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Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.The founder of the private equity owner of AC Milan football club has predicted the sports sector can cope with the new US tariff regime but warned that if the trade war escalated it would not be immune to a damaging decline in consumer confidence and spending.Gerry Cardinale, managing partner and chief investment officer of RedBird Capital Partners, acknowledged that escalation in the trade war sparked by US President Donald Trump would hit sport indirectly through its effect on consumers. But he said sports operations had proved “resilient” in past downturns, including the 2008 global financial crisis and the coronavirus pandemic.Cardinale, a former partner at Goldman Sachs, was one of a series of figures associated with sports businesses who said the sector was in a good position to withstand the challenges of the US president’s tariff regime.Trump on April 9 imposed tariffs of 125 per cent on all Chinese exports to the US, prompting Beijing on Friday to impose similar levies on US exports to China. The president has delayed many tariffs on other countries but has retained a 10 per cent levy on most goods from countries other than China — and special, higher duties on imports of cars, steel and aluminium.Gerry Cardinale acknowledged there would be problems because consumers would have less money to spend on tickets and media subscriptions More

Unlock the White House Watch newsletter for freeYour guide to what the 2024 US election means for Washington and the worldThe Trump administration has excluded smartphones and other consumer electronics from its steep “reciprocal” tariffs in a significant boost for Big Tech as the White House battles to calm global markets after launching a multifront trade war. According to a notice posted late on Friday night by Customs and Border Patrol, smartphones, along with routers, chipmaking equipment and certain computers and laptops, would be exempt from reciprocal tariffs, which include the 125 per cent levies Donald Trump has imposed on Chinese imports.The carve-out is a big win for companies such as Apple, Nvidia and Microsoft, and follows a week of intense turbulence in US markets after Trump unleashed a trade war on “liberation day” on April 2. The announcement rattled global investors and triggered a stock market rout.The exemption is the first sign of any softening of Trump’s tariffs against China, which he ratcheted up over the course of the past week even as he paused the steepest “reciprocal” tariffs. He retained tariffs of 10 per cent on most trading partners.The Trump administration had already exempted several sectors from its reciprocal tariffs, including semiconductors and pharmaceuticals, but the president has signalled that he still plans to apply tariffs to those sectors.A White House official said on Saturday that the US would launch a separate probe that could lead to a tariff on chips “soon”. The dispensation for smartphones and computers will be especially welcomed by Apple as the bulk of its supply chain is centred on China. Analysts estimate about 80 per cent of its iPhones are still made in the country even as the tech group worked to diversify production to India in recent years. The majority of iPhones are made in a big factory complex in Zhengzhou operated by Apple’s manufacturing partner Foxconn. Workers at the plant told the Financial Times this week that operations were normal but that they were worried about the impact of the trade war. A Foxconn factory in Zhengzhou More

The Treasury secretary received counsel and criticism from some of his predecessors over President Trump’s policies.The traditional gathering of former Treasury secretaries to welcome a newly minted one into the fold is usually a lighthearted and pleasant affair. But when the group convened this month, on President Trump’s “Liberation Day,” the tone was strikingly serious.The dinner, organized by former Treasury Secretary Steven T. Mnuchin, took place at a moment of tumult for the U.S. economy. The president had upended global trade with punishing tariffs on both allies and adversaries, and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent was at the center of it, defending a policy that many in the room viewed as economic malpractice.“The mood was somber,” said W. Michael Blumenthal, 99, who led the Treasury Department in the Carter administration and was in attendance.Mr. Bessent was pressed over the strategy behind the tariffs and the impact that they would have on the economy, according to Mr. Blumenthal and other people familiar with the dinner. At times, Mr. Bessent elevated his voice when his predecessors confronted him about Mr. Trump’s approach.“He didn’t just smile,” Mr. Blumenthal recalled. “There he is — he has to defend it.”The guest list included Robert E. Rubin, Henry M. Paulson, Lawrence H. Summers, Timothy F. Geithner and Jack Lew. Former Treasury Secretary Janet L. Yellen was traveling in Australia and did not attend, a spokesman said.The Treasury Department declined to comment on the dinner, and Mr. Bessent declined to comment for this article.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

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.Gold has enjoyed its best week in five years, surging to record highs as investors rushed to the safety of one of the few havens left in global markets in the wake of Donald Trump’s tariff blitz.Bullion climbed more than 6.5 per cent by Friday close, reaching a new high of $3,237 per troy ounce — the biggest weekly gain since the early stages of the Covid-19 pandemic in March 2020.The rise came as the market panic unleashed by the US President’s trade war caused investors to pull back from US Treasuries, a haven in normal times, as equities nosedived and the dollar fell to three-year lows against the euro.“A broad sell-off in US equities and Treasuries has shaken confidence in American assets, prompting investors to seek safety in gold,” said Alexander Zumpfe, a bullion trader at Heraeus. “The rally is being fuelled by growing fears of a full-blown trade war,” he added, pointing to mounting recession risks, soaring bond yields and a weakening US dollar as contributing factors. As gold is priced in dollars, it typically benefits from a weaker US currency, as this makes it cheaper to buy in other currencies.The escalating global trade war has roiled markets and contributed to uncertainty about the health of the US financial system. On Friday, Beijing hit back at Washington with a 125 per cent tariff on US imports.“You hold gold when you are worried about the system breaking,” said Peter Mallin-Jones, analyst at Peel Hunt. “It is not surprising that the safe haven of Treasuries, or just holding the dollar in cash, is not as appealing as it has been in previous crises.” Bullion has been on a historic rally this year, propelled by strong demand from investors as well as physical buying from central banks seeking to diversify away from the dollar.During the first quarter, inflows into gold-backed exchange traded funds were at their highest levels since the coronavirus pandemic. Will Rhind, chief executive of GraniteShares, an ETF company, said the flight into gold in recent days had been motivated by fear. “We are in this highly unusual situation, where the flight to traditional safe havens hasn’t been working,” he said, pointing to the rising Treasury yields. “You see rates rising in an environment where people are nervous about the market — that breaks the trust loop.”Physical demand for gold has also been strong this week, and in China buyers are paying a significant premium for the metal over international spot prices, a sign of strong demand. UBS raised its gold price forecast on Friday for the second time this year, to $3,500 per troy ounce over the next 12 months, up from the $3,000 forecast made at the start of the year. “We expect additional demand from central banks, institutions and investors following current events,” UBS analysts wrote in a note to clients.  More

Unlock the White House Watch newsletter for freeYour guide to what the 2024 US election means for Washington and the worldUS consumers are showing increasing signs of financial stress as they brace for higher prices from the Trump’s administration’s tariffs on imports, raising concerns about a crucial driver of the US economy. In first-quarter earnings, JPMorgan said the portion of loans in its credit card business deemed unrecoverable rose to a 13-year high. Industry-wide, the rate of charge-offs is now higher than the level before the Covid-19 outbreak, reversing a period of stellar credit card payments during the pandemic when consumers benefited from government stimulus programmes. Consumer spending is the bedrock of the US economy, and after years of robust strength there are growing signs that Americans’ wellspring of financial firepower is fading. That poses a risk to economic growth at a time of rising prices and higher interest rates, amid greater concerns that the US economy may tip into a recession in the next 12 months. JPMorgan chief executive Jamie Dimon said “there’s a wide range of potential outcomes” in a period of so much uncertainty, and sided with his bank’s economists that the odds of a recession were 50/50.There are worries that consumers face added strain from higher prices linked to US President Donald Trump’s plans for a 10 per cent levy on imports as well as a tariff of 145 per cent on goods purchased from China.“Looking at the April data is what would appear to be a little bit of front loading of spending, specifically in items that might have prices go up as a function of tariffs,” said JPMorgan chief financial officer Jeremy Barnum. US consumer sentiment has been plunging since December amid “growing worries about trade war developments”, the University of Michigan said in a preliminary poll released on Friday. The share of survey respondents who expect greater unemployment in the year ahead was the highest since 2009.Store foot traffic data from Placer.ai, which aggregates location signals from mobile phones, suggested US shoppers flocked to low-priced warehouse club stores in the last week of March, a sign they might be stocking up ahead of new tariffs. At Walmart, the largest US retailer with both hypermarkets and a warehouse chain, chief financial officer John David Rainey this week pointed to “a little more sales volatility week-to-week and frankly, day-to-day” as consumer sentiment declines. However, the company maintained its outlook for 3-4 per cent growth in US net sales for the quarter ending in April. A report earlier in the week by the Philadelphia branch of the Federal Reserve showed the share of US credit card borrowers making only their minimum required payment hit a 12-year high at the end of 2024. The Philadelphia Fed said the percentages of credit card accounts that were 30, 60 and 90 days past due had also increased in the fourth quarter.“Collectively, these trends, along with a new series high for revolving card balances, indicate greater consumer stress,” the central bank’s Philadelphia branch wrote. JPMorgan’s Barnum still struck an upbeat tone on consumer credit, saying that the bank’s “data is consistent with the narrative of the consumer being basically fine”. He said cash buffers for lower income consumers were relatively weaker but that group was not showing signs of distress. This view was backed up by Wells Fargo, the fourth-largest US bank by assets. The bank’s net charge-off rate fell this quarter, though Wells has a far smaller credit card portfolio than JPMorgan. “Customers continue to be resilient with stable customer activity in the quarter, including credit card and debit card spend,” said Wells chief financial officer Mike Santomassimo.Dimon said that the crucial arbiter for loan losses would be the unemployment rate, currently at about 4.2 per cent. “Credit almost always relates to employment,” Dimon said. “And so you guys can watch unemployment and [credit quality] will change when unemployment changes.”Additional reporting by Akila Quinio More

<!–> –><!–> [–><!–>The escalating trade war between the United States and China has created deep uncertainty for U.S. companies that rely on Chinese suppliers. Retaliations in recent days by the two countries have resulted in huge average tax rates on their each other’s imports, with tariffs often costing more than the price of the goods […] More

Many Americans have purchased foreign-made products out of fears that companies could start to raise prices soon.Emily Moen, a coffee shop manager in Omaha, was scrolling through TikTok earlier this week when she came across a video informing her that President Trump’s tariffs could lead to higher prices for essential baby products.Ms. Moen, who is 15 weeks pregnant, said that she had not planned to buy a car seat soon. But after watching the video, she researched the one made by Graco that she had been eyeing, and learned that it was manufactured in China. Worried that the $200 seat could get even more expensive, she bought the item on Amazon the same day.“It was like an awakening to get this done now,” said Ms. Moen, 29.As the Trump administration’s trade war with China escalates, many consumers have raced to purchase foreign-made products out of fear that companies could start to raise prices soon. Some have rushed to buy big-ticket items like iPhones and refrigerators. Others have hurriedly placed orders for cheap goods from Chinese e-commerce platforms.The White House this week imposed a minimum tariff rate of 145 percent on all Chinese imports to the United States, on top of other previously announced levies, including a 25 percent tariff on steel, aluminum, cars and car parts.And last week, Mr. Trump ordered the end of a loophole that had allowed goods from China worth less than $800 to enter the United States without tariffs.Early data show that consumers stocked up on goods after the Trump administration announced sweeping tariffs on nearly all trading partners.Angela Weiss/Agence France-Presse — Getty ImagesWe 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