Wall Street analysts are bombarding US companies with questions over how they will cope with Donald Trump’s trade wars, in an early sign of how the president’s policies are rippling through corporate America.
The word “tariff” has appeared at least once in more than 200 earnings calls executives held with analysts and investors, among groups listed on the S&P 1,500 Composite index of US companies that have reported earnings this year, according to FactSet data. The rise in queries about the trade levies echoes a similar jump during Trump’s first term in 2017-21.
Wall Street’s rising interest in how companies will contend with trade levies underscores how Trump’s trade skirmishes are affecting groups across a wide swath of industries.