Here are the takeaways from today’s Morning Brief, which you can register to receive every morning in your mailbox accompanied by:

We have entered the second phase of Trump’s Concerns About Tariffs among the upper echelons of influential brokers of the world’s largest companies.

I would loosely characterize the first phase as the shock-and-joke state that emerged in the seven days following this month’s elections.

Leaders I spoke following the elections were still trying to understand the outcome and what it meant in the short term for their workers and businesses. Few knew whether Trump would deliver on his litany of mind-blowing promises — and if they had a view, they had no intention of officially sharing it with yours truly.

As a reminder, Trump imposed tariffs of at least 60% on China and up to 20% on most products from other countries.

Now, welcome to phase two, in which leaders begin speaking out publicly on the issue and building connections behind the scenes to try to change the president-elect’s mind on tariffs.

“I also spent some time with our team discussing the fact that when something is announced, we want to take pricing action of a certain magnitude with our customers. So we started having some of those conversations with our channel. over the last two weeks”, Stanley Black & Decker (SWK) CEO Don Allan told me this week on Yahoo Finance (video above).

“We won’t do anything until we see something that says: This is what the new world of tariffs will be.”

Allan said he spent time with politicians and people close to the new Trump administration to help them understand the harmful impact of potential tariffs.

Allan explained, “When I look at our industry, if I took our Chinese factory that we have today that makes power tools and I imported it into the United States, the cost of manufacturing that product would be approximately 60 to 70% higher. it is substantial, for which the consumer will not pay. And so if we want to reduce our exposure to China, which we are doing, we will look to other Southeast Asian countries like Vietnam or maybe Mexico, where we certainly have a significant impact. already in operation.”

Allan’s concerns about tariffs are found elsewhere.

“Look, if (tariffs) happened, that would create macroeconomic implications, and that would likely take the form of additional inflationary pressures on consumers. But it’s also important to note that we have increased flexibility to continue to evolve our supply chain, and we will ensure we are in the strongest possible position as trends unfold,” Gap said (GAP) CEO Richard Dickson told me on the phone after another rise in quarterly results.

Dan Sheridan, CEO of Brooks Running’s apparel business, told me at the Opening offer podcast that the tariffs would drive sneaker prices much higher. “An additional tariff of 20 to 25 percent…that’s huge. The conversation is massive,” he said. “To absorb that as a company starts to pull investment out of R&D… We have to pass it on to the consumer and you can’t completely ignore a 25% increase in costs.”

Speaking of macroeconomic implications, the boss of Goldman Sachs Jan Hatzius sought to bring a dose of brutal reality to investors on the subject this week.

“Moving toward a broader trade war would strengthen the rise in the U.S. dollar but put pressure on global stocks. Unusually high valuations of U.S. stocks would not only dampen expected long-term returns, but also amplify the potential reaction to any economic weakness,” Hatzius said in a statement. new research note.

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Hatzius said the tariffs could ultimately tighten short-term financial conditions and weigh on U.S. economic growth.

“We want lower prices for our customers and our members. We advocate for them…for lower prices and lower value. And so we will do everything we can not to raise prices. But for now , this is just speculation. We know which categories of items – or even which countries – tariffs might apply to. And if we look back, when the tariffs were enacted seven years ago, that actually led to higher prices for customers,” John, Walmart’s chief financial officer. David Rainey said in Yahoo Finance’s Morning Brief.

The bottom line is that corporate America starts speaking out against its self-imposed Tariff Man. If they can do it to his face if need be, who knows.

But executives are right about the tariffs, and their argument could come to fruition in the form of much higher prices for consumers and lower stock prices, to boot.

Three times a week, I lead insightful conversations and discussions with the biggest names in business and markets around the world. Opening offer podcast. You can find more episodes on our video center or watch on your favorite streaming service.

Brian Sozzi is the editor-in-chief of Yahoo Finance. Follow Sozzi on @BrianSozzi and on LinkedIn. Advice on deals, mergers, activist situations or anything else? Email [email protected].

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