The Impact of Trade Policy on U.S. Companies: A Deep Dive

While trade policy under Trump has grown tangled, and for US companies operating overseas, it's far from just diplomacy.

Multinationals are facing backlash, sometimes through tariffs, other times through moves like tighter regulations or limited market access, and companies are stuck in the middle trying to reassure partners while staying in step with the White House.

Every move from investments to. carries political risk.

We did see Navidia shares surge to all-time highs yesterday after the company now expects to resume sales of its H20 chips to China.

So who are the real MVPs in what has become a complex game?

Joining me live at the New York Stock Exchange is Karim Kapoori, the president and CEO of the Atlas Network.

Karim, great to have. back.

Thank you so much for joining me.

Thank you so much for having me.

I really appreciate it.

Well, first and foremost, we've been getting a slew of earnings as well as inflation figures out this week.

So how are companies navigating this chessboard of tariffs?

You know, it's a complicated time, as we've discussed before, and companies industry by industry need to look at how these tariffs are impacting them.

And the ways that they're going to basically navigate this and as I've talked about before, there are really 5 big ways to do that.

The absorption, who absorbs these tariffs, the deferral of these tariffs, working out terms and conditions with their suppliers, cost engineering and pricing, and then finally alternative supply chains.

But these are all areas that all have to be considered one by one, industry by industry and product by product to essentially be able to navigate these complicated times you.

Mentioned, we've been seeing some of the earnings and so forth.

The CPI reports came out a little bit higher than expected.

That's a consumer price index that obviously impacts how consumers are buying in the global economy.

And then we obviously have the PPI index which is going to be coming out in a day or two, and that will also give us an indicator on the expenses that producers are facing and those additional expenses will have to be absorbed or passed off and so forth, and that's where we'll really see the impacts on the consumer economy.

Yeah, and you bring up a lot of important points there, but when it comes to some of these tariffs, Americans are concerned about how it's going to affect their shopping and what they can actually purchase moving forward.

So when we hear about tariffs on copper, for example, that affects so many parts of our lives.

And in addition to that, it is almost back to school season, believe it or not.

So that means retailers are pricing and trying to figure out. out what consumers want.

So what are we seeing when it comes to retailers?

Yeah, I mean, you know, you bring up something such as copper.

I mean, copper, that material impacts our lives in so many ways from consumer electronics, phones, our appliances, even just, you know, general things that we use every single day, rely on our homes.

That's right, the building industry are very reliant upon this material and we can see that that is going to flow through to the way that our lives basically absorb the use and the need of these costs.

So we really have to be, you know, careful about how we are doing our spending these days and how we're going to be able to navigate these complicated times while these tariffs are being put into place or looking to be absorbed or passed off or there may be mitigating factors to be able to level the playing field.

Same thing goes with things like back to school items, so many products from fabrics to apparel, textiles and so forth are obviously impacted by the global economy and these will be passed off to parents too.

So, you know, maybe a student isn't going to have, you know, two backpacks that year, maybe they're going to have one backpack and so forth and you know I hate to say that but you know for so many families, you know, in America.

Costs are extremely, extremely important, and so we need to be able to navigate this and look at it carefully and as we mentioned before, looking at the CPI reports and PPI reports are going to be indicators of how much we can be expecting in terms of inflation, in terms of recession, in terms of potentially these tariff impacts.

And Karim, finally, before I let you go, it might not be too soon to start sharpening our number to pencils, but I understand that you're over in Greece and many Americans go to Greece.

For vacation, but when it comes to that economy and how it affects Americans, what were you seeing when it comes to supply chains?

Well, you know, it's unbelievable because I like to talk about supply chain as an area that impacts each one of our lives in so many different ways.

And one place is tourism, right?

So you have natural resources that need to be accounted for.

You have transport and logistics.

You have a certain amount of capability for airplanes and travel and things of that nature, and all of this has to be well managed because we in places like Barcelona, they've been doing, you know, a curbing back of how many tourists they basically are having come into the country because infrastructure can't always support it.

So while I was in Greece, it's a beautiful country, they are working through how they are going to be able to navigate sort of the supply chain of tourism and I do think that when we think about the supply chain, we need to think about how it touches our everyday lives, the things we buy, the way we experience and so forth and that's my hope to always discuss those things.

So I thank you for bringing up that point.

Yeah, and that's an interesting topic because we've been hearing about protests in Spain, other parts of Europe against tourism.

So in a nutshell, tell us what you saw.

I mean, in general, there are two sides of it.

One side is the Demographic and the local economy who obviously welcomes tourism very much so, but at the same time, the governmental side that knows that there are potential infrastructure challenges, security risks, or other things that could work against tourism being done safely or in a well mannered.

With this in mind, you know, it's a balancing act between the needs of the local economy.

At the same time, the infrastructure.

Well Kareem, we heard that bell.

That was the first trade bell for grab the gun that is listing on the New York Stock Exchange and now trading under ticker symbol PEW.

But thank you so much, Kareem, for joining me here at the New York Stock Exchange.

Always a pleasure to have you here.

Thank you.