Air France KLM CEO says company sees demand holding up
Air France-KLM CEO Ben Smith said the company currently sees demand holding up, despite tariff uncertainty.
“We would like more certainty, more clarity, for sure,” Smith said on CNBC’s Squawk Box. “So far, we’re not seeing anything at this point.”
The company will report earnings on April 30 and has thus far not lowered its forecasted guidance, Smith added.
Airline stocks dipped after Delta said the company won’t expand flying in the second half of the year because of the shifting trade policies.
– Laya Neelakandan
Walmart withdraws quarterly operating income forecast
Walmart pulled its first-quarter operating income outlook to help it “maintain flexibility to invest in price as tariffs are implemented.”
“Clearly, our environment has changed, so that makes this really exciting for us,” Walmart CEO Doug McMillon said ahead of an investor presentation in Dallas. The remark drew a laugh from the room of investors, bankers and reporters.
“It’s clearly a fluid environment,” he said. “And while we don’t know everything that’s going to happen, of course, we do know what our priorities are, and we know what our purpose is, and we’ll be focused on keeping prices as low as we can. We’ll be focused on managing our inventory and our expenses well.”
“We’ve learned how to manage through turbulent periods,” he said.
— Jacob Pramuk and Melissa Repko
GOP Rep. Don Bacon: Trump needs approval from Congress for tariffs
Rep. Don Bacon, R-Neb., talks with reporters after a meeting of the House Republican Conference in the U.S. Capitol on Tuesday, November 14, 2023.
Tom Williams | CQ-Roll Call, Inc. | Getty Images
Rep. Don Bacon, R-Neb., says that the tariffs are a “high risk move” by Trump that should have congressional oversight.
“I’m not anti-tariff across the board,” he just said on CNBC, noting that China and other nations with adversarial trade relationships with the U.S. should have tariffs.
“But I don’t really think a trade war with the world is a smart way forward,” he says.
Bacon has introduced a bipartisan bill to curb the president’s authority over tariffs. He says that he likely has the support of a “handful of Republicans” in the House on the measure.
“I’m not trying to tell the president how to negotiate, but he has to come to Congress and request approval, when he wants to do tariffs,” he says.
— Erin Doherty
Bessent calls for China to negotiate over tariffs
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent speaking on CNBC’s Squawk Box on April 8th, 2024.
CNBC
Bessent is calling for China to come to the negotiating table over tariffs, singling out the fentanyl issue as a potential basis for reciprocity.
“I think it’s unfortunate that the Chinese actually don’t want to come and negotiate, because they are the worst offenders in the international trading system,” Bessent told Fox Business.
“They have the most imbalanced economy in the history of the modern world, and I can tell you that this escalation is a loser for them.”
Bessent said Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping have “a very good personal relationship, and I am confident that this will be resolved at the highest level.”
“A very good start would be for them to make a gesture on the precursor fentanyl, because distributing drugs in China is punishable by death. Why don’t they apply the same standards to the people who are exporting these chemicals to the US?” Bessent said.
—Jeff Cox
Delta CEO says Trump’s ‘wrong approach’ tariffs are hurting bookings
Ed Bastian, CEO of Delta Airlines, speaking on CNBC’s Power Lunch on Dec. 17th, 2024.
Adam Jeffery | CNBC
Delta Air Lines CEO Ed Bastian said Trump’s shifting trade policy is the “wrong approach” and is hurting domestic leisure and corporate bookings alike.
The carrier said it is too early to update its 2025 forecast, which Bastian in early January said was going to be the airline’s “best financial year in our history.”
Bastian’s comments are a stark change from the optimism many CEOs had before the Trump administration took office. Bastian said in November the Trump administration’s approach to regulation would likely be a “breath of fresh air.”
In addition to market turmoil, concerns about higher prices from tariffs and mass government layoffs, airline CEOs have noted they’re seeing declining international travel demand into the U.S., particularly from Canada, which threatens to drive up the $50 billion deficit in international tourism spending.
— Leslie Josephs
Trump urges companies to move to the U.S. for ‘ZERO TARIFFS’
Trump is urging CEOs to move their businesses to the U.S.
“This is a GREAT time to move your COMPANY into the United States of America, like Apple, and so many others, in record numbers, are doing,” Trump posted on social media.
“ZERO TARIFFS, and almost immediate Electrical/Energy hook ups and approvals. No Environmental Delays. DON’T WAIT, DO IT NOW!”
— Christina Wilkie
