Uncertainty over tariffs and an unpredictable trade war is weighing heavily on companies as they report their latest financial results and try to give investors financial forecasts. Some tariffs remain in place against key U.S. trading partners, but others have been postponed to give nations time to negotiate. The tariff and trade picture has been shifting for months now, sometimes changing drastically on a daily basis. Those shifts make it difficult for companies and investors to make a reliable assessment of any impact to costs and sales.
Chinese giant automaking company BYD bought Ford Motor Co.'s former facilities in Brazil and has promised to run the company's largest plant outside China in the hardscrabble city of Camacari in northeastern Bahia state. BYD is leading a boom in electric vehicle sales in Brazil, the world's sixth-largest auto market. Meanwhile, Camacari has been reeling since 2021, when Ford, the American carmaker that had been the city's largest employer, shuttered its operations in Brazil after more than a century in the country. However, in December, Brazilian authorities rescued 163 Chinese nationals said to be working in "slaverylike" conditions at the BYD site. That has raised questions about the future of the factory.
