Amazon joins bidding war for TikTok as deadline for sale approaches: Sources
(Karl Tapales/Getty Imag)
(NEW YORK) — With the clock ticking on TikTok’s deadline to sell or face a ban in the U.S., the battle to buy the app has intensified.
Amazon has now sent a letter to the Trump administration to join the bidding war for TikTok, sources told ABC News.
President Donald Trump said over the weekend there are lots of potential buyers and said he’d like to keep the app alive. The administration has set an April 5 deadline for the app to be banned if it is not sold by it’s Chinese-owned parent company, ByteDance.
On Wednesday, Trump and senior administration officials considered multiple proposals. It’s unclear if a decision has been made on how to move forward.
The mobile tech company AppLovin and a group including tech giant Oracle have also made bids to buy the app. Even if Trump approves a deal, China will still need to sign off on it.
Trump has said publicly that if an agreement isn’t reached by the deadline, he will just extend it.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
(NEW YORK) — The stock market fell in early trading on Tuesday, just hours after the Trump administration’s long-promised tariffs took effect.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped nearly 800 points, or 1.8%; while the S&P 500 also fell 1.8%. The tech-heavy Nasdaq tumbled 1.6%.
The policy taxes imports from Mexico, Canada and China — the three largest trading partners of the United States — meaning that it could raise prices for everything from gasoline to avocados to iPhones.
Shares of retail giant Target fell 4.5% in early trading on Tuesday, following an earnings release from the company that cited “tariff uncertainty” as a potential impediment for the business. Walmart’s stock price dipped 1% on Tuesday, while Amazon shares fell 2%.
Shares of Best Buy plummeted more than 13% on Tuesday morning. The sharp drop came hours after Best Buy CEO told analysts that price increases are “highly likely” as a result of the tariffs.
Higher costs for car production could also pose a challenge for U.S. automakers, many of which depend on a supply chain closely intertwined with Mexico and Canada.
Shares of Ford tumbled 3% on Tuesday, while General Motors dropped more than 4%. Stellantis — the parent company of Jeep and Chrysler — saw shares plummet more than 7%.
Tesla, the electric carmaker led by Elon Musk, saw its stock price drop nearly 7%.
The far-reaching losses extend a market slide that began on Monday afternoon when Trump affirmed plans to impose a fresh round of tariffs.
Trump stuck to a March 4 start date for 25% tariffs on imports from Mexico and Canada, as well as 10% tariff on Chinese goods — which, as of Tuesday, rises to 20%, per an amended executive order.
Tariffs of this magnitude would likely increase prices paid by U.S. shoppers, since importers typically pass along a share of the cost of those higher taxes to consumers, experts said. The duties also raise input costs for manufacturers that import raw materials.
In addition to Tesla and Amazon, the tariffs appeared to impact some of the other so-called “Magnificent Seven,” a group of large tech firms that helped drive stock market gains in recent years.
Chipmaker Nvidia, which relies on semiconductors from Taiwan but also imports some materials from Mexico, saw shares drop more than 2%.
Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, suffered a 4% drop in its stock price. Microsoft’s stock fell 1%.
Shares of Alphabet and Google defied the trend, however, remaining essentially unchanged in early trading on Tuesday.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
(NEW YORK) — U.S. stocks plunged in early trading on Monday ahead of the expected introduction of President Donald Trump’s sweeping tariffs on Wednesday, measures the president said will impact “all countries.”
The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 315 points, or 0.75%, while the S&P 500 declined 1.1% on Monday morning. The tech-heavy Nasdaq plunged 1.75%.
Tesla, the electric carmaker led by billionaire Trump-advisor Elon Musk, dropped nearly 6%.
The downturn in U.S. markets followed a wave of selloffs worldwide.
Japan’s Nikkei index fell more than 4% and South Korea’s KOSPI slipped 3% after opening on Monday. In Europe, the British FTSE 100 fell by 1.18%, the German DAX index fell by 1.82% and France’s CAC 40 dropped by 1.76%.
Gold — a traditional safe-haven asset — reached a new record high of $3,128 per ounce.
Trump told reporters this weekend that his tariffs could affect “all the countries.”
“The tariffs will be far more generous than those countries were to us, meaning they will be kinder than those countries were to the United States of America,” he said.
“Over the decades, they ripped us off like no country has never been ripped off in history and we’re going to be much nicer than they were to us, but it’s substantial money for the country,” Trump said.
Auto tariffs of 25% are among those expected to come into effect on April 3. The measures will apply to imported passenger vehicles, including cars, SUVs, minivans, cargo vans and light trucks, according to a White House statement released last week.
Analysts widely expect the tariffs to raise prices for foreign-made cars, since importers will likely pass along a share of the tax burden to consumers.
Cars produced in the U.S. are also expected to undergo significant price hikes since manufacturers will bear higher costs for imported parts and face an uptick in demand as buyers seek out domestic alternatives, experts have told ABC News.
Trump dismissed concerns about auto tariffs this weekend. “The automakers are going to make a lot of money,” he said. “American automakers or international automakers, if you’re talking about them, are going to build in the United States.”
“The people that are going to make money are people that manufacture cars in the United States,” he continued. “Outside of the United States, that’s going to be up to them. I don’t care too much about that. But you have a lot of companies coming into the country to manufacture cars.”
ABC News’ Hannah Demissie contributed to this report.
(WASHINGTON) — President Donald Trump on Thursday threatened a 200% tariff on champagne and other alcohol products from the European Union, escalating a global trade war that has roiled markets and stoked recession fears.
The move came a day after the EU announced plans to slap tariffs on $28 billion worth of U.S. goods, including a 50% tariff on whiskey. Those tariffs marked a response to U.S. duties on steel and aluminum imports.
Trump called on the EU to drop its tariff on whiskey, saying the U.S would otherwise “shortly place” a tariff on alcohol products from the EU.
Trump sharply criticized the EU, describing the organization as “one of the most hostile and abusive taxing and tariffing authorities in the World.”
In a statement a day earlier, Ursula von der Leyen, president of the European Commission, said that the EU “must act to protect consumers and business.”
Stock futures turned lower early Thursday morning, erasing some gains in the S&P 500 and tech-heavy Nasdaq a day earlier. The Dow Jones Industrial Average futures showed a continuation of losses incurred on Wednesday.
Markets have plunged since Trump last week announced 25% tariffs on imports from Mexico and Canada, some of which he soon delayed.
The tariff threats on Thursday mark the latest skirmish in a global trade war. In response to U.S. duties on steel and aluminum, Canada announced retaliatory tariffs applied to $20.7 billion in U.S. goods, government officials said. The U.S. imports more steel and aluminum from Canada than from any other country.
The Trump administration last week slapped a 10% tariff on China, doubling taxes on Chinese imports to 20%. In response, China imposed retaliatory duties on U.S. agricultural goods, deepening a trade war between the world’s two largest economies.
The trade tensions triggered recession fears on Wall Street. Goldman Sachs last week hiked its odds of a recession from 15% to 20%. Moody’s Analytics raised its gauge of the probability of a recession to 35%.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
