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Parts of the Midwest and South faced the possibility of torrential rains and life-threatening flash floods Friday, while many communities were still reeling from tornadoes that destroyed whole neighborhoods and killed at least seven people.Forecasters warned of catastrophic weather on the way, with round after round of heavy rains expected in the central U.S. through Saturday. Satellite imagery showed thunderstorms lined up like freight trains to take the same tracks over communities in Arkansas, Tennessee, and Kentucky, according to the national Weather Prediction Center in Maryland.The bull’s-eye centered on a swath along the Mississippi River and included the more than 1.3 million people around Memphis.More than 90 million people were at risk of severe weather from Texas to Minnesota to Maine, according to the Oklahoma-based Storm Prediction Center.Those killed in the initial wave of storms that spawned powerful tornadoes on Wednesday and early Thursday were in Tennessee, Missouri, and Indiana. They included a Tennessee man and his teen daughter whose home was destroyed, and a man whose pickup struck downed power lines in Indiana. In Missouri, Garry Moore, who was chief of the Whitewater Fire Protection District, died while likely trying to help a stranded motorist, according to Highway Patrol spokesperson Sgt. Clark Parrott.Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee said entire neighborhoods in the hard-hit town of Selmer were “completely wiped out” and said it was too early to know whether there were more deaths as searches continued. He warned people across the state to stay vigilant with more severe weather predicted.“Don’t let your guard down,” he said during a Thursday evening news conference. “Don’t stop watching the weather. Don’t stop preparing yourself. Have a plan.”With flattened homes behind him, Dakota Woods described seeing the twister come through Selmer.“I was walking down the street,” Woods said Thursday. “Next thing you know, I look up, the sky is getting black and blacker, and it’s lighting up green lights, and it’s making a formation of a twister or tornado.” Flash flood threat looms over many states By late Thursday, extremely heavy rain was falling in parts of southeastern Missouri and western Kentucky and causing “very dangerous/life threatening flash flooding” in some spots, according to the National Weather Service.Heavy rains were expected to continue there and in other parts of the region in the coming days and could produce dangerous flash floods capable of sweeping away cars. The potent storm system will bring “significant, life-threatening flash flooding” each day, the National Weather Service said.Water rescue teams and sandbagging operations were being staged across the region, and the Federal Emergency Management Agency was ready to distribute food, water, cots, and generators.Water rescues were already underway in flooded parts of Nashville, where the rain could persist for days after an unnerving period of tornado warnings that drained the batteries of some city sirens, the fire department said.Western Kentucky prepared for record rain and flooding in places that normally do not get inundated, Gov. Andy Beshear said. At least 25 state highways were swamped, mostly in the west, according to a statement from his office Thursday.Flash flooding is particularly worrisome in rural areas of the state where water can quickly rush off the mountains into the hollows. Less than four years ago, dozens died in flooding across eastern Kentucky.Extreme flooding across the corridor that includes Louisville, Kentucky, and Memphis, which have major cargo hubs, could also lead to shipping and supply chain delays, said Jonathan Porter, chief meteorologist at AccuWeather.Forecasters attributed the violent weather to warm temperatures, an unstable atmosphere, strong wind shear, and abundant moisture streaming from the Gulf. Tornadoes leave path of damage, and more could be coming Under darkened skies Thursday morning, the remains of a used car dealership in Selmer stood roofless and gutted, with debris scattered across the car lot and wrapped around mangled trees. Some homes were ripped to their foundations in the Tennessee town, where three tornadoes were suspected of touching down.The Tennessee Highway Patrol released video of lightning illuminating the sky as first responders scoured the ruins of a home, looking for anyone trapped.In neighboring Arkansas, a tornado near Blytheville lofted debris at least 25,000 feet (7.6 kilometers) high, according to weather service meteorologist Chelly Amin. The state’s emergency management office reported damage in 22 counties from tornadoes, wind, hail, and flash flooding.The home where Danny Qualls spent his childhood but no longer lives was flattened by a tornado in northeast Arkansas.“My husband has been extremely tearful and emotional, but he also knows that we have to do the work,” Rhonda Qualls said. “He was in shock last night, cried himself to sleep.”Workers on bulldozers cleared rubble along the highway that crosses through Lake City, where a tornado with winds of 150 mph (241 kph) sheared roofs off homes, collapsed brick walls, and tossed cars into trees.Mississippi’s governor said at least 60 homes were damaged. And in far western Kentucky, four people were injured while taking shelter in a vehicle under a church carport, according to the emergency management office in Ballard County. Walker IV reported from Selmer, Tennessee, and Seewer from Toledo, Ohio. Associated Press writers Andrew DeMillo in Little Rock, Arkansas; Jonathan Mattise in Nashville, Tennessee, Seth Borenstein in Washington; Isabella O’Malley in Philadelphia; Kathy McCormack in Concord, New Hampshire; Bruce Schreiner in Louisville, Kentucky; Jeff Martin in Atlanta; Hallie Golden in Seattle; and Ed White in Detroit contributed. Adrian Sainz, George Walker IV and John Seewer, Associated Press
Category:
E-Commerce
Yesterday, U.S. stock markets, and stock markets around the world, dramatically fell during the first trading session after President Donald Trump announced on Wednesday tariffs on nearly every country in the world. As noted by PBS, the S&P 500 plummeted 4.8%, the Dow Jones Industrial Average sank 4%, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq plunged 6%. But many of Americas biggest companies saw their stock price fall much worse than the low single digits. Yet, more surprisingly, there was one U.S. company that saw its shares surge nearly 12% on the Trump tariff news. Heres what you need to know. Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company surges on Trump tariff news The biggest winner yesterday in the aftermath of Trumps tariff announcements was the Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company (Nasdaq: GT), according to data from Yahoo Finance. Goodyear Tire saw its shares spike by 11.73% to close at $10.19. That is a share price Goodyear has not seen since late February. But why did Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company surge when most other American companies fall? As noted by Investing.com, Goodyears stock price surge likely has a lot to do with the fact that the company may be impacted littleor at least to a lesser extentthan its competitors. Thats because Goodyear has a relatively large manufacturing presence in America compared to other tire manufacturers. Investing.com also noted a recent Deutsche Bank report that highlighted a majority of Goodyears business came from selling replacement tires instead of tires to car manufacturers for new vehicles. Trumps tariffs will raise the prices of cars sold in America by thousands of dollars, leading to many Americans holding off on buying new vehicles and instead retaining their current ones for longer. That means those Americans will likely spend additional funds to maintain their current cars, such as buying new tires for them. Goodyears existing U.S. manufacturing base means the company also has to rely less on tire imports. One of the hardest hit countries yesterday in Trumps tariff announcements was Thailand, which is a big tire producer. According to a recent Research and Markets report from 2024, Thailands tire industry produced 58 million tires in 2023. On Wednesday, Trump hit Thai exports to the United States with a 36% tariff. However, while Goodyear was yesterdays biggest winner, it should be noted that in premarket trading this morning, at the time of this writing, GTs share price is currently trading down 6%. After Goodyear, Lamb Weston Holdings, Inc. (NYSE: LW) was the next-biggest winner, with its stock rising 10.01% yesterday. However, its stock price rise may have more to do with its Q3 earnings beat yesterday (via Zacks) than anything else. Biggest losers: apparel and home goods companies Despite a couple of low double-digit gainers yesterday, most well-known stocks took a beating. According to data from Yahoo Finance, these were among the worst hit: RH (NYSE: RH): down 40% V.F. Corporation (NYSE: VFC): down 28.74% Five Below, Inc. (Nasdaq: FIVE): down 27.81% Wayfair Inc. (NYSE: W): down 25.59% SharkNinja, Inc. (NYSE: SN): down 21.42% The Gap, Inc. (NYSE: GAP): down 20.29% Under Armour, Inc. (NYSE: UAA): down 18.79% Urban Outfitters, Inc. (Nasdaq: URBN): down 18.37% The companies listed above fell into two categories: home goods resellers and apparel makers. These companies were likely hit so hard because home goods and apparel companies tend to source their goods from countries that were among the hardest hit by Trumps tariffs. Those countries include China (54% tariff), Cambodia (49%), Vietnam (46%), Bangladesh (37%), and India (26%). Other notable companies that were among the biggest losers include the automotive e-commerce platform Carvana Co. (NYSE: CVNA), which was down 19.68%. Scientific instrument makers MKS Instruments, Inc. (Nasdaq: MKSI) and Coherent Corp. (NYSE: COHR) were also down 20.93% and 20.18%, respectively. Computer maker Dell Technologies Inc. (NYSE: DELL) also fell 18.99%. Big Tech also had a bad day However, while home goods and apparel companies were among the hardest hit, Americas biggest tech companies didnt fare well either. Heres how Americas biggest tech household names performed: Alphabet Inc. (Nasdaq: GOOG): down 3.92% Amazon.com, Inc. (Nasdaq: AMZN): down 8.98% Apple Inc. (Nasdaq: AAPL): down 9.25% Meta Platforms, Inc. (Nasdaq: META): down 8.96% Microsoft Corporation (Nasdaq: MSFT): down 2.36% NVIDIA Corporation (Nasdaq: NVDA): down 7.81% Shopify Inc. (Nasdaq: SHOP): down 18.24% Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company Limited (NYSE: TSM): down 7.64% Tesla, Inc. (Nasdaq: TSLA): down 5.47% Unsurprisingly, the hardest hit of the tech companies above were those that rely heavily on Asian supply chains to make their goods. East Asian and Southeast Asian nations were among the hardest hit by Trump’s tariffs. Shopify was also hit particularly hard, likely not just due to the tariffs but also due to the Trump administration announcing the end of the de minimis rule that previously allowed packages valued less than $800 to be levy-exempt when imported into the United States. That de minimus rule is now being scrapped, which means even smaller goods will see levies placed on them. Markets today Those hoping that the stock market crash experienced yesterday was over will likely be disappointed, at least as the way things stand at the time of this writing. Currently, in pre-market trading, S&P Futures are down another 2.15%, Dow Futures are down another 2.23%, and Nasdaq Futures are down another 2.34%. Many of the individual stocks listed above are also being hit hard again. In pre-market trading at the time of this writing, RH is down another 8.2%, FIVE is down another 8.9%, W is down another 10%, TSLA is down another 5.4%, SHOP is down another 6.5%, TSM is down another 5.5%, and AAPL is down another 5.1%.
Category:
E-Commerce
China announced additional tariffs of 34% on U.S. goods on Friday, the most serious escalation in a trade war with President Donald Trump that has fed fears of a recession and triggered a global stock market rout. In the standoff between the world’s top two economies, Beijing also announced controls on exports of medium and heavy rare-earths, including samarium, gadolinium, terbium, dysprosium, lutetium, scandium, and yttrium to the U.S. It also added 11 entities to the “unreliable entity” list, which allows Beijing to take punitive actions against foreign entities. Nations from Canada to China have readied retaliation in a mounting trade war after Trump raised U.S. tariff barriers to their highest level in more than a century this week, leading to a plunge in world financial markets. The White House was not immediately available for comment. In Japan, one of United States’s top trading partners, Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba said that the tariffs had created a “national crisis” as a plunge in banking shares on Friday set Tokyo’s stock market on course for its worst week in years. Investment bank JP Morgan said it now sees a 60% chance of the global economy entering recession by year end, up from 40% previously. U.S. stock futures fell sharply on Friday, signaling more losses on Wall Street, after China retaliated with fresh tariffs a day after the Trump administration’s sweeping levies knocked off $2.4 trillion from U.S. equities. DIVISIONS AND MIXED SIGNALS With European shares also heading for the biggest weekly loss in three years, the European Union’s trade commissioner Maros Sefcovic will speak to U.S. counterparts. “The EU will respond in a calm, carefully phased, and above all, unified way, as we calibrate our response,” he said on social media. “We will not shoot from the hip we want to give negotiations every chance to succeed to find a fair deal, to the benefit of both sides.” The EU is divided on how best to respond to Trump’s tariffs, including on use of its “Anti-Coercion Instrument,” which allows the bloc to retaliate against third countries that put economic pressure on EU members to change their policies. Countries that are cautious about retaliating and thereby raising the stakes in the standoff with the U.S. include Ireland, Italy, Poland, and the Scandinavian nations. The European Commission is nevertheless trying to finalize a list of U.S. imports worth up to 26 billion euros ($28 billion) on which to place retaliatory tariffs in response to U.S. tariffs on steel and aluminum. The Commission, which coordinates trade policy for the EU’s 27 members, has still to work out how best to respond to the sweeping tariffs announced by Trump this week and an earlier announcement on car tariffs. French President Emmanuel Macron led the charge on Thursday by calling on companies to freeze investment in the U.S. “Investments to come or investments announced in recent weeks should be suspended until things are clarified with the United States,” Macron said during a meeting with French industry representatives. However, French Finance Minister Eric Lombard later cautioned against like-for-like countermeasures on the U.S. tariffs, warning this would also rebound on European consumers. “We are working on a package of responses that can go well beyond tariffs, in order, once again, to bring the U.S. to the negotiating table and reach a fair agreement,” Lombard said in an interview with broadcaster BFM TV. There were conflicting messages from the White House about whether the tariffs were meant to be permanent or were a tactic to win concessions, with Trump saying they “give us great power to negotiate.” The U.S. tariffs could jack up the price for U.S. shoppers of everything from cannabis to running shoes to Apple’s iPhone. A high-end iPhone could cost nearly $2,300 if Apple passes the costs on to consumers, based on projections from Rosenblatt Securities. Businesses have raced to adjust. Automaker Stellantis said it would temporarily lay off U.S. workers and close plants in Canada and Mexico, while General Motors said it would increase U.S. production. China is retaliating for Trump’s 54% tariffs on imports from the world’s No. 2 economy. The European Union faces a 20% duty. Other trading partners, including Japan, South Korea, Mexico, and India, said they would hold off on any retaliation for now as they seek concessions. Britain’s foreign minister said it was working to strike an economic deal with the United States. Trump says the “reciprocal” tariffs are a response to barriers put on U.S. goods, while administration officials said the tariffs would create manufacturing jobs at home and open up export markets abroad, although they cautioned it would take time to see results. The U.S. president could still step back as the tariffs are not due to take effect until April 9, but few observers were optimistic. “The tariff plan does not appear to be well thought-out. Trade negotiations are a highly technical discipline, and in our view these proposals do not offer a serious basis for negotiations with any country,” said James Lucier, founding partner at Capital Alpha. Mei Mei Chu, Susan Heavey and Philip Blenkinsop, Reuters
Category:
E-Commerce
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