Trump's reciprocal tariffs are meant to level the playing yield with other countries, but many didn't expect them to be this high, more like punitive than reciprocal. He imposed a 10% baseline tariff on many countries, China 34%, EU 20%, He's an equal-opportunity hater, not caring how these countries react because he feels those countries don't buy much American stuff anyway. So, the countries or the people selling those products will eat the tariff. Companies will make less money. Foreign ones subsidized by their companies won't make any. Companies like Nike and Apple who sell in China will be hurt. By hurting China's trading partners to hurt Japan, like Japan, Germany and Korea, of course we are hurting those countries, too. In America, tariffs will result in much higher prices for consumers. Trump doesn't care--he sees bigger issues beyond price hikes. Trump doesn't care about the stock market this time around (vs. 2018), doesn't care if the S&P falls 10%.
Last Monday, they reported a surprising earnings report, great numbers top and bottom and a strong forecast, plus a $500 million share buyback. It's been a rollercoaster since the pandemic. Revenues were particularly good overseas, and growth in North America (been a long time). Numbers per se weren't great, but they beat low expectations. The adjusted EPS forecast was higher than expected. They delivered a soft forecast for the current quarter, though. Problems remain: Weakening US consumer confidence, tariffs will raise prices, and slower sales in China. PVH is not doing great, but beating expectations. Wait another quarter or two.
A chart of options expirations and the cost of options on these days in the past week. Those on Thursday and Friday this week (post-tariff announcements) are very expensive like 36-28%. But next week Friday it's 20.79%, a huge drop which means the market expects a lot of volatility the next few days, but will be over by Monday. Another chart: the VIX 9 Day (9 days out) vs. VIX (30 days out) shows the VIX 9 trading much higher than the regular VIX, which is rare. This also shows more volatility in coming days than later. Tomorrow could see a 1.6% swing and Friday a 2.1% move either way, and -3% in the next two days possibly. But after that, we should be in the clear.