The Dow plunges 700 points because now Trump’s trade war is real

US President Donald Trump's new 25% tariffs on goods from Canada, Mexico, and China have prompted retaliatory measures from some of the affected countries. US stocks plummeted again on Tuesday, with the Dow Jones Industrial average dropping up to 700 points as Trump's newly imposed 25% tariffs on goods from Canada, Mexico, and China took effect on Tuesday.

After delaying 25% tariffs on Canada and Mexico for 30 days, Trump said Monday that there was "no room left" for negotiation.

The President also doubled the 10% initial tariff on China, meaning US firms now have to pay a 20% blanket rate to import goods from the country.

Economists generally agree that tariffs a country imposes on foreign goods coming in - taxes a country imposes on foreign goods coming in - are passed down to individual consumers in the form of higher prices.

The escalation has global business leaders increasingly worried about what will come next, as economists warn that consumers and companies will soon see higher prices.

China and Canada have already responded, with Beijing targeting the American heartland with sweeping levies on imported food and halting log and soybean shipments from select us companies.

Mexico is expected to retaliate, too.

Reference Sources

1. quartz - The Dow plunges 700 points because now Trump’s trade war is real
2. dailymail - The everyday items that are now more expensive thanks to Trump's tariffs
3. indiatoday - Trump's 'Governor Trudeau' jibe after Canada announces retaliatory tariff
4. nytimesen - Trump’s Tariffs Hit Stock Markets
5. thestarmy - Canada imposing 25% tariffs on $30 billion of US imports, Trudeau says

'Music to our ears': Qualcomm CEO welcomes TSMC's $100 billion investment to boost U.S. chipmaking

Taiwan semiconductor manufacturing Co.'s $100 billion commitment to expand manufacturing in the us is "great news," said Qualcomm CEO Cristiano Amon, adding it helps with diversification of Chipmaking locations.

Trump announced on Monday that Tsmc would invest $100 billion in the US which would go toward building more chip fabrication plants in Arizona.

TSMC is the world's largest semiconductor manufacturer and supplies chips to the likes of Qualcomm, Apple and Nvidia.

The US, under leadership of both Trump and former President Joe Biden, has sought to bring more cutting-edge chip manufacturing to American soil on the grounds that it is a matter of national and economic security to have these advanced Technologies made closer to home.

Many in the technology industry have backed these plans, including Qualcomm. "look, this is great news," Amon said. "It shows that semiconductors are important.

Amon said it's currently difficult to predict the impact on Qualcomm from the tariffs. "It's hard to tell because you don't know exactly how this is going to go. The interesting thing is we're big exporters of chips.”

Reference Sources

1. cnbc - 'Music to our ears': Qualcomm CEO welcomes TSMC's $100 billion investment to boost U.S. chipmaking

China's DeepSeek claims theoretical cost-profit ratio of 545% per day

Chinese AI startup DeepSeek has disclosed some cost and revenue data related to its hit V3 and R1 models, claiming a theoretical cost-profit ratio of up to 545% per day, though it cautioned that actual revenue would be significantly lower.

This marks the first time the Hangzhou-based company has revealed any information about its profit margins from less Computationally intensive "inference" tasks, the stage after training that involves trained AI models making predictions or performing tasks, such as through Chatbots.

The revelation could further rattle ai stocks outside China that plunged in January after web and App Chatbots powered by its R1 and V3 models surged in popularity worldwide.

The sell-off was partly caused by DeepSeek's claims that it spent less than $6M on chips used to train the model, much less than what US rivals like OpenAI have spent.

DeepSeek took the world by storm when it burst into the public domain in January as the main competitor to US rival Chatgpt.

Deepseek has seen as much daily usage in the first two months since its rollout as the next most popular App has seen in 12 months.

Reference Sources

1. cnbc - China's DeepSeek claims theoretical cost-profit ratio of 545% per day
2. bussinesstimes - DeepSeek’s impact and investment implications - The Business Times
3. usnews - DeepSeek's Progress Shows Rise of China's AI Companies, Says Chinese Official
4. aawsat - DeepSeek’s Progress Shows Rise of China’s AI Companies, Says Chinese Official

The CommonWealth English daily news digest is a service curated by CommonWealth English team with the help of AI tools.

Have you read?

• TSMC’s $100 Billion U.S. Investment Sparks Mixed Reactions in Taiwan
• TSMC’s US$100 Billion Investment Deal: A Strategic Move Amid Geopolitical Pressures
• Daily News Digest: TSMC's $100 billion Investment Plan in US

Uploaded by Ian Huang