trump’s executive order announcing the tariffs said trade and economic policies around the world have exacerbated a decline in overall U.S. manufacturing.
Regarding innovation in the defense sector, the order stated, “If the United States wishes to maintain an effective security umbrella to defend its citizens and homeland, as well as for its allies and partners, it needs to have a large upstream manufacturing and goods-producing ecosystem to manufacture these products without undue reliance on imports for key inputs.”
The aerospace industry has long been a top exporter for the United States. At Boeing alone, more than two-thirds of its airplane orders over the past decade came from customers outside of the United States, according to company data.

“Free trade is very important to us,” Boeing CEO Kelly Ortberg said at a Senate hearing Wednesday. “We really are the ideal kind of an export company where we’re outselling internationally. It’s creating U.S. jobs, long-term high value U.S. jobs. So it’s important that we continue to have access to that market and that we don’t get in a situation where certain markets become closed to us.”

President and CEO of Boeing Kelly Ortberg testifies before the Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee in the Dirksen Senate Office Building on April 02, 2025 in Washington, DC. 
Win Mcnamee | Getty Images News | Getty Images

The industry has mostly bought and sold planes and parts without having to pay tariffs under a 45-year-old trade agreement, which would be derailed by Trump’s new tariffs. The president this week introduced levies of 10% on countries around the world, with higher duties on certain countries and regions, some of which like Europe, are key to the aerospace industry.
Imported steel and aluminum, other key materials in airplanes, are subject to separate sector-level duties that Trump announced earlier this year.
“President Trump has been clear: if you make your product in America, you won’t have to worry about tariffs,” White House spokesman Kush Desai said in an email.
Tariffs are paid by the importer, and the increased prices due to the levies would either have to be absorbed by the airplane or engine maker, by the still-fragile supply chain or by the end consumer, said Hardwick.
Jefferies analyst Sheila Kahyaoglu said in a note Thursday that a price jump on “any product within 12 months is eaten by the [original equipment manufacturer], assuming new inventory buy. Outside that time period, ultimately the buyer and hence consumer.”

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Boeing and the S&P 500

Prices for planes are negotiated in advance, and airlines have to often wait years for aircraft, so material costs can shift dramatically over that period.
“This is not where you put money down for an automobile and it ends up in your driveway” in three months, Hardwick said.
Shares of Boeing, engine maker GE and airlines tumbled again Friday, adding to the market rout after Trump announced the tariffs Wednesday.
“This is the one manufacturing sector where America has, has enjoyed a tremendous trade surplus,” said Richard Aboulafia, managing director at AeroDynamic Advisory. “So the idea of fighting a trade war for this industry, it’s living in a crystal palace hurling giant boulders.”

Global supply chain

The tariffs are also a new strain on the aerospace industry, which still has a fragile supply chain in the wake of Covid, with some parts in short supply. Major supplies have tried to quickly hire workers and ramp up production during a post-pandemic travel boom.
But airplane makers still haven’t kept up with demand.

An Airbus SE A321 plane fuselage is lifted with a crane at the company’s final assembly line facility in Mobile, Alabama
Luke Sharrett | Bloomberg | Getty Images

Even a “Made in the USA” label for an airplane is a misnomer.
For example, the supply chain for a Boeing 787 Dreamliner, which is assembled in South Carolina, spans from Japan to Italy.
Its European rival, Airbus, has a Mobile, Alabama, factory but is still on the hook for tariffs for imported parts, from wings to fuselages.
“It doesn’t matter who owns the company. If an item crosses the border, it will have to be paid by importer of record,” Hardwick said.
Airbus has expanded the factory since the first Alabama-assembled Airbus A321, an aircraft for JetBlue Airways named “BluesMobile,” rolled out nine years ago. Its bet on increasing U.S. output of its jets, which are still largely made in Europe, also includes assembly of smaller A220s in Alabama, for customers that include JetBlue and Delta Air Lines.

American Airlines workers perform maintenance on CFM-56 engine in Tulsa, Oklahoma
Erin Black | CNBC

Meanwhile, continuing along the supply chain, General Electric and France’s Safran have a joint venture in which they make top-selling CFM engines, which power both Boeing and Airbus narrow-body jets. Each company manufactures certain portions of engines, which are sent to factories in Ohio, Indiana and North Carolina for GE and outside of Paris for Safran.
Thousands of imported replacement parts for engines and other aircraft parts, many of which come from abroad, could also become more expensive.
“There’s no such thing as a national jet,” Aboulafia said.

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The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services has slashed jobs from its minority health office and other divisions, CNBC has learned, as Robert F. Kennedy Jr. upends the U.S. health department. 
During an all-hands meeting with employees, CMS acting Administrator Stephanie Carlton detailed some of the specific offices impacted by cuts under Kennedy’s plan to restructure the Department of Health and Human Services.
An office responsible for managing the agency’s grants and contracts was affected by job cuts, as was a unit that serves people dually eligible for Medicare and Medicaid, among others.

An aerial of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services building on March 19, 2025 in Woodlawn, Maryland. 
Kayla Bartkowski | Getty Images

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services has slashed jobs from its minority health office and other divisions, CNBC has learned, as Robert F. Kennedy Jr. upends the U.S. health department. 
During a virtual all-hands meeting with employees on Friday, CMS acting Administrator Stephanie Carlton detailed some of the specific offices at the agency impacted by cuts under Kennedy’s broader plan to restructure the Department of Health and Human Services, or HHS.

CNBC viewed a transcript of the internal meeting, which was the first at CMS since HHS employees began to receive notifications Tuesday about whether they had lost their jobs as part of the cuts.
Kennedy’s plan involves slashing 10,000 jobs at HHS, including just 300 at CMS but far greater numbers at other agencies. CMS oversees health insurance programs for 160 million Americans, along with other vital healthcare functions — and the Trump administration has tried to downplay the effects its cuts to government spending will have on the popular Medicare program.
But Kennedy said Thursday that some personnel and programs at different federal agencies affected by his sweeping reductions will be reinstated “because we’ll make mistakes.”
Carlton on Friday did not indicate whether any CMS employees will get reinstated, but said “we do think that painful part of [the cuts] that affects people we care about is finished.” 
“I don’t want to make promises that nothing will ever happen, but these are definitely the ones I’m aware of,” she told workers, referring to the cuts at the agency. She said the layoffs were not easy, but emphasized that CMS leadership had to balance the agency’s mission with achieving efficiency across HHS. 

She added that Dr. Mehmet Oz’s paperwork should be completed later on Friday, a day after he was confirmed by the Senate to run CMS. Oz, a celebrity TV host and former U.S. Senate candidate, would like to hold another all-hands call on Monday, Carlton said. Once called “America’s Doctor,” Oz is now more known for dubious promotion of supplements and hormones unsupported by scientific evidence.
The job cuts across HHS are in addition to about 10,000 employees who opted to leave the department since President Donald Trump took office, through voluntary separation offers. Combined, they will lead to the federal health department shedding about a quarter of its workforce, shrinking it to 62,000 employees.
Kennedy’s restructuring comes as the U.S. grapples with one of the worst measles outbreaks in more than two decades, and as bird flu spreads in wild birds worldwide and is causing outbreaks in poultry and U.S. dairy cows, with several recent human cases. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is suspending efforts to improve its bird flu testing of milk, cheese and pet food due to massive staff cuts at the agency, Reuters reported on Thursday.
CMS did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The programs cut at CMS

She said the office of minority health was affected by the cuts. The segment works with local and federal partners to eliminate health disparities and improve health outcomes for people from all minority populations, according to the CMS website. It conducts research and analyses to develop new solutions for lowering costs, preventing diseases and reducing the incidence and severity of chronic diseases in the U.S. 
The office was authorized by the Affordable Care Act more than a decade ago, so shuttering it entirely may be against the law. It appears to be among the victims of the Trump administration’s ideological campaign against diversity, equity and inclusion, or DEI, initiatives.
CMS understands that it needs to continue fulfilling the responsibilities of that office under statutory law, Carlton noted. She said CMS will appoint a new office of minority health director.
But she did not explicitly say whether the current director of the office, Dr. Martin Mendoza, had stepped down or was impacted by the cuts.
But “probably the biggest group that was affected” was the Office of Program Operations & Local Engagement, Carlton said. That office is responsible for implementing and overseeing Medicare and Medicaid programs and engaging with stakeholders at the local level. Carlton said the cuts there tried to target areas where there were several divisions with a “similar mission.”
An office responsible for managing the agency’s grants and contracts was impacted, and so was the Medicare-Medicaid Coordination Office, Carlton added. The latter serves people dually eligible for Medicare and Medicaid, developing models to improve the coordination of care for them.
Some of that work will be picked up by others in CMS or from outside the agency, Carlton said. 
She noted that CMS will retain in-house teams that handle communication, human resources and information technology. The agency’s IT team was not affected at all “because of the sensitivity of many of our data sets,” Carlton said. More

Apple was once considered so important to both America and China that some even hoped it would help avert great-power conflict. Now the iPhone-maker finds itself more exposed than any big American company to President Donald Trump’s trade war. Not only will higher tariffs push up its costs in America, its biggest market. Retaliation could clobber its sales in China, its second-biggest. Never has Tim Cook, the firm’s boss, faced a more urgent need to justify his reputation for geopolitical fence-straddling. More

Toy prices could spike exponentially after President Donald Trump levied massive tariffs against China and Vietnam.
The two nations are biggest manufacturers of toys imported into the United States.
These price hikes are expected to coincide with this year’s back-to-school season.

A customer pushes a shopping cart containing stuffed toys at a Target Corp. store in the Queens borough of New York, U.S, on Thursday, Nov. 28, 2019.
Bess Adler | Bloomberg | Getty Images

The toy aisle is about to get more expensive.
President Donald Trump expanded his trade war this week, placing a 10% baseline tariff on almost every country and much steeper levies on dozens of others. Among those hit with higher tariffs were China and Vietnam — two nations that are vital to the domestic toy industry.

For decades, U.S. toy companies have worked with Chinese manufacturers to bring the hottest action figures, dolls and games to retail shelves. Vietnam became a solid secondary market for companies looking to diversify their factory locations amid growing trade tensions between Washington and Beijing.
Trump slapped China with an additional 34% duty Wednesday, bringing the total tax on goods from the nation to 54%, and hit Vietnam with a 46% tariff. The levy is far higher than what toy companies expected and could lead to massive price hikes on toys, industry experts said.
“Everyone is really in scramble mode,” Greg Ahearn, president and CEO of The Toy Association, told CNBC. “This is going to have massive negative repercussions for the consumer and for our industry.”
Adding to the tensions, China is set to impose a retaliatory 34% levy on all U.S. products, its commerce ministry announced Friday.
“I think the Vietnam situation will be a little bit easier to negotiate, as far as I think we will see the Vietnamese country and government come to the table quicker than China trying to resolve any trade disputes,” said Curtis McGill, co-founder of Hey Buddy Hey Pal, which makes the Eggmazing Egg Decorator, a crafting tool that spins eggs so kids can use markers to color them. “They’re just not in a place where they can stand losing much of the business.”

Around 77% of toys imported into the United States come from China, according to data from The Toy Association. Vietnam is third, just behind Mexico. Trump previously placed a 25% tariff on goods from Mexico that aren’t compliant with the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement.
Hasbro and Mattel, leaders in the toy space, both incorporated a 20% tariff impact from China in their guidance projections for 2025 and had strategies in place to shift production to other countries, like Vietnam, Indonesia and India, all three of which were also hit with tariffs — 46%, 32% and 26%, respectively.
“As a result, relocating production may not be financially viable,” wrote Eric Handler, analyst at Roth, in a research note to investors published Thursday. “The consumer should soon see price increases to partially offset the tariff impact.”
Hasbro and Mattel report first-quarter earnings this month, and Handler said investors will likely see guidance cuts from both companies.
Toy companies have already been slammed on Wall Street in the wake of the tariff announcement. Mattel shares fell more than 16.5% in Thursday trading, Hasbro lost more than 12% and Funko, which also has manufacturing in China and Vietnam, saw its stock plummet 18%. 
While Handler expects companies to try and lower costs through contract renegotiations with manufacturers and, perhaps, even altering packaging to improve margins, he said there is little doubt that consumers will bear the brunt of Trump’s duties.
“You could have anywhere from 35% to potentially even a point-for-point price increase on products depending upon what margin those products run at,” The Toy Association’s Ahearn said. “It may actually just be a 50% price increase, given it’s a 54% tariff.”
Most toy margins are in the high single digits, he noted. So, there is very little wiggle room for companies to absorb these fees.
“There’s no place for it to go, but to the consumer,” Ahearn said, noting that The Toy Association expects price hikes to coincide with this year’s back-to-school season.
“The greatest budgetary impact on are the folks, unfortunately, who can afford it the least,” he said. More

The Trump administration’s new tariffs will likely mean higher prices for household staples such as coffee, toilet paper and bananas.
The U.S. climate limits the domestic production of some key ingredients, according to the Consumer Brands Association, an industry trade group that represents Procter & Gamble and Coca-Cola.
Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick brushed off the idea that countries could win exemptions for specific goods on CNBC’s “Squawk Box.”

A customer shops for produce at an H-E-B grocery store in Austin, Texas, on Feb. 12, 2025.
Brandon Bell | Getty Images

Shoppers will likely pay more for coffee, bananas, vanilla and toilet paper over the coming weeks as the Trump administration’s new tariffs go into effect.
The U.S. plans to hike tariff rates on goods imported from more than 180 countries and territories in the hopes of bringing jobs back stateside. However, some “critical” ingredients and materials found in food, drinks and goods used daily by U.S. consumers are not available domestically, according to the Consumer Brands Association, an industry trade group that represents Coca-Cola, Procter & Gamble, Target and other consumer giants.

“However well intended, the success of the President’s America First Trade Policy, must recognize the U.S. companies that are already doing it the right way but depend on imports for specific ingredients and inputs that cannot be sourced domestically,” Tom Madrecki, vice president of supply chain resiliency for the CBA, said in a statement. “Reciprocal tariffs that do not reflect ingredient and input availability concerns will inevitably raise costs, limit consumer access to affordable products and unintentionally harm iconic American manufacturers.”
On CNBC’s “Squawk Box” on Thursday morning, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick brushed off the idea that countries could win exemptions for specific goods. But the CBA is seeking exemptions for key ingredients and materials slapped with tariffs to keep prices down for its members and their customers.
For one, the U.S. climate limits the production of some staples of the U.S. diet, such as coffee, cocoa and tropical fruits, according to the CBA. The U.S. was the top global importer of bananas in 2023, based on Observatory of Economic Complexity data. Nearly 40% of those bananas came from Guatemala, which will face a 10% tariff on goods exported to the U.S.

Trader Joe’s has long bragged about not raising the price of its bananas, as seen in this photo from 2014. 
Rj Sangosti | Denver Post | Getty Images

Spices will also become pricier for home cooks and bakers because of climate limitations, the CBA said. For example, Madagascar accounts for more than three-quarters of U.S. imports of vanilla, which is already the second-most expensive spice in the world. Exports from Madagascar will be subject to tariffs of 47%.
Shares of spice purveyor McCormick were down less than 1% in afternoon trading on Thursday. The company plans to offset tariffs through “some very targeted price adjustments” and a broader cost-savings program, McCormick executives said in late March.

In other cases, decadeslong shifts in the U.S. agricultural system mean domestic supply will not be able to meet demand easily.
For example, more than 90% of oats milled for food in the U.S. come from Canada to be turned into cereal, the CBA said. But U.S. oat acreage peaked more than a century ago and has been declining in the decades since then, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The domestic food system can no longer grow, store or transport U.S. oats at the scale necessary to meet demand, the CBA said.
Shoppers will likely also find themselves paying more for inedible household staples. Toilet paper, diapers, lotions and shampoo could become more expensive as manufacturers pass on the increased costs for wood pulp, bamboo fibers, shea butter and palm oil, according to the CBA. For example, the U.S. imports most of its palm oil supply from Indonesia, which now faces a 32% duty.
Markets plunged on Thursday in response to the tariff announcement. However, stocks in the consumer staples sector, which includes many of the CBA’s members, rose in afternoon trading as investors ditched riskier bets for the relative safety of household necessities.
Shares of Procter & Gamble climbed more than 1%, while Coke’s stock was up 2%. General Mills’ shares ticked up 3%.

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Stellantis said it is pausing production at two assembly plants in Canada and Mexico as the company attempts to navigate President Donald Trump’s new round of 25% automotive tariffs.
About 900 U.S.-represented employees at supporting plants will be temporarily laid off, in addition to about 4,500 hourly workers at the Canadian plant, Stellantis said.
Ford Motor and General Motors also responded to the tariffs, but not by idling production.

The Stellantis Windsor Assembly Plant is shown on April 1, 2025 in Windsor, Canada. 
Bill Pugliano | Getty Images

DETROIT — Stellantis is pausing production at two assembly plants in Canada and Mexico as the company attempts to navigate President Donald Trump’s new round of 25% automotive tariffs, the company confirmed Thursday.
The actions are the swiftest and most drastic by an automaker regarding the new tariffs, which took effect Thursday and are imposed on all vehicles imported to the U.S., including from Canada and Mexico.

Stellantis’ downtime starts Monday and is set for two weeks at the automaker’s Windsor Assembly Plant in Ontario, Canada, and the entire month of April at its Toluca Assembly Plant in Mexico.
As a result of the pause in production, about 900 workers in the U.S. at supporting plants will be temporarily laid off, in addition to about 4,500 hourly workers at the Canadian plant, according to a company spokeswoman. Workers at the plant in Mexico will still report to the facility but not produce vehicles due to their contract terms, the spokeswoman said

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In an email to employees Thursday, Stellantis North American chief Antonio Filosa said the plant downtime is tied to the tariffs, as the company reviews its options.
“We are continuing to assess the medium- and long-term effects of these tariffs on our operations, but also have decided to take some immediate actions, including temporarily pausing production at some of our Canadian and Mexican assembly plants,” Filosa said. “Those actions will impact some employees at several of our U.S. powertrain and stamping facilities that support those operations.”
Shares of Stellantis closed Thursday at $10.21, down 9.4%. It’s the stock’s worst day since September.

The Canadian plant produces the Chrysler Pacifica minivan and the recently released Dodge Charger Daytona EV. The Mexico plant produces the Jeep Compass SUV and Jeep Wagoneer S EV.
Unifor National President Lana Payne, whose union represents the Canadian workers, on Thursday condemned the tariffs and voiced concerns for her members.
“Unifor warned that U.S. tariffs would hurt auto workers almost immediately and in this case the layoffs were announced before the auto tariff even came into effect,” she said in a release. “Trump is about to learn how interconnected the North American production system is the hard way, with auto workers paying the price for that lesson.” 
Filosa said the “current environment creates uncertainty,” but assured employees that the company, which continues to search for a new CEO, is “very engaged with all of our key stakeholders, including top government leaders, unions, suppliers and dealers in the U.S., Canada, and Mexico.”
Halting production also will help Stellantis lower vehicle inventory levels that have built up amid lackluster sales for many of its brands.
Stellantis’ Detroit rivals Ford Motor and General Motors also responded to the tariffs, but not by idling production.

GM ups truck production

GM plans to temporarily increase pickup truck production at a plant in Indiana.
The increase in workers is in addition to those who the company was already hiring for the plant as supplemental workers to support summer breaks and time off for their regular employees, according to a person familiar with the plans.
GM, in an emailed statement, confirmed the plans Thursday without mentioning tariffs.
The Detroit automaker produces its crucial, highly profitable pickup trucks such as the Chevrolet Silverado and GMC Sierra at various plants in the U.S., Canada and Mexico.
GM has not cut production at any plants as a result of the tariffs like Stellantis is doing, said the person, who was not authorized to speak to media.

Ford employee discount

Hours after Trump’s tariffs went into effect, Ford announced it will offer its employee discount to all customers.
Ford said the sales program — running from April 3 through June 2 — includes “significant savings” but did not release exact details on the discounts.
The program, which it’s calling “From America, For America,” excludes some larger vehicles like the Ford Raptor, 2025 Ford Expedition, Ford Super Duty trucks and Lincoln Navigator SUVs.
“We understand that these are uncertain times for many Americans,” the company said in a statement. “We have the retail inventory to do this and a lot of choice for customers that need a vehicle.”
U.S. auto sales in the first quarter came in higher than expected as consumers flocked to buy cars ahead of auto tariffs taking effect, which many expect will lead to higher vehicle prices.
— CNBC’s Michele Luhn contributed to this article. More

Southwest Airlines last month said it will start charging customers to check bags in May.
Fitch warned that the policy change and other moves could weaken Southwest’s competitive position.
The ratings agency put the carrier on “negative” outlook, saying the company could become less financially conservative.

A Southwest Airlines jet approaches Midway Airport on Dec. 15, 2023, in Chicago. (John J. Kim/Chicago Tribune/Tribune News Service via Getty Images)
John J. Kim | Chicago Tribune | Getty Images

Southwest Airlines’ new policies such as charging for checked bags for the first time could backfire, Fitch Ratings said Thursday.
Southwest is reversing its decades-old two “bags fly free” policy for checked luggage in May, though there are exceptions for travelers with a Southwest credit card, elite frequent flyer status or who buy the highest classes of tickets.

It is also launching assigned seating and a no-frills basic economy fare and said flight credits will expire.

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Fitch issued a negative ratings outlook for the company, long known for its strong balance sheet, because “Southwest may shift to a less conservative capital allocation and financial policy, while ongoing strategic changes have the potential to impact its competitive position relative to network carriers.
“Items aimed at improving profitability such as the introduction of bag fees and expiring flight credits risk eroding Southwest’s competitive strengths relative to peers,” Fitch said.
Social media posts from Southwest, even if they’ve been unrelated to policy changes, have drawn angry comments about the shifts, but market share loss, if any “is uncertain,” the firm noted.
Southwest declined to comment on Fitch’s new outlook. The airline has been under more intense pressure to improve margins since activist hedge fund Elliott Investment Management took a stake in the carrier and later won five board seats in a settlement last year.

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