Trump Trade War Fuels Use of Currency Options as Hedge in Europe
Daily volumes of currency options surged to a record in early April in the aftermath of Trump's 'Liberation Day' tariff unveil, according to data from the Depository Trust and Clearing Corp. At BNP Paribas SA, one of Europe's largest banks, corporate sales of FX options have doubled year-over-year in 2025 to an all-time high.
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CNBC
11 minutes ago
- CNBC
How the retail industry is responding to Trump's trade deal with Vietnam
The retail industry is breathing a sigh of relief after it appeared to avoid the worst case scenario on Vietnam tariffs. But some executives believe the tentative trade deal President Donald Trump announced Wednesday is still bad for business and could have a chilling effect on consumer spending. "It's a lot better news than where we were on Liberation Day," one CEO of a popular consumer brand told CNBC after Trump said tariffs on Vietnamese imports would be 20%, down from the 46% levy he proposed on April 2, then later suspended. The new rate would be double the 10% duty currently in place. Another executive called the news "bad" but agreed that a 20% tariff was better than the 46% duty Trump originally imposed, however unrealistic the proposed rate was. "I guess Trump needs 'positive' news," a third executive said. "I think things are going to evolve. Let's see if this is definitive." Trump's announcement on Wednesday came only days before the 90-day suspension of the steep tariffs he proposed in April expires next week, and as his administration scrambles to strike agreements with dozens of trading partners. Even so, he did not say when the deal with Vietnam would take effect, or whether both sides have agreed to the tariff rates. In the months between Trump's April 2 tariff rollout and his announcement on Wednesday, retail executives in the apparel and footwear industries fretted over the potential that Vietnam imports could face tariffs nearly as high as the cumulative 55% duties for Chinese imports. Over the last decade, some of America's top retailers, including Gap, American Eagle and Nike, have all reduced their reliance on China to shield themselves from both high tariffs and the region's geopolitical turbulence. Many sought refuge in Vietnam, where the factories, some owned by Chinese businesses, are known to produce products at a similar quality and price as China. They also started manufacturing in other countries in southeast Asia, such as Cambodia, Bangladesh and Malaysia. Those countries were facing tariffs of 49%, 37% and 24%, respectively, under Trump's April plan, but are subject to a 10% duty for now. Vietnam is now the second largest supplier for footwear, apparel and accessories sold into the U.S. market, according to the industry trade group the American Apparel & Footwear Association. It has become an essential part of the footwear supply chain, on pace to become the largest supplier of shoes to the U.S. in 2025, according to the Footwear Distributors and Retailers of America, another industry trade group. If Trump's proposed 46% tariff on Vietnam had taken effect, it would mean much of the industry's work to leave China would have been for naught. Some companies are relieved the tentative deal would set the levy at 20% and the announcement agreement is also a sign that Cambodia, Malaysia and Bangladesh could reach similar frameworks. "Twenty percent is a sigh of relief," said Sonia Lapinsky, a partner and managing director at AlixPartners who advises fashion brands. "There's some positivity and some optimism that this is manageable. So at least there's that. This isn't business destroying, which is great. However, this does have real implications, right?" Most companies have plenty of tools to offset the impact of tariffs, such as working with their suppliers to share costs. But to avoid major hits to their profit margins, many including Nike are planning to raise prices. It's still unclear how those hikes will affect consumer spending because it will take time for the increases to trickle down in the supply chain. AlixPartners previously created pricing models for CNBC that examined how the price of Vietnamese-made sweaters and shoes could rise under Trump's proposed tariffs — if retailers do not pass any of the cost on to suppliers or shoppers. At a 10% levy, the cost of a $95 pair of men's shoes could rise by $7.42 to $102.42. With a 20% duty in place, the cost increase would be even larger. Many executives worry any tariff hike of this magnitude will be bad for businesses and consumers. Paul Cosaro, the CEO of Picnic Time, a supplier to top retailers like Target, Kohl's and Macy's, said if the clocks were wound back to April and Trump said there'd be a 20% tariff on Vietnamese imports, "no one would've been happy." "There could be threats of a 46% tariff and you come back with 20 and it's going to sound better but… it's just more money coming out of the consumers' pockets at the end of the day and they have less money to spend on picnic baskets and coolers and things like that," said Cosaro, who raised his prices between 11% and 14% earlier this year to offset the cost of China tariffs. "It's not good for the consumer. Ultimately, it's just increasing the prices … I don't think that's good news."
Yahoo
12 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Zacks.com featured highlights include Hudbay Minerals, StoneCo, Centene and CVS Health
Chicago, IL – July 3, 2025 – Stocks in this week's article are Hudbay Minerals Inc. HBM, StoneCo Ltd. STNE, Centene Corp. CNC and CVS Health Corp. CVS. The Dow Jones Industrial Average stood out yesterday, climbing 0.91%, as market participants repositioned portfolios at the start of the second half of 2025. On the contrary, the S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite edged lower, sliding 0.11% and 0.82%, respectively. Market sentiment remained cautious as investors assessed fresh policy signals from Fed Chair Jerome Powell and monitored developments surrounding President Donald Trump's mega bill. Given the current market scenario, it is prudent to shift focus toward value stocks. When evaluating value stocks, one of the most effective valuation metrics is the Price to Cash Flow (P/CF) ratio. Companies like Hudbay Minerals Inc., StoneCo Ltd., Centene Corp. and CVS Health Corp. boast a low P/CF ratio. The P/CF ratio evaluates the market price of a stock relative to the amount of cash flow that the company is generating on a per-share basis — the lower the number, the better. Value investing is considered one of the best practices when it comes to picking stocks. It is essentially about selecting stocks that are fundamentally sound but have been beaten down by some external factors. Such stocks are poised to bounce back as and when investors recognize the inherent value of companies. Certainly, the value investment strategy best suits investors with a long-term horizon. There are different valuation metrics to determine a stock's inherent strength. Still, a random selection of a ratio cannot serve your purpose if you want a realistic assessment of a company's financial position. For this, the Price to Cash Flow ratio is one of the key metrics. Price-to-Cash-Flow metric evaluates the market price of a stock relative to the amount of cash flow that the company is generating on a per-share basis — the lower the number, the better. One of the important factors that makes P/CF a highly dependable metric is that operating cash flow adds back non-cash charges such as depreciation and amortization to net income, truly diagnosing a company's financial health. Analysts caution that a company's earnings are subject to accounting estimates and management manipulation. However, cash flow is reliable. Net cash flow unveils how much money a company is actually generating and how effectively management is deploying the same. Positive cash flow indicates an increase in a company's liquid assets. It gives the company the means to settle debt, meet its expenses, reinvest in its business, endure downturns and finally pay back its shareholders. Negative cash flow implies a decline in the company's liquidity, which in turn lowers its flexibility to support these moves. An investment decision based solely on the P/CF metric may not yield the desired results. To identify stocks that are trading at a discount, you should expand your search criteria and also consider the price-to-book ratio, price-to-earnings ratio, and price-to-sales ratio. Adding a favorable Zacks Rank and a Value Score of A or B to your search criteria should lead to even better results as these eliminate the chance of falling into a value trap. Here are four of the 16 value stocks that qualified the screening: Hudbay Minerals, a copper-focused critical minerals company, sports a Zacks Rank #1. The company has a trailing four-quarter earnings surprise of 50%, on average. You can see the complete list of today's Zacks #1 Rank stocks here. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for Hudbay Minerals' current financial-year sales and earnings per share (EPS) suggests growth of 9.2% and 41.7%, respectively, from the year-ago period. HBM has a Value Score of A. Shares of HBM have risen 11.2% in the past year. Stone, a leading provider of financial technology and software solutions, carries a Zacks Rank #2. The company has a trailing four-quarter earnings surprise of 6.4%, on average. (See the Zacks Earnings Calendar to stay ahead of market-making news.) The Zacks Consensus Estimate for Stone's current financial-year sales and EPS suggests growth of 10.9% and 6.7%, respectively, from the year-ago period. STNE has a Value Score of B. Shares of STNE have risen 33.3% in the past year. Centene, a leading healthcare enterprise, carries a Zacks Rank #2. The company has a trailing four-quarter earnings surprise of 25.5%, on average. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for Centene's current financial year sales and EPS implies growth of 10.1% and 1.5%, respectively, from the year-ago period. Centene has a Value Score of A. Shares of Centene have declined 15.1% in the past year. CVS Health, a leading health solutions company, carries a Zacks Rank #2. The company has a trailing four-quarter earnings surprise of 18.1%, on average. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for CVS Health's current financial-year sales and EPS suggests growth of 3.5% and 12.9%, respectively, from the year-ago period. CVS Health has a Value Score of A. Shares of CVS have jumped 22.8% in the past year. You can get the rest of the stocks on this list by signing up now for your 2-week free trial to the Research Wizard and start using this screen in your own trading. Further, you can also create your own strategies and backtest them first before taking the investment plunge. The Research Wizard is a great place to begin. It's easy to use. Everything is in plain language. And it's very intuitive. Start your Research Wizard trial today. And the next time you read an economic report, open up the Research Wizard, plug your finds in, and see what gems come out. Click here to sign up for a free trial to the Research Wizard today. For the rest of this Screen of the Week article please visit at: Disclosure: Officers, directors and/or employees of Zacks Investment Research may own or have sold short securities and/or hold long and/or short positions in options that are mentioned in this material. An affiliated investment advisory firm may own or have sold short securities and/or hold long and/or short positions in options that are mentioned in this material. About Screen of the Week created the first and best screening system on the web earning the distinction as the "#1 site for screening stocks" by Money Magazine. But powerful screening tools is just the start. That is why Zacks created the Screen of the Week to highlight profitable stock picking strategies that investors can actively use. Strong Stocks that Should Be in the News Many are little publicized and fly under the Wall Street radar. They're virtually unknown to the general public. Yet today's 220 Zacks Rank #1 "Strong Buys" were generated by the stock-picking system that has more than doubled the market from 1988 through 2016. Its average gain has been a stellar +25% per year. See these high-potential stocks free >>. Follow us on Twitter: Join us on Facebook: Zacks Investment Research is under common control with affiliated entities (including a broker-dealer and an investment adviser), which may engage in transactions involving the foregoing securities for the clients of such affiliates. Contact: Jim Giaquinto Company: Phone: 312-265-9268 Email: pr@ Visit: provides investment resources and informs you of these resources, which you may choose to use in making your own investment decisions. Zacks is providing information on this resource to you subject to the Zacks "Terms and Conditions of Service" disclaimer. Past performance is no guarantee of future results. Inherent in any investment is the potential for loss. This material is being provided for informational purposes only and nothing herein constitutes investment, legal, accounting or tax advice, or a recommendation to buy, sell or hold a security. No recommendation or advice is being given as to whether any investment is suitable for a particular investor. It should not be assumed that any investments in securities, companies, sectors or markets identified and described were or will be profitable. All information is current as of the date of herein and is subject to change without notice. Any views or opinions expressed may not reflect those of the firm as a whole. Zacks Investment Research does not engage in investment banking, market making or asset management activities of any securities. These returns are from hypothetical portfolios consisting of stocks with Zacks Rank = 1 that were rebalanced monthly with zero transaction costs. These are not the returns of actual portfolios of stocks. The S&P 500 is an unmanaged index. Visit information about the performance numbers displayed in this press release. Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report CVS Health Corporation (CVS) : Free Stock Analysis Report HudBay Minerals Inc (HBM) : Free Stock Analysis Report Centene Corporation (CNC) : Free Stock Analysis Report StoneCo Ltd. (STNE) : Free Stock Analysis Report This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research ( Zacks Investment Research
Politico
15 minutes ago
- Politico
Conservatives: Trump won our megabill votes by promising crackdown on renewable energy credits
Hard-line House conservatives said President Donald Trump assured them his administration would strictly enforce rules for wind or solar projects to qualify for the tax credits under the Inflation Reduction Act — a pledge that persuaded them to back the party's megabill. 'What he's going to do is use his powers as chief executive to make sure that the companies that apply for solar credits, as an example, he's going to make sure that they're doing what they say when they say they've started construction,' Rep. Ralph Norman (R-S.C.), a member of the House Freedom Caucus, said on CNBC on Thursday morning. 'He's going to make sure they've done that.' The Senate passed its version of Republicans' budget reconciliation bill earlier this week that included compromise language on the phaseout of incentives for solar and wind generation projects under the Democrats' 2022 climate law. The language gave projects one year to begin construction to claim the current tax credit, while projects that start later would need to be placed into service by 2027. That marked a shift from the language in the House version, H.R. 1 (119), supported by conservative hard-liners that only would provide 60 days for projects to begin construction. Conservatives also opposed a 'safe harbor' clause allowing projects to qualify for the credits if they begin construction by incurring 5 percent of the total cost of the work. Norman, who voted to proceed to a final vote on the measure, said that Trump gave assurances that changes were going to be made, 'particularly with getting permits,' although he did not provide further details. And while the president can't remove the subsidies, Trump's pledge on enforcement of the changes helped win support from conservatives. 'They wanted to put when construction began [as] when the time frame would extend from, like the wind and solar. We wanted date of service, which means they can't take a backhoe out there and dig a ditch and say that's construction,' he said. 'So things like that the president is going to enforce.' Rep. Tim Burchett (R-Tenn.) also said Thursday that Trump heard conservatives' 'concerns about the energy sector' and confirmed the administration would vigorously enforce construction dates for the phaseout of the credits. 'That was huge,' Burchett said. The White House did not immediately return a request for comment Thursday. Meredith Lee Hill contributed to this report.
