Functions for the Market
Background
Mexico, China and Canada were the largest importers for the US in 2023, and the first targets of US President Donald Trump’s tariffs. Trump delayed 25% tariffs on Canada and Mexico for 30 days after a border deal, with a March 6 deadline. Soon after the US imposed a 10% tariff on all Chinese goods, China levied taxes on US goods.
PRODUCT MENTIONS
Germany, Japan, South Korea, Vietnam, India, Ireland, Italy and France—the next biggest exporters to the US—may be the next targets for Trump’s tariff threats. Trump has said Europe tariffs will “definitely happen.”
Among 100 top foreign companies deriving revenue from the US are Taiwanese Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., Japanese auto-parts maker Subaru Corp., and Novo Nordisk A/S of Denmark. Novo Nordisk has 5.9% of its facilities in China and 26.5% in the US, whose government is threatening to impose tariffs on Danish companies as part of a bid to purchase Greenland.
The issue
The implications of Trump’s trade war are far-reaching. Nobel laureate economist Paul Krugman says Trump’s tariffs are like “throwing sand in the gears of international commerce and manufacturing.”
The threat of increased tariffs has many executives and investors on edge. Mentions of tariffs in S&P 500 earnings transcripts jumped last month, and transcript analysis suggests machinery, automobile, technology and healthcare sectors are most worried. Industrial machinery and autos are the sub-industry most involved, with industrials talking about this subject the most at 56 of 218 mentions in January.
Tracking
Use Bloomberg’s ECTR, ECAN, EQS and SPLC functions to analyze tariff risks by countries, industries and companies.
Run ECTR <GO> to Check Trade Flows.
To see the biggest US trading partners:
- Type “trade flow” in the command line and select Trade Flow.
- Set the first amber box to US. The shortcut is ECTR US <GO>.
- Set the Order by amber box to Imports.
Run ECAN <GO> to Analyze Topic Trends Among S&P 500 Companies.
- Type “world economic analyzer” in the command line and select ECAN.
- Click the amber box at top left and select AI-Powered S&P 500 Topic Trends. The shortcut ECAN US DS SPX TOPICS <GO>.
- Click the Dimension amber box and select Tariffs.
- In the table, click Jan-25 to rank. Click the disclosure triangles next to Industrials, Capital Goods and Machinery in the table to dig deeper.
For more information on this or other functionality on the Bloomberg Professional Service, click here to request a demo with a Bloomberg sales representative. Existing clients can press <HELP HELP> on their Bloomberg keyboard.