Transcript
Sponsor Voice (0:00)
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Luke Vargas (0:26)
President Trump slaps tariffs on steel and aluminum. We'll look at how markets are responding. Plus France's answer to Stargate using nuclear energy to power a huge AI project and speculative meme coin funds look set to test regulators boundaries.
Jack Pitcher (0:44)
The new SEC under the Trump administration essentially has to decide where, if anywhere, to draw the line on crypto. And it's an interesting proposition when the president's name is on a couple of these meme coins.
Luke Vargas (0:56)
It's Monday, February 10th. I'm Luke Vargas for the Wall Street Journal, and here is the AM edition of what's Headlines and business stories. Moving your world today. The US is imposing 25% tariffs today on imported steel and aluminum, fulfilling a campaign promise made by President Trump. The levies will target every nation that exports the metals to the U.S. and Ohio Republican Senator Bernie Moreno, a Trump ally, said that the measures would be structural and long term, not the kind that can be averted by a few phone calls from foreign leaders. Trump has previously pledged to impose levies on computer chips, pharmaceuticals, copper and oil and gas imports as soon as this month, when Trump unveiled steel and aluminum tariffs in his first term, the Dow tumbled more than 500 points and industry trade groups denounced the move. But as Journal markets editor for Europe Katie Barnado says this time around the reaction appears to be more muted.
Sponsor Voice (2:00)
Early this morning we did see some losses among Asian steelmaking companies. There was a little bit of reaction in some London listed base metals. That would be aluminum. There was a bit of a jump in copper prices. There was a little bit of currency reaction. We saw the Japanese yen and the Canadian dollar weaken a bit. But looking over at the U.S. stock futures are actually pointing to a higher market. Open markets definitely at the moment seem to be taking this in their stride.
Luke Vargas (2:28)
In another trade move, Trump says he'll announce reciprocal tariffs tomorrow or Wednesday. That would target all trading partners that impose duties on the U.S. trump had previously weighed across the board or flat fee tariffs. Vice President J.D. vance and Elon Musk are lashing out at a federal judge who on Saturday temporarily blocked members of Musk's Department of Government Efficiency who lacked proper background checks and security clearances from accessing the Treasury Department's payment system. Vance responded by suggesting that U.S. district Judge Paul Engelmeier had acted illegally, posting on social media that judges aren't allowed to control the executive's legitimate power. Musk, meanwhile, called for the judge's impeachment, and President Trump said this while traveling to the super bowl on Air Force One, when a president can't look for fraud and waste and abuse, we don't have a country anymore, so we're very disappointed with the judges that would make such a ruling. Administration opponents said the criticisms were out of line and misguided. A court hearing about the Treasury Department case is scheduled for Friday. Separately, a federal judge in Boston is set to hear arguments today over whether to block a Trump administration program that offered buyouts to federal workers. Well, in the latest push by the new administration to overhaul the federal government, newly installed White House budget director Russell Vogt is closing the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's headquarters and has told staff to halt all of their supervisory efforts. The moves from Vote, who took over as acting head of the CFPB on Friday, could defang the financial regulator, a longtime goal of Republicans and a recent target of President Trump and Elon Musk. And President Trump has instructed the US treasury to stop producing pennies, saying that the $0.01 coins cost more than twice that to make. Proponents say the move would save costs, while opponents say it could increase consumer prices. Transactions are rounded up. We are exclusively reporting that France is making a bid to catch up in the AI race by pledging a gigawatt of nuclear power for a new AI computing project expected to cost tens of billions of dollars. Fluidstack, the company spearheading the nuclear powered AI cluster in France, aims to begin construction in the third quarter in a project that will rival the SoftBank and OpenAI backed Stargate venture in the US though there's no guarantee it will secure enough money or AI chips to be built. And in market news today, shares in BP are up about 7%. In London this morning on news that Elliott Investment Management has built a stake in the struggling oil giant. The size of the stake couldn't be learned, but according to people familiar with the investment, the activist hedge fund is pushing for dramatic moves to improve performance. And China's consumer inflation accelerated to 0.5% last month as food and service price climbed ahead of the Lunar New Year. Core CPI rose for the fourth consecutive month, a sign that consumer demand may be starting to recover following a raft of stimulus measures coming up. Do you want to double your exposure to the Trump Meme Coin. Well, an asset manager is hoping to launch an ETF that does just that. We've got that story and more after the break. It's tax season. So what's new this year that could save you money?