Let's hear what they have to say

Today's note will be mostly a dive into what companies themselves are saying about the state of things.

In a Bloomberg story yesterday I saw that Ford sent a memo to its dealer network and said "we anticipate the need to make vehicle pricing adjustments in the future, which is expected to happen with May production." Those vehicles will arrive on dealer lots a few months after and assume that those 'pricing adjustments' will be higher.

From Hermes on how they will deal with tariffs. "We are going to fully offset the impact of these new duties by increasing our selling prices in the United States from May 1, across all our business lines."

"And since the 9th of April, we have an extra 10% tariff, because that's what is applicable to the EU. But we've compensated the gross effect of that extra 10% by increasing our prices in the US. And we'll do so from May 1. And we'll do this across all the different divisions and businesses, that price increase." Get your bags while you can.

On their broader business, "At the end of March 2025, all regions posted growth...We have Asia, ex Japan, that is at plus 1% despite a particularly high comparison basis and despite the slowdown in traffic in Greater China since the end of Q1, 2024...Americas, plus 11%, posted good growth following an exceptional performance in Q4, '24, supported in particular by the solid momentum in the US in March."

"Europe, excluding France, is at plus 13%. France, plus 14%, good results, thanks to sustained local demand and dynamic tourist flows."

As for business in April in light of everything going on, "At the moment, there is no changes in that trend for early April, which might not be very representative because we only have two weeks worth of figures. But we don't see any changes in trends." We of course we don't know to what extent people are buying now before prices rise though.

From Alcoa and talking about tariffs on aluminum that instead of helping them, is hurting them: