Thursday, July 24

Headlines





Tomohiro Ohsumi/Getty Images


Trump unveils “massive” trade deal with Japan, including a 15% tariff. President Trump announced that an agreement had been reached Tuesday night that would impose “reciprocal” tariffs on Japanese goods entering the US at 15%. That’s lower than the 25% Trump previously threatened, but still high for a tariff on a major trading partner—and the lower figure includes tariffs on cars, which have been facing a 25% duty since April. The deal also calls for Japan to invest $550 billion in the US, with the US receiving “90% of the profits,” according to Trump. The news pushed Japanese markets to a one-year high yesterday, with automakers getting the biggest boost. US car companies, which have recently reported big losses due to tariffs, criticized the deal.

Elon Musk says Tesla could have a “rough” road ahead after sales slumped. Tesla’s profit fell 16% last quarter to $1.17 billion compared to $1.4 billion for the same period a year ago as sales of its cars declined. With sales down and the loss of US incentives for consumers to buy EVs due to the recently passed Republican tax bill, Musk said the company would eventually be buoyed by an expanding robotaxi fleet, but that it may not happen until next year. “We probably could have a few rough quarters. I’m not saying we will, but we could,” Musk told analysts yesterday.

Alphabet’s sales are up from AI, but so is its spending. Alphabet’s $96.4 billion revenue haul for Q2 exceeded expectations, boosted by a 32% year over year revenue growth in its cloud computing business. But the Google parent also reminded investors that you need to spend money to make money—especially in the red-hot AI race. The company bumped its expected capital expenditures for the year up to $85 billion, which is $10 billion higher than the amount it reported in February. The company said the extra cash was necessary to support the “strong and growing demand for our Cloud products and services.”—AR


No comments:

Post a Comment