Apple's stock took a dump this morning after their projected earnings, especially over the crucial holiday shopping season, were significantly downgraded.
In the words of Apple CEO Tim Cook, Trump's trade war has taken a significant toll on their sales in China and this could be an indication that many other companies are going to miss their projections.
In fact, one of Trump's economic advisers, Kevin Hassett, spoke to reporters this morning and said "a lot of U.S. companies" are going to see their earnings downgraded, but that's okay because, according to him, China is "feeling the blow."
“There are a heck of a lot of U.S. companies that have a lot of sales in China that are basically going to be watching their earnings be downgraded ... until we get a deal with China,” Hassett said on CNN. “It’s not going to be just Apple.” [...]
However, Hassett said, “If we have a successful negotiation with China than Apple sales and everybody else’s sales will recover. But right now, China is feeling the blow of our tariffs.”
It's true that China's economy has slowed down, but it's also true that China is the largest consumer market in the world and if their economy slows down, sales will follow.
A trade war is mutually assured destruction.
My gut says Trump will not be able to negotiate a substantive deal with China ahead of the March 1st deadline when his tariffs on $200 billion in Chinese goods will increase from 10 to 25 percent. And I hope I'm wrong because the consequences of another round of tariffs will be so severe I don't believe the economy can take the hit.
Being right about Trump has never felt like a reward.