Pickup-truck nation

Car prices have already climbed out of reach for many Americans, and if Donald Trump follows through on his latest tariff threat, the search for a cheap car will get even tougher. The president’s threatened levies on automobile imports, which he says will take effect next week, would likely drive up costs across the industry, raising sticker prices by thousands of dollars. The effects could be particularly pronounced at the low end of the market, since many of the least-expensive models from General Motors, Ford, Kia and Hyundai are built outside the US. (There is one particular electric carmaker that seems to have benefitted from the turmoil.)

Detroit’s automakers long ago abandoned much of the passenger car market in favor of the high-priced, oversized SUVs and pickups favored by suburban America. With the market for affordable cars that don’t guzzle gas poised to shrink even more, more working class Americans may find themselves in an automotive bind. The good news for them however is that while Trump has cast the tariffs as “permanent,” he’s spent the past two months backing down from many of his promised levies. So stay tuned. —David E. Rovella

What You Need to Know Today

Stocks fell on worries over collateral damage stemming from those planned tariffs, reinforcing concerns about the widening trade war and even offsetting some good news about US growth. Just days before the end of a quarter—set to be the worst for the S&P 500 since 2023—the gauge slipped anew. Car giants from Toyota to Mercedes-Benz and GM were hit. AppLovin sank on a short report from Muddy Waters and megacaps were mixed, with Apple up and Nvidia down. Here’s your markets wrap.

Royal Bank of Canada is continuing on a path it charted almost seven years ago, confirming at its investor day that it will maintain its current growth and profitability targets while also warning that trade turmoil could throw those off track. Canada’s largest bank aims to deliver 7% or better earnings-per-share growth and return on equity of at least 16% across the organization over the next three to five years, Chief Executive Officer Dave McKay said Thursday. Trump has slapped numerous tariffs on various imports from Canada in recent weeks, creating significant uncertainty about the economy in Royal Bank’s home market. But McKay said his firm’s “strong internal capital generation” will give it a buffer against any credit challenges its clients face. “There could be short-term volatility that our economy and we will have to adapt to,” McKay said. “We decided to go ahead with this investor day because everything we’ve talked about that transcends the short-term macro volatility.”

The firestorm over the Trump administration leak scandal continued for a third day, as Democrats demanded the resignation of Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, who along with National Security Adviser Mike Waltz and Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard discussed secret attack planning on unsecure mobile phones using a commercial app. Escalating the accusations that Trump’s top advisers endangered US national security was a report by Der Spiegel, which found that their private contact details—including phone numbers, email addresses and even passwords—were easily found on the internet. But while a federal judge in a lawsuit over the leak ordered the administration to preserve records of the chat, Trump Attorney General Pam Bondi appeared to indicate the Justice Department won’t investigate.

Amid a viral video of masked American agents surrounding a 30-year-old graduate student at Tufts University in Massachusetts, cuffing her and secreting her away to a detention facility in Louisiana, Secretary of State Marco Rubio defended Trump’s campaign to expel foreign citizens for their speech. Rumeysa Ozturk, a Turkish national, was arrested Tuesday, while a 21-year-old junior at Columbia University—a permanent resident—has sued to stop the administration from detaining, transferring or deporting her. Immigration agents earlier this month arrested and detained former Columbia University graduate student Mahmoud Khalil, a green-card holder who was a leader of that campus’s demonstrations against the war in Gaza.

A coalition of European leaders ruled out the possibility of easing sanctions on Russia, one of Vladimir Putin’s demands in exchange for a ceasefire in his war on Ukraine. The day after the Kremlin launched yet another wave of attacks on Ukrainian cities despite announcements of a partial ceasefire by the White House, European leaders were in no mood to offer concessions. “Now is not the time for lifting of sanctions,” UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer said in Paris Thursday, standing alongside Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy. Finnish President Alexander Stubb, who also attended a meeting of about 30 leaders hosted by President Emmanuel Macron, said the leaders are already working on the next sanctions package. While Europe seeks to maintain pressure, Trump has been largely echoing Kremlin terms in a push to end the war. But Moscow seems intent on prolonging discussions and keeping the scope of talks narrow to pressure Washington into giving more ground, US and European officials said. “They are playing games and they’re playing for time,” Starmer said. “It is a classic from the Putin play book.”

What You’ll Need to Know Tomorrow

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