Bridger Pennington breaks down how tariffs are shifting investor behavior toward risk-off positions. Volkswagen and Audi are holding $2 billion in inventory on barges waiting out the uncertainty. Trump's early hard measures could pay off later, but right now the market is spooked.
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Volkswagen, Audi had something like $2 billion of inventory on barge ships when the tariff day came out. Waiting for tariffs to be removed or not removed. Like, so how do these tariffs change the investment market and business market? Typically, markets and investors don't like uncertainty. So most investors will go risk-off until they have certainty and they know the rules of the game. Overall, I believe Trump is a businessman. His ego depends on America doing well. We're in the first 2 quarters of the Trump presidency. So yes, if you're gonna do hard cuts and hard things, you would do it in the first 2 quarters to unlock in his mind maybe the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th year of his presidency to have this crowning jewel of this ego of his presidency. But we will see. Right now, there's a lot of uncertainty and a lot of risk-off.