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All Quiet On The Western Ports… Is This The Calm Before The Trade War Storm?

All is quiet on the American front as the week comes to a close, even as Korea JoongAng Daily reports that a high-ranking Chinese trade official from the Ministry of Finance was spotted at the U.S. Treasury Department headquarters in Washington, D.C. earlier today. The meeting between Chinese and U.S. officials comes on the eve of a trade war shock now ripping across the Pacific, with the Port of Los Angeles set to be the first hit. High-frequency data suggests the impact will begin at some point next week and intensify with each passing week.

On the eve of a trade war shock, data from Port Optimizer—a tracking system used by vessel operators—shows that scheduled import volumes into the Port of Los Angeles are set to begin plunging next week and could collapse by mid-month.

Goldman analyst Jacob Malmstrom has a few charts for us to end the week:

Geopolitical tensions easing leading markets higher for the week but where the effective tariff rate currently is the highest it’s been in 100 years.

With globalisation the trade growth has grown substantially in the last 60 year but looking at current U.S. imports from Europe they have hovered around 15% in recent decades.

World trade growth has increased dramatically in the period of globalisation

In markets, Malmstrom warned:

Difficult to come up with a fundamental bull-case from here longer term. Still need to see any of these four conditions met for a sustainable recovery: 1) Attractive valuations ,2) Extreme positioning easing, 3) Policy Support, 4) Sense that the second derivative of growth is improving. When looking at valuations in the U.S. they look more justified when comparing to ROE. Banks sold-off in the beginning of the year but has rebounded whereas Mega-cap tech has continued its decline. Finally earnings so far has been in-line with the historical average. 

Our coverage details the events that have unfolded this month in trigger the trade war shock—one that’s already hitting China and is now set to wash ashore momentarily in the U.S.: 

Amazon Cancels Orders, Walmart Pulls Forecast As Tariffs Take Hold

Are China Road Traffic Indicators Set To Collapse As Tariff War Cancels Factory Orders

Chinese Sellers On Amazon Panic After Trump’s Tariff Bazooka

Liberation Day Fallout: China’s Port Volumes Sink After Trump’s Tariff Blitz

Chinese Plastics Factories Face Mass Closure As U.S. Ethane Supply Evaporates

“Our Export Orders Disappeared”: Chinese Factories Shutting Down, Laying Off Workers, FT Finds

First Tariff Shock Set To Hit Port Of Los Angeles, With Ripple Effects Across The Broader Economy

Walmart Opens Channel For Battered Chinese Exporters To “Quickly Expand” In Domestic Market

Trade War Shock Looms For Port Of Los Angeles As Goldman Identifies Most-Impacted Products

High-frequency data from the Port of Los Angeles suggests a substantial impact on Chinese exports to the U.S. will begin next week, mainly due to the lag between factory shutdowns or halted shipments in China—triggered by the 145% tariffs—and the time it takes for containerized freight to cross the Pacific on massive cargo ships.

The bulleted list…

Are Global Consumers Turning Away From US Brands?

Is anti-American sentiment putting consumers off buying U.S. brands? 

According to a recent report by Morning Consult, this is the case. 

Statista’s Anna Fleck reports that northerly neighbor Canada is perhaps the clearest example of this trend, with consumers having turned away from purchasing U.S. products in protest against U.S. President Donald Trump’s latest policies and rhetoric and instead choosing to “Buy Canadian”. 

In France too, some consumers angered over Washington’s latest moves are boycotting U.S. brands, citing Trump’s announcements of punitive trade tariffs, his stance on diversity and inclusion, as well as his handling of Ukraine and his meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.

Data published by Axios looks more closely at how global sentiment on a selection of U.S. brands changed between January and March, 2025. Of the 16 brands surveyed, 12 saw declines in favorability, with FedEx, Chevron and WB/ Discovery having seen the biggest drops (each down more than 33 percent). 

However, as this chart shows, the trend does not extend across all brands, as Meta, McDonald’s, OpenAI and Apple Inc. have each seen improved sentiment since Trump’s inauguration.

 

You will find more infographics at Statista

It is important to note here that without further data it is difficult to say whether these changes are a causation or merely a correlation as there are multiple reasons why consumers opinions on a specific brand could change with time.

Tyler Durden
Fri, 04/25/2025 – 18:00…

Meet The “Other” EV Brands Challenging Tesla’s Domination

As Tesla continues to dominate the global EV conversation, a wave of upstart and established players—many of them based in China—are rising fast, offering compelling alternatives based on affordability, innovation, and scale. A recent comparative study by Slot.Day lays bare the shifting dynamics in the EV landscape, assessing automakers across sales, search interest, safety, price, and electric range.

Leading the charge is BYD, which now tops the list as the most viable EV alternative to Tesla, accrording to a new report by Slot.Day. 

With over 2.6 million units sold and more than 600,000 monthly Google searches, BYD blends scale with visibility. Prices range from a modest $13,900 to a luxury-tier $65,830, while its vehicles achieve an average 445 km range and top safety ratings. It’s a rare mix of affordability, mass appeal, and performance—an EV juggernaut grounded in realism rather than aspiration.

In second place, SAIC Maxus is perhaps the most underrated name on the list. It offers the lowest entry-level EV at just $4,460—a figure that borders on the absurd in today’s market—and backs it up with a perfect 5-star safety score and a respectable 365 km range. This kind of value-driven engineering speaks directly to practical consumers rather than subsidy-chasing status seekers.

The Slot.Day report says that Changan, in third, makes its mark with a stellar 95% adult occupant protection rating and a 450 km range. While not yet globally synonymous with electric innovation, its performance metrics suggest it soon might be. The Deepal SL03 has particularly impressed in the mid-price market, starting around $16,400.

Further down the list, Wuling ranks fourth thanks to astonishing sales of over 370,000 units and a starting price of just $6,400. Though its average range is a modest 300 km, it thrives in dense urban environments where range anxiety is minimal. The tiny but mighty Wuling Hongguang Mini EV proves that minimalist mobility has a devoted customer base.

Aion stands out with the longest average range at 520 km and remains price-competitive, offering models between $17,800 and $29,000. Though not fully ANCAP-tested, its high safety rating (4.6 out of 5) and expanding lineup push it into fifth place.

Outside China, few non-domestic brands crack the top rankings. Volkswagen Group, despite strong brand recognition and more than 1.6 million monthly searches, is weighed down by high pricing and middling EV sales. Its ID.4 maintains the group’s reputation but struggles to outpace nimbler rivals.

Nio, Leapmotor, and Geely round out the top ten with mixed results—each showing promise in select metrics but lacking the comprehensive strength to push into the top tier. Nio appeals to premium buyers, while Leapmotor targets the budget segment with modest ranges and excellent safety. Geely, versatile but uneven, finds itself in a middle ground that may appeal to some but excite few.

Hyundai, the sole Korean entry, closes the list at tenth. Despite solid safety marks and over 860,000 monthly searches, it lags in sales and innovation compared to its Chinese peers. Its Ioniq series shows promise but faces fierce competition from…

The Great ‘Shortening’

Authored by Jeffrey Tucker via The Epoch Times,

“No one can concentrate on anything for long these days. It’s completely ruining society.”

That’s quite a comment from my philosophically minded Uber driver, and it caught my attention. It had the ring of truth, something about which I’ve been thinking, but I was startled to hear this coming from a stranger. So I asked him to elaborate.

“It’s social media. Everyone is spending their days scrolling to get 3 and 4-second hits of instant gratification from content that has no meaning. We’ve lost patience for extended and meaningful narratives.”

You mean long movies?

“Not really. I mean big and important books, classics, well-constructed books, literary masterpieces put together with care that have stood the test of time.”

Intrigued by this, I thought further. It does have the ring of truth. To think that social media has done this to everyone in varying degrees is rather shocking. I do not exclude myself. The time I spend with long narratives that stretch over hundreds of pages and a reading time of many days has become ever less.

I was thrilled when the news cycle opened up and included ever more voices and more real-time updates. It seems like a better world than the one into which I was born, wherein three newscasters read almost identical scripts about the same big events. Everyone trusted them. We moved on with our lives.

Now we are tempted to believe that constant refreshing of pages will make us more informed. We are going to find out the truth of public life now. We are no longer denied alternative voices and we are being given stunning looks into alternative explanations. This is great, and we naturally think it is an improvement.

Maybe it is. Surely it is. But the question is, at what cost? It is gravely tempting to spend whatever excess time we have obsessing about this or that thing with infinite options of sources, podcasts, videos, feeds, trending topics, and unrelating blasts of breaking news that amaze us and probably further tribalize us.

What is the cost? It is what we would otherwise be doing. Maybe that is investing in personal relationships and family. Maybe it is picking up a big physical unplugged book and reading from page one, thrilling in the gradual unfolding of a narrative. Maybe it is thinking about long-term financial planning and learning new ways to think about finance and implementing the lessons.

There can be no doubt that this goes on ever less and less. A 20-something friend says he knows of only two people in several years who have read an actual book. We all know that it is true. Empirical evidence on this varies, and the book market itself seems to be doing fine. Whether and to what extent people under the age of 30 actually have extended and disciplined time with mighty books is a real question. Surveys alone won’t give the answer.

What does it matter anyway? Again, I asked my Uber driver.

“It’s completely changing people. And…

Trump’s Illegal Migrant Hunt Digs Into The IRS and Social Security

Authored by Benjamin Weingarten via RealClearInvestigations,

Against fierce resistance, the Trump administration is enlisting the Internal Revenue Service and Social Security Administration in its crackdown on illegal immigration.

On April 7, the IRS signed an agreement with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement that alarmed progressive pro-immigration groups and like-minded advocates – and reportedly prompted the tax bureau’s acting chief to resign in protest. 

The deal allows ICE to request the tax return information of migrants who are not in this country legally. In recent days, as part of a push to encourage self-deportation, the Department of Homeland Security and Social Security Administration have also coordinated to strip benefits from otherwise inadmissible migrants granted parole during the Biden administration – a group posing national security concerns who have now had their parolee status revoked.

“Information sharing across agencies is essential to identify who is in our country, including violent criminals,” an unnamed senior DHS official told ABC News, while stressing the desire to “determine what public safety and terror threats may exist so we can neutralize them, scrub these individuals from voter rolls, as well as identify what public benefits these aliens are using at taxpayer expense.” 

Past administrations have largely avoided such information sharing, both because of turf-protecting impulses and privacy concerns. In the current climate, several immigrant advocacy groups have sued to thwart cooperation between the IRS and Department of Homeland Security, claiming that they are likely to violate taxpayer confidentiality laws. The critics assert that the new policy is aimed not at legitimately prosecuting individuals, but at identifying migrants as part of an effort to deport them en masse – or to pressure them into leaving on their own.

The controversy highlights the sometimes novel ways in which the Trump administration is seeking to break down walls between agencies to share data in pursuit of its policy goals – whether to combat illegal immigration, streamline government, or ensure election integrity – and resistance has come both from outside groups and from within the federal bureaucracy itself.

As RealClearInvestigations reported in 2022, the IRS and its partners, including the Social Security Administration, have been reluctant to share information with agencies like DHS pursuing non-citizens, in part on privacy grounds. The IRS has neglected to use its own enforcement powers, evidence suggests, because of a view that the benefits to working illegal migrants – in their tens of billions of dollars in tax contributions annually – outweigh the costs to Americans victimized by identity theft by migrants using their stolen Social Security numbers.

But the Trump administration has pledged to mine and modernize the government’s data systems to eliminate “information silos” and help combat waste, fraud, and abuse.

The Social Security Administration is ground zero for these efforts. Millions of non-citizens have been issued Social Security numbers in recent years after entering the country and being legally authorized to work. The Trump DHS said in a January 2025 statement that the “Biden-Harris Administration abused the humanitarian parole program to indiscriminately allow 1.5 million migrants to enter our country.”

This month, DHS revoked the…