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In the late 1940s, as the industrial capacity of Europe and Japan lay in tatters, America accounted for over half of global manufacturing output, with much of the world heavily reliant on its wares. Last year it accounted for little over a tenth, and imported $1.2trn more in merchandise than it exported—to the displeasure of its president. More

Numerous LGBTQ+ groups are facing six-figure sponsorship deficits for their annual Pride celebrations, forcing some to modify their festival plans.
Corporations mostly cite economic concerns for pulling back on sponsorships, but Pride groups also note they’re seeing a hostile political climate for diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives.
Some LGBTQ+ organizations are reconsidering their dependence on corporate dollars and pursuing alternative funding streams.

Revelers attend the annual LGBTQ+ Capital Pride parade in Washington D.C., U.S., June 8, 2024.
Leah Millis | Reuters

Companies that were once loud and proud in supporting LGBTQ+ community celebrations are pulling back.
LGBTQ+ Pride festivals across the country have faced significant sponsorship challenges this year, with some losing corporate partners that collectively provided six-figure donations. As a result, organizations say they’ve had to modify their programming, pivot to other funding sources and reconsider their dependencies on corporate dollars.

Many companies have cited economic concerns as their impetus to delay or exit partnerships with Pride groups. But LGBTQ+ group leaders also noted an increasingly hostile climate for diversity, equity and inclusion efforts that has prompted some businesses to rethink their support. In turn, Pride organizations are seeking clarity on how much their values still align with those of their corporate contributors.
“For this many companies to be dropping off, I think, points to that we’re in a different political environment than we have been maybe in a long, long time,” San Francisco Pride executive director Suzanne Ford told CNBC.

Financial challenges

Many LGBTQ+ groups consider certain corporations to be longtime partners, but organizers said they often ink one-year deals that are negotiated in the months before the annual Pride celebrations. That leaves them vulnerable if once-reliable companies decide to withhold their dollars, and several organizations said they are facing sponsorship deficits that weigh on budgets and plans for festivals in the summer.
Among the largest shortfalls, Seattle Pride and New York City Pride say they have to make up for $350,000 deficits, and San Francisco Pride and Minnesota’s Twin Cities Pride say they are each facing a $200,000 cut.
Some festivals have named which previous sponsors aren’t returning, while others said they are keeping that information private to avoid burning bridges.

San Francisco Pride’s Ford said Anheuser-Busch, Comcast, Diageo and Nissan have told the organization that they are not sponsoring the festival this year. All were previously longtime partners, Ford said.
The companies gave a variety of reasons for the change.
A Comcast representative said the company is participating in other Pride events in San Francisco and is supporting Pride parades in California in Oakland, Sacramento and Silicon Valley. A Diageo representative said the company will appear at Pride events across the country through its Smirnoff brand this year. A Nissan spokesperson said in a statement that the automaker will not sponsor any Pride festivals this year as it reviews all marketing and sales spending. Anheuser-Busch didn’t respond to a request for comment.
Washington, D.C.-based Capital Pride Alliance, which is organizing the biannual, global WorldPride celebration this year, said Comcast and Deloitte had regularly supported the group’s Pride festival but declined to do so this year, while Booz Allen Hamilton initially committed to sponsoring the event before later withdrawing.
A Booz Allen Hamilton spokesperson said in a statement that the defense giant’s sponsorship decisions do not reflect a pullback in support for employees.
Ryan Bos, Capital Pride Alliance’s executive director, said economic uncertainty, safety and security issues, and fear of losing federal funding have all discouraged companies from returning as sponsors. He highlighted President Donald Trump’s executive order ordering government agencies to investigate and sue companies supporting DEI.
“The sad thing is corporations have long been the first to step into our corner,” Bos said, citing companies’ support of domestic partner benefits and LGBTQ+ employment programs. “The fact that some are questioning their commitment now during this uncertain time is very disheartening, hurtful and frustrating for many.”

Parade participants are seen marching during the 2024 Kentuckiana Pride Parade on June 15, 2024 in Louisville, Kentucky. 
Stephen J. Cohen | Getty Images

Ford said the White House’s anti-LGBTQ+ rhetoric and executive orders targeting transgender people have impacted corporate America.
“We’ve all seen the culture wars playing out as far as how corporations respond, and I think this is part and parcel of that movement,” she said.
The White House didn’t respond to a CNBC request for comment.
Even corporations that are sticking with Pride festivals have reduced their support. Denver Pride’s returning sponsors have pared down their contributions by 62% on average, according to Natalie Zanoni, interim CEO of LGBTQ+ organization The Center on Colfax. The center organizes the Denver Pride celebration, which faces a total deficit of $230,000.
Festivals are also still in wait-and-see mode. St. Pete Pride president Byron Green-Calisch said several sponsors had asked the Tampa Bay, Florida-area organization if they could discuss sponsorships closer to April rather than the usual period beginning in January. As of late March, St. Pete Pride said it had achieved 55% of its fundraising goal, compared with the usual 80% to 90% at this time of year.
Seattle Pride executive director Patti Hearn said the group expects about $400,000 in sponsorships this year, compared with its total budget of $1.5 million. While she said the organization will be able to pull off its planned events this year, it would need to change its programming in the future if its $350,000 deficit became permanent.
Corporate sponsors are responsible for 75% of Twin Cities Pride’s budget, executive director Andi Otto told CNBC. As a result of sponsorship losses, the Minnesota organization had to cut a performance stage for the upcoming festival and will have to reduce its year-round programming, Otto said.
Not all businesses are taking a step back from festival sponsorships. Several groups said Delta Air Lines, among others, remains a strong supporter of their events. Others said small businesses have been steadfast.

Reevaluating partnerships

Pride organizations are also reexamining their relationships with sponsors that have rolled back DEI policies or visible support for their communities, further complicating their financial outlook.
Seattle Pride hasn’t engaged with previous sponsor Boeing this year, Hearn said, because she had a sense that the aerospace giant didn’t align with the organization’s values and would decline to return as a festival partner. Boeing reportedly shut down its DEI team in November, according to Bloomberg. The company didn’t respond to a CNBC request for comment.
Cincinnati Pride development director Jake Hitch said the Ohio group has rejected sponsorships from previous partners this year based on their nondiscrimination policies, involvement in the LGBTQ+ community and support for employees.
“With everything happening politically and in 2025 that is consistently coming against our community, we thought, what better time to really reset our expectations and align with our community on what they want to see?” Hitch said.
Twin Cities Pride dropped Target, which had sponsored its festival for over 15 years, after looking into the retailer’s DEI policy changes announced in late January. Changes to its supplier diversity commitment, community representation principles and participation in external DEI surveys concerned Otto enough for him to refuse the $50,000 sponsorship offer, he said.
“It did not feel right for my community to accept that money,” Otto said.
Target didn’t respond to a CNBC request for comment.

Pride Month merchandise is displayed at a Target store on May 31, 2023 in San Francisco, California. 
Justin Sullivan | Getty Images

San Francisco Pride’s Ford said the group no longer has a relationship with previous sponsor Meta, in part due to its changes to fact-checking policy but also because Meta staffers who had previously worked with SF Pride had left the company in the past couple of years.
A Meta spokesperson said in a statement that since 2024, the company has allowed local employee resource groups to make their own decisions on Pride sponsorships.
Some organizations have maintained productive relationships with corporations that have modified their DEI efforts, although understanding the policy changes can present its own challenge.
Dave Wait, chairperson of Detroit’s Motor City Pride, said some community members were spreading misinformation on social media about a sponsor shutting down its LGBTQ+ health care services, and that Motor City Pride had to clear it up with the company before signing the sponsorship deal for this year.
Twin Cities Pride’s Otto said although festival sponsor 3M has removed several DEI-related pages from its website, the industrial giant explained to the organization that it was only changing the language, not the substance of its DEI policies. 3M did not respond to a CNBC request for comment.
Lowe’s had sponsored Charlotte Pride’s festival and parade in North Carolina for nine years, but in August the home retailer ended its support for parades amid other DEI policy reversals. Lowe’s has pivoted to funding the LGBTQ+ group’s job fair and scholarship and internship programs, Charlotte Pride managing director Meredith Thompson told CNBC.
Some community members spoke out against the decision to continue working with Lowe’s, Thompson said, but she didn’t hesitate to do so because of their previous relationship.
“My attitude is, we need our corporate sponsors and we meet them where they are,” Thompson said.
Lowe’s did not respond to a CNBC request for comment.
Some national corporations that have curtailed DEI efforts are still showing up as sponsors through local affiliates and operators. McDonald’s, which retired numerous diversity goals in January, has regional operators sponsoring WorldPride and Charlotte Pride. And although Anheuser-Busch is not sponsoring San Francisco Pride or Pride St. Louis this year, Bud Light distributor Adams Beverages is returning as a sponsor for Charlotte Pride.

Diversifying funding

While LGBTQ+ organizations have long debated the role that corporations should play in Pride celebrations, this year has amplified the idea that Pride groups should rely less on businesses.
Several groups have turned to grassroots campaigns. Twin Cities Pride started a crowdfunding effort to help compensate for dropping Target, and it eventually raised over $110,000. Stonewall Columbus has received $8,500 in donations, Cincinnati Pride has netted over $43,000 and San Francisco Pride has fundraised $35,000, all through crowdfunding.
Green-Calisch of St. Pete Pride said the group will focus more on community donations moving forward and will also increase its year-round presence so that donors understand the work that the organization does beyond Pride Month.
“We are the people. This is about people power and being able to use your dollar to advocate,” Green-Calisch said.
Local governments have also grown more involved in some festivals. Stonewall Columbus executive director Densil Porteous said the Ohio-based group has received increased support from Franklin County, Columbus’ home county, to help make up for the organization’s $96,000 sponsorship deficit.
Pride Northwest executive director Debra Porta said the group is “very intentional” about not overly depending on corporate sponsors for Portland Pride, with its top sponsorship level totaling just $15,000. Other festivals offer sponsorship packages with costs that stretch well beyond $100,000.
Pride groups say that above all they’re focused on their communities, not sponsors. Although some festivals have ticketed programs or charge for entry, many organizations stress the importance of making Pride as accessible as possible.
“We never want to put the burden back on our community, because this is supposed to be their celebration,” Twin Cities Pride’s Otto said.
Disclosure: Comcast owns NBCUniversal, the parent company of CNBC. More

Major carriers are turning to off-peak fare sales and cutting excess capacity in the second half of the year.
Airfare dropped in March, according to the latest inflation read.

Passengers arrive at the American Airlines terminal at San Francisco International Airport in San Francisco on April 24, 2025.
Justin Sullivan | Getty Images

Is a recession brewing in row 33?
Airline CEOs this month warned Wall Street that passengers’ appetite for domestic trips is coming in lighter than they had hoped when they set forecasts high at the start of 2025.

On a series of earnings calls, they said the reasons range from President Donald Trump’s whipsawing tariff policies to volatile markets and, most notably, economic uncertainty.
“Nobody really relishes uncertainty when they’re talking about what they could do on a vacation and spend hard-earned dollars,” American Airlines CEO Robert Isom said on a quarterly earnings call on Thursday. 
That means airlines have too many seats on their hands — again. Delta Air Lines, Southwest Airlines and United Airlines said they will cut back their capacity growth plans after what they still hope to be a strong summer travel season.
Delta, Southwest, Alaska Airlines and American Airlines pulled their 2025 financial outlooks this month, saying the U.S. economy is too tough to predict right now. United Airlines provided two outlooks, one if if the U.S. falls into a recession and said it expects to be profitable in either scenario.
That is leading to cheaper plane tickets. Airfare fell 5.3% in March from last year, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ latest data. Easter, a peak travel period that coincides with many school vacations, fell in March of last year, though fares also dropped 4% in February this year.

Adding to pressure, executives said, is slower-than-expected growth from corporate travel, which is facing the same challenges many households are. Government travel plunged, too, amid the Trump administration’s cost cuts and mass layoffs this year.
“If uncertainty pops up, the first thing that goes away is corporate travel,” said Conor Cunningham a travel and transportation analyst at Melius Research .
Delta CEO Ed Bastian said on April 9 that corporate travel was trending up 10% year on year at the start of 2025, but that growth has since flattened. 
Business travel is key to major carriers because those customers are less price-sensitive and often book last minute when tickets are likely to be more expensive.
The overhang of seats in the domestic skies is forcing airlines to cut prices to fill their planes.
Alaska Airlines warned Wednesday that weaker-than-expected demand will likely eat into second-quarter earnings. Chief Financial Officer Shane Tackett told CNBC that demand has not plunged, but the carrier has lowered some fares to fill seats.
“The fares aren’t as strong as they were in the fourth quarter of last year and coming into January and first part of February,” Tackett said in an interview Wednesday. “Demand is still quite high for the industry, but it’s just not at the peak that we all anticipated might continue coming out of last year.”
At the front of the plane, executives say demand is holding up far better, while U.S.-based customers are still flying overseas in droves.
But lingering concerns are still weighing on the industry.
“Certainty will restore the economy, and I think it will restore it pretty quickly,” Isom said.

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INTEL, AMERICA’S semiconductor giant, has had some notable bosses. Robert Noyce, its first, invented the silicon chip that gave Silicon Valley its name. Gordon Moore, who came next, etched his place in tech lore with a prediction—Moore’s Law—that processing power would double every two years at the same cost. Andy Grove, the third boss, turned Intel into a semiconductor juggernaut, driven by the mantra that “only the paranoid survive.” The latest to join this lineage is Lip-Bu Tan, who took over in March. More

The CEO of Argentina’s MercadoLibre sees big opportunity for Latin America in the U.S.-China trade war.
Marcos Galperin is Argentina’s richest person with an $8.7 billion fortune by Forbes’ estimate.
Galperin told CNBC’s Robert Frank he believes there will be a “permanent shift” in U.S.-China trade relations.

MercadoLibre CEO Marcos Galperin

The CEO of Argentina’s MercadoLibre — often called the Amazon of Latin America — sees big opportunity for Latin America in the U.S.-China trade war.
“If Latin America plays its cards well, I think could benefit from this volatility,” MercadoLibre CEO and founder Marcos Galperin told CNBC’s Robert Frank on the sidelines of Riverwood Capital Management’s LatAm Tech Forum in Miami.

Galperin is Argentina’s richest person with an $8.7 billion fortune by Forbes’ estimate.

Shares of MercadoLibre, an e-commerce and payments firm, have surged by nearly 30% this year, while Amazon, facing massive exposure to President Donald Trump’s wide-sweeping tariffs, is down 15%.
Galperin told CNBC that Latin American firms, especially in Mexico, stand to gain from escalating tensions between U.S. and one if its chief trade partners. He noted that many American companies have already moved their manufacturing operations to Mexico from China and other Asian countries.
Mexico has a free trade agreement with the U.S. that means some imports from the country are exempt from Trump’s tariffs of as much as 25% on Mexican goods.
The U.S. president has hit China hardest, however, with a 145% tariff rate on Chinese goods.

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Galperin said Friday he believes there will be a “permanent shift” in U.S.-China trade relations.
“I don’t know how it’s going to end, but I think the situation where everything was manufactured in China and was consumed in the U.S., and China bought T-bills and in a way financed that, I think that dynamic is kind of over,” he said.
Argentina, Galperin’s home country, has a long history of protectionist policies including high tariffs. Argentine president Javier Milei, who has described Trump as an ally, has slashed tariffs and import restrictions since his inauguration in late 2023.
“I think what Milei is doing is great for Argentina,” Galperin said of the free-market reforms.
However, he warned there will be growing pains.
“I hope it works,” he said. “Changes are painful, and I hope that people have the patience and the time to give him to see that these changes in the medium and long term really create benefits for for everyone.” More

Novo Nordisk scored a huge legal victory that largely restricts compounding pharmacies from marketing or selling cheaper, unapproved versions of the drugmaker’s blockbuster weight loss drug Wegovy and diabetes treatment Ozempic. 
U.S. District Judge Mark Pittman denied the Outsourcing Facilities Association’s bid for a preliminary injunction that would have prevented the FDA from taking action against its members for making copies of semaglutide, the active ingredient in Ozempic and Wegovy. 
Patients flocked to those copycats when Ozempic and Wegovy were in short supply over the last two years due to skyrocketing demand, or if they didn’t have insurance coverage for the costly treatments. 

Flags with the logos of Danish drugmaker Novo Nordisk, maker of the blockbuster diabetes and weight-loss treatments Ozempic and Wegovy are pictures while the company presents the annual report at Novo Nordisk in Bagsvaerd, Denmark, on February 5, 2025. 
Mads Claus Rasmussen | Afp | Getty Images

Novo Nordisk scored a huge legal victory that largely restricts compounding pharmacies from marketing or selling cheaper, unapproved versions of the drugmaker’s blockbuster weight loss drug Wegovy and diabetes treatment Ozempic. 
A federal judge in Texas late Thursday rejected a bid by compounding pharmacies to keep making copies of Ozempic and Wegovy while a legal challenge over the shortage of those drugs unfolds. That came in response to a February lawsuit from a compounding trade group against the Food and Drug Administration’s determination that the active ingredient in those drugs, semaglutide, is no longer in shortage in the U.S.

Patients flocked to the cheaper copycats when Ozempic and Wegovy were in short supply over the last two years due to skyrocketing demand, or if they didn’t have insurance coverage for the costly treatments. 
During FDA-declared shortages, pharmacists can legally make compounded versions of brand-name medications. Many telehealth companies, such as Hims & Hers, also offered those copycats. But drugmakers and some health experts have pushed back against the practice because the FDA does not approve compounded drugs, which are essentially custom-made copies prescribed by a doctor to meet a specific patient’s needs. 
“We are pleased the court has rejected the compounders’ attempts to undermine FDA’s data-based decision that the shortage” of semaglutide is resolved, said Steve Benz, Novo Nordisk’s corporate vice president, legal and U.S. general counsel, in a statement. 
“Patient safety remains a top priority for Novo Nordisk and the extensive nationwide legal actions we have taken to protect Americans from the health risks posed by illegitimate ‘semaglutide’ drugs are working,” he said, referring to the company’s more than 100 lawsuits against compounding pharmacies and other entities across 32 states. 
On Thursday, U.S. District Judge Mark Pittman specifically denied the Outsourcing Facilities Association’s bid for a preliminary injunction that would have prevented the FDA from taking action against its members for making copies of semaglutide. 

That decision upholds the FDA’s previous determination that the semaglutide shortage in the U.S. is over and means the FDA can now immediately go after so-called 503A pharmacies that are making compounded versions of semaglutide according to individual prescriptions for a specific patient.
Those pharmacies are largely regulated by states rather than the FDA.
The decision also means the FDA can start targeting federally regulated 503B pharmacies, which manufacture compounded drugs in bulk with or without prescriptions, after May 22. The agency’s actions can include product seizures and warning letters to pharmacies. 

More CNBC health coverage

The decision on Thursday follows another win for Novo Nordisk. A different federal judge in Texas earlier this week ruled in favor of the drugmaker against a 503A pharmacy, MediOak Pharmacy, permanently prohibiting the business from marketing or selling compounded semaglutide.
Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly have aggressively cracked down on compounding pharmacies over the last two years as they benefit from the soaring popularity of their weight loss and diabetes drugs.
Eli Lilly has gone through a similar legal process with tirzepatide, the active ingredient in its weight loss drug Zepbound and diabetes treatment Mounjaro. The FDA declared the U.S. shortage of tirzepatide over last year, prompting the same compounding trade group to sue the FDA over the drug. 
In March, a federal judge denied the compounding group’s request for a preliminary injunction on the FDA’s enforcement against its members for making copies of Mounjaro and Zepbound. The compounding group has appealed.

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Tariffs have fueled car purchases across the country and some iPhone upgrades, too.
Yet in other categories, U.S. consumers have delayed rather than sped up purchases, according to surveys by market research firms and a recent Federal Reserve report.
Procter & Gamble CFO Andre Schulten said Thursday that tariffs have contributed to “a more nervous consumer” who pulled back in the last two months of the quarter.

In an aerial view, Ford Broncos are seen for sale on a lot at a dealership on April 18, 2025 in Austin, Texas.
Brandon Bell | Getty Images

At car dealerships across the country, consumers are rushing to buy new vehicles ahead of tariff-related price hikes. Some shoppers have also replaced iPhones early.
Yet when it comes to other items, retailers aren’t seeing widespread stock-ups or huge waves of early purchases due to tariffs — or at least not yet. Instead, U.S. shoppers seem hesitant to spend and inclined to delay purchases rather than speed them up, according to consumer surveys by market researchers and early reads from the Federal Reserve.

Consumer spending, excluding autos, was lower overall across the country, according to the Federal Reserve’s latest Beige Book report on economic conditions released on Wednesday. Five of the Fed’s districts saw slight growth in economic activity, four districts had slight to modest declines and three reported relatively unchanged trends since the central bank’s previous release in early March.
Most districts saw moderate to robust sales of vehicles and some nondurable items, which the report attributed to “a rush to purchase ahead of tariff-related price increases.” Yet both leisure and business travel were down, and the report noted that “uncertainty around international trade policy was pervasive across [district] reports.”
Beyond some of the pricier purchases that stand to cost a lot more even under a 10% tariff on imports, early data suggests the duties have intensified consumers’ desire to watch their wallets closely as they wait to see how Trump’s trade policy unfolds. Companies from Chipotle to PepsiCo and American Airlines said this week that they’re seeing pockets of slower spending.
U.S. shoppers have adopted “a conservation mentality” for their cash as they follow fast-changing headlines and see wild swings in the stock market — and their savings and retirement accounts, said Steve Zurek, vice president of thought leadership at NielsenIQ.
“There’s so much uncertainty right now that shoppers just don’t know what to do,” he said. “There’s nowhere to hide here — all they can do is control the household economics they have.”

Some survey results have backed up a theory that shoppers are kicking the can rather than accelerating purchases: about 35% of U.S. consumers said they planned to put off a major purchase, such as a home, car, appliance or furniture because of tariffs, according to a NielsenIQ survey. That compares with just 7% who said they anticipated making a major purchase now to avoid the possibility of a higher price later. The market researcher conducted the survey in late March, days before Trump unveiled steep tariffs on dozens of countries, almost all of which he later lowered for 90 days.
In another reflection of consumer caution, along with higher mortgage rates, home sales in March fell to the slowest pace since 2009, according to the National Association of Realtors.
Retailers, airlines, car manufacturers and more will be watching consumer behavior closely as they try to predict demand and buy inventory. Some of those companies have accelerated their own orders of longer-lasting and pricier durable goods, such as equipment, to beat tariff-related price hikes.
Here’s a look at what we know so far about consumers’ early response to tariffs.

Early buying

In tariff fear-buying, one category stands out: cars.
The auto sector outperformed the rest of the retail market in March, as sales excluding motor vehicles and parts increased 0.5%, while sales in the auto sector jumped 5.3%, the Commerce Department reported last week.
While Trump eased additional tariffs on many countries that export goods to the U.S., he has kept a 25% levy on all imported vehicles.
Consumers are rushing to showrooms to try to save thousands of dollars on a new vehicle.
Cox Automotive estimates the 25% tariff on non-U.S. assembled vehicles will increase the average cost of imported vehicles by $6,000, while the cost of vehicles assembled in the U.S. will rise by $3,600 due to upcoming 25% tariffs on automotive parts. Those are in addition to $300 to $500 hikes as a result of previously announced tariffs on steel and aluminum.
Automotive executives and dealers reported significant gains in showroom traffic and sales once Trump confirmed the tariffs late last month and into April.
“Concerns about potential future vehicle prices due to tariffs led to a surge in March sales, and April began with similar robustness,” said Charlie Chesbrough, senior economist at Cox Automotive.
New vehicle sales were running 22% above the seasonally adjusted pace of last year and were up more than 8% through early April on a volume basis, according to Cox.
“It’s been busy. Everybody’s buying now because they’re afraid the prices are going up,” said Craig DeSerf, executive manager of Gulf Coast Chevrolet Buick GMC in Texas. “There’s kind of been a little bit of a buying frenzy, like almost a replay of Covid.”
Michael Bettenhausen, a dealer in Illinois and chair of the Stellantis dealer council, said there’s “no doubt” there has been a big pull ahead in sales due to the tariffs.
“It’s taken a little bit extra effort … to get the consumer to understand that the tariffs haven’t impacted us yet,” he said. “Our inventory on the ground is tariff-free. Obviously if you’re in the market and you’re looking to buy in the next 30 to 60 days, you’ll probably want to be doing it sooner rather than later.”
Higher sales are good for the automotive industry, after many analysts expected them to be roughly flat heading into the year. But there’s concern that sales could come to a grinding halt once automakers and dealers sell out of their tariff-free inventories.
“Inventory levels have declined substantially over recent weeks, likely pushing vehicle prices higher, so the end of April may not be as strong,” Chesbrough said. “With economic concerns rising and consumer confidence declining, the outlook for new auto sales from here is more troubling.”
Automotive vehicles topped the list of purchases that U.S. consumers reported that they made earlier than they otherwise would have because of tariffs, according to a survey by GlobalData of nearly 5,800 adults across the country in late March and early April.
Nearly 12% said tariffs had sped up their car purchase, followed by close to 10% of people who reported buying furniture earlier than planned and nearly 9% who reported purchasing large electronics.

Stockpiling

Yet when it comes to a wider range of merchandise like paper towels, clothing and more, there hasn’t been a meaningful rush to stock up.
Walmart Chief Financial Officer John David Rainey told reporters earlier this month at an investor day in Dallas that the nation’s largest retailer hasn’t seen “pandemic-like buying from our customers.”
He said the company saw consumers bulk ordering in some stores ahead of the port strike last fall, but hasn’t seen that now. But he did tell investors that the big-box retailer’s sales patterns have become less predictable week to week and even day to day.
“It’s just more volatility than what we typically see in our business,” he said, adding that bumpier consumer spending continued into April.
He attributed that to a mix of factors, including weaker consumer sentiment in February, poor weather in March and delayed timing of tax refunds.
Chris Nicholas, CEO of Walmart-owned Sam’s Club, told CNBC in an interview earlier this month that the warehouse club has not seen “any material change” when it comes to early purchases of items like appliances and consumer electronics.
A later Easter than a year ago has muddled sales results, too. Total spending rose to 3.8% for April through April 15 compared with about 2.7% in March, according to data from JPMorgan. A note from the bank attributed that to the “Easter effect,” since the holiday fell on March 31 a year ago.
That made the sales jumps look bigger leading up to this year’s Easter on April 20, since consumers tend to shop more ahead of the holiday.
Walmart’s Rainey said at the investor day that the discounter anticipated April would be its strongest month of the quarter because of the timing of Easter.
Even so, tariffs may have fueled some early purchases in April. Along with Easter’s timing shift, JPMorgan’s note credited “possible ‘binge’ purchases in anticipation of tariffs.”
Store visits increased year over year the first two full weeks in April at superstores, grocers and clothing retailers, according to Placer.ai, which tracks retail foot traffic. Yet store visits declined year over year at home improvement and furniture stores, the company found.

Delaying purchases and seeking deals

Whether consumers are shopping for everyday items like laundry detergent or booking an airline ticket, tariffs have made them reluctant to spend and more likely to hunt for deals, executives have said.
Procter & Gamble CFO Andre Schulten on Thursday said on a call with reporters that tariffs have led to “a more nervous consumer” who pulled back on spending in the last two months of the quarter.
“It’s not illogical to see the consumer adopt the ‘wait and see’ attitude, and we saw traffic down at retailers,” Schulten said. “We saw consumers basically looking for value, migrating into online, bigger box retail, into club [retailers].”
Outside of retailers’ aisles, more price-sensitive customers are pulling back on domestic airline bookings, industry executives said this month. Carriers are turning to fare sales to fill seats on domestic flights and trimming their schedules to shed excess capacity, though some warn revenue could fall this quarter from last year.
Airfare fell 5.3% in March after a 4% decline in February, according to the latest federal data.
Airline CEOs went into 2025 optimistic for a blockbuster year, but some have recently said demand started to weaken among government, corporate and economy-class leisure travel segments in February. Executives say economic uncertainty is keeping some customers on the sidelines.
Some industry executives noticed the weakening of business travel demand in recent months amid the trade war, volatile markets and mass government layoffs. Delta Air Lines CEO Ed Bastian said on April 9 that in addition to weaker domestic leisure bookings, corporate travel demand — which started the year up 10% from 2024 — had turned flat.
At the same time, high-end travel demand from first class to premium economy, and outbound international demand have proven more resilient, airlines executives say.
Delta reported earlier this month that its domestic unit revenue fell 3% in the first quarter from a year earlier, while trans-Atlantic unit sales rose 8%. International flights make up a smaller share of the carrier’s overall ticket sales than domestic trips, however.
American Airlines on Thursday joined Alaska Airlines, Southwest Airlines and Delta in pulling its 2025 financial outlook. United Airlines took the unusual step of offering two forecasts, one if things are stable and one if the economy shrinks. But either way, it expects to make money this year.
American’s vice chair and chief strategy officer, Steve Johnson, said Thursday on an earnings call that the carrier has logged “significant weakness in the part of our business that’s very sensitive to economic conditions … for whom travel is really discretionary.”
“In those circumstances, you do see prices that are lower,” he said. “That’s going to continue to be the case until we understand … which direction the economy is going.”
Alaska Airlines warned Wednesday that weaker demand will eat into second-quarter earnings.
CFO Shane Tackett told CNBC that demand hasn’t plunged, but the carrier has lowered some fares to fill seats.
“The fares aren’t as strong as they were in the fourth quarter of last year and coming into January and first part of February,” he said in an interview Wednesday. “Demand is still quite high for the industry, but it’s just not at the peak that we all anticipated might continue coming out of last year.”
Retailers will kick off earnings season and share their latest numbers starting in mid-May.
NielsenIQ’s Zurek anticipates that U.S. consumers will spend less and save more in the coming months because of skittishness about the economic outlook and prices. During the pandemic, personal savings rates spiked as Americans had fewer ways to spend their money, according to the St. Louis Fed.
“When a shopper or a consumer is not sure what kind of financial punches they’re going to be taking in the future, they’re going to try to hoard cash,” he said.
Dallas resident Tiffany Armstrong is an example of that. The attorney said she is delaying a planned kitchen remodel until she has a clearer picture of how much new kitchen appliances and construction-related materials will cost.
“Between the uncertainty with pricing and the [stock] market, it doesn’t seem like a wise time,” she said.
Still, she made one exception by running to a nearby AT&T store to spring for an earlier-than-planned purchase of a new iPhone.
Days later, in a move that underscores how hard it is for consumers and businesses to plan, those Apple iPhones were exempted from tariffs.
— CNBC’s Amelia Lucas contributed to this report.

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Even well-heeled travelers are pulling back due to economic uncertainty, according to a new survey from Barclays.
Customer interest in buying private jets has plummeted by 49% since March.
However, private jet manufacturers could get a shot in the arm from Congress.

A Cessna Citation jet aircraft is viewed at Charles M. Schulz Sonoma County Airport in this aerial photo taken on June 1, 2021, near Healdsburg, California.
George Rose | Getty Images

With consumer confidence tumbling, demand for commercial air travel has waned. Even deep-pocketed travelers are pulling back, according to Barclays’ latest survey of business jet broker-dealers and financiers.
Customer interest in buying business jets has fallen by 49% since March, according to the survey, which was conducted from April 9 to 15 and had 65 respondents.

The Barclays Business Jet Indicator survey, published last week, uses five metrics, including 12-month outlook and pricing, to assess the state of the market. All but one metric (inventory levels) declined from mid-March to mid-April. As a result, the composite score fell from 52 to 40.
The percentage drop recorded in the most recent survey, at 23%, is the largest recorded by Barclays since the Covid pandemic. Barclays analyst David Strauss told CNBC that he expected sentiment to weaken but not to such a large degree.
A composite score in the low 40s indicates the market is slowing, according to Barclays.
The indicator correlates with airplane manufacturers’ book-to-bill ratio, a key measure of their financial health. A score of 40 indicates that dollar value of manufacturers’ new orders is lagging about 10% behind the orders it is currently fulfilling, Strauss said.
Survey respondents told Barclays that clients had put purchases on hold, fearing the impact of tariffs not only on the aircraft market but also their operating businesses.

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Nearly half (46%) of participants said that customer interest in buying business jets had deteriorated since March. Forty-four percent said customer interest stayed the same and only 10% reported it had improved.
When asked specifically about the effect of tariffs on new aircraft demand, 93% of respondents said it would have a negative impact on demand, with a majority expecting the impact would be significant. Only 7% said they believed there would be no impact.
As for used jets, 67% of respondents were still pessimistic, expecting a significant or minor negative impact on demand. A little under a third (27%) expected demand for used jets to increase by some degree.
However, pending legislation may give business jet manufacturers a shot in the arm.
Both the Senate and House of Representatives have adopted a budget resolution that aims to extend the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. A key provision of the TCJA allowed businesses to immediately deduct 100% of eligible equipment purchases rather than spreading out the deduction over time. The rate has dropped 20% annually since 2023 and was set to phase out in 2027. 
Republican lawmakers now have a path to raise the rate back to 100% and allow retroactive deductions, which President Donald Trump called for in March. If they succeed in bringing back 100% bonus depreciation, private aircraft would become much more attractive from a tax perspective. 

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