Trump trade war spreads more gloom across various businesses

Businesses across multiple industries are increasing prices, cutting financial guidance and warning of growing uncertainty as US President Donald Trump's trade war pushes up costs, up-ends supply chains and stirs concerns about the global economy.

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Earning releases on Thursday showed that corporations around the world ran into a wall of uncertainty in the first quarter, as executives found themselves navigating the Trump administration’s constantly shifting stance on trade.

Comments from the biggest packaged food, drinks and consumer goods companies also underscored worries among businesses and investors that Trump's tariffs and his attacks on Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell will hurt confidence on Main Street.

“We will have to pull every lever we have in our arsenal to mitigate the impact of tariffs within our cost structure and PL,” Procter & Gamble CFO Andre Schulten said on a media call after the Pampers maker announced plans to hike prices to cover the impact of extra costs from the sweeping tariff war.

Nestle CEO Laurent Freixe and Dove soap maker Unilever also flagged weakening US consumer confidence.

Stocks drifted on Thursday and a rebound in the dollar fizzled out as investors tried to pick through the Trump administration's fast-changing announcements on tariffs and the leadership of the Fed, the US central bank.

While most of the tariffs have been paused for 90 days until July 8, a 108 universal rate and duties on aluminium, steel and car imports remain in place, as do eye-popping levies on goods imported from China, to which Beijing has responded in kind.