| | Matt Murray
Editor in Chief
The Wall Street Journal |
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Tariff Trouble
President Trump’s escalation of trade threats against China reflects his belief that Washington increasingly has the upper hand in the dispute, administration officials said. Mr. Trump caught Chinese officials off guard with his announcement Monday evening about potential new tariffs. Should China retaliate against U.S. trade policies, the White House said, the U.S. would apply tariffs of 10% on as much as $400 billion in Chinese imports. China had earlier threatened to retaliate against the U.S.’s initial round of 25% tariffs on $50 billion of imports announced last week. The White House proposal to apply a new round of tariffs would certainly hit many consumer products, from appliances to clothing to electronics, if enacted. The prospect of a trade war roiled global markets Tuesday, though stocks around the world regained ground Wednesday. |
Migrant Morass
President Trump urged House Republicans to pass broad immigration legislation in a Tuesday evening meeting, but he stopped short of telling them he would reverse a widely condemned policy that has separated thousands of migrant children from their parents. In the private meeting, Mr. Trump discussed taxes, tariffs and the Russia probe before endorsing two different Republican immigration bills, according to lawmakers in the room. The meeting set the stage for House Republican leaders to begin lining up votes for a compromise bill that is seen as having the best chance of passing later this week. But the president’s performance did little to give momentum to bills that are tentatively set for votes on Thursday, because he didn’t line up behind one and sell it. |
Dow Dropout
General Electric will drop out of the Dow industrials next week, a milestone in the decline of a company that once ranked among the mightiest of blue chips and was a pillar of the U.S. economy. It will be replaced by drugstore retailer Walgreens Boots Alliance, the latest sign of the rise of the global consumer economy and the postcrisis boom in debt issuance that has fueled a global deal-making frenzy. The decision to drop GE, an original member of the Dow that has been a part of the 30-stock index continuously since 1907, marks the latest setback for a conglomerate that once was the most valuable U.S. company, but has been hit hard in recent years by the unraveling of its finance business and competitive problems. GE shares have tumbled 55% over the past 52 weeks, erasing more than $100 billion in wealth. |
Tequila Rising
When actor George Clooney and model-turned-entrepreneur Rande Gerber’s tequila company, Casamigos, sold for $1 billion last year, it raised the question: How did the once-humble swill become so swank? A trek through Mexico distills all. Once the rotgut demon choice of hung over spring-breakers and hell-raisers, tequila has been elevated to, as the Mexican Chamber of the Tequila Industry literature trumpets about its annual festival, “Regalo de Mexico para el mundo,” Mexico’s gift to the world. Buyouts, including Bacardi acquiring tequila giant Patrón in a deal valued at $5 billion, are merely part of tequila’s raging bull market. |
 | | | At Odds | |  | | | Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s increasing authoritarianism and pursuit of a nationalist agenda have put his country at odds with its U.S. and NATO allies. Meanwhile, he’s found a friend in Vladimir Putin. | | |
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| | $1.6 billion | | | The amount AT&T is expected to pay if it acquires AppNexus. The telecom giant is in talks to acquire the advertising technology company, the Journal reports. | |
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 | | We will not enter into new location aggregation arrangements unless and until we are comfortable that we can adequately protect our customers’ location data. | | | Verizon privacy chief Karen Zacharia in a June 15 letter to Sen. Ron Wyden (D., Ore.), who asked all four national wireless operators last month about their privacy practices. Verizon, AT&T and Sprint have pledged to stop selling the locations of individual customers to two middlemen amid accusations that one of the firms mishandled the information. |
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| | | | Going back to our story above, what are your thoughts on General Electric being dropped from the Dow industrials? Send your comments, which we may edit before publication, to 10point@wsj.com. Please include your name and location. | | |
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| | —Compiled by Jessica Menton | |
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| | Responding to yesterday’s question on President Trump’s threatening new tariffs on $200 billion in Chinese goods, Catherine England of Virginia said: “This will not end well for the U.S. Lost in the news about the trade deficit is the fact that the U.S. is the second-largest exporter in the world. Upping the stakes with additional tariffs will reduce foreign sales for our exporters and increase domestic prices at home while alienating former allies.” Jack Palmer of Colorado shared: “Trump is looking out for Americans. He’s doing what he was hired to do. The Chinese have never been good trading partners. They have always played the import-export game to their advantage and now they are being called [out] on it. Glad to see it.” Richard Spaulding of New Jersey weighed in: “In the end, we will pay more for goods. There goes our so-called savings from tax breaks!” And Harry Howell of North Carolina wrote: “The U.S. standing up to China’s unfair trade practices is long overdue....The present administration is to be commended for standing up for American industry, the American worker and ultimately the solvency of our country. Equalizing tariffs is the only language that the Chinese government understands.” | |
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