Friday, August 1, 2025

Global warming and CEO leadership (but make it funny!)

In today’s CEO Daily: Diane Brady on climate change and corporate leadership.
The big story: It’s Tariff Day!
The markets: Down across the board (did we mention it’s Tariff Day?).
Analyst notes from ING and UBS on tariffs, and Goldman Sachs on expectations for today’s jobs number.
Plus: All the news and watercooler chat from Fortune.

Good morning. I had hoped to be writing to you from Toronto but my flight was cancelled due to thunderstorms. Storms are nothing new, of course, nor are steamy summers in New York. But 2024 was the warmest year on record and the pattern is continuing this year, impacting every part of the planet. (Japan recorded its highest-ever temperature on July 30 of 41.2 degrees Celsius, or 106.2 degrees Fahrenheit.)

The U.S. Department of Energy recently came out with a stunning report that downplays climate change in an effort to justify rolling back regulations to address it. I would instead suggest readers check out the tools, lessons and insights in Supporting Extreme Heath Risk Governance, released last week on the first anniversary of the UN Secretary-General’s Call to Action on Extreme Heath.

It’s easy to feel powerless against the vagaries of Mother Nature, whether trudging home from LaGuardia after a cancelled flight or trying to flee an impending tsunami. But there’s much that people can do to adapt to the realities of a warming planet and mitigate its effects, especially leaders who are in a position to create new products, policies and practices.

Readers of this newsletter know that I’m a fan of economist Spencer Glendon, who has long tracked the impact of climate change. He often speaks to Fortune 500 leaders and their teams about the path forward for business. We’re hosting a climate dinner for C-Suite leaders on September 23 in partnership with Deloitte, which also sponsors this newsletter. We are also planning to feature more dialogues and reporting on innovation in energy and related issues. My colleague Jordan Blum is helping to lead the way. What’s possible through technology is exciting.

As a college student in Nairobi, I worked part-time as a writer at the UN Environment Programme. When writing my first speech for executive director Mostafa Tolba, his advice was “make it funny.” I spent the night trying to come up with jokes about desertification, only to have him clarify that the goal was to joke about him, not the degradation of fertile land. Such challenges can feel so big and intractable in the abstract. When we connect as human beings, he said, we can get things done.

Top news

Tariff Day: New taxes on U.S. imports

President Trump signed an executive order raising tariff rates on imports to the U.S. for dozens of countries. The rates range from 10% to 41%. Any goods that are “transhipped” via third countries in an attempt to avoid the tariffs will face a rate of 40%. CNBC has a good summary here. There is a country-by-country breakdown here. Read the official executive order here.

Canada faces a 35% tariff

The U.S.’s northern neighbor got a higher rate because Trump is dissatisfied with Canada’s efforts to stop the flow of fentanyl. However, goods previously covered by the USMCA agreement are exempt.

Mexico gets a 90-day extension

The president said: “The complexities of a Deal with Mexico are somewhat different than other Nations because of both the problems, and assets, of the Border. We have agreed to extend, for a 90 Day period, the exact same Deal as we had for the last short period of time, namely, that Mexico will continue to pay a 25% Fentanyl Tariff, 25% Tariff on Cars, and 50% Tariff on Steel, Aluminum, and Copper. Additionally, Mexico has agreed to immediately terminate its Non Tariff Trade Barriers, of which there were many.”

It may all be for naught

Yesterday, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in Washington, D.C., sat en banc to hear an appeal that would overturn all of Trump’s tariff orders. A group of states and small businesses is arguing that the president does not have the authority to impose a state of emergency under the IEEPA to impose tariffs without Congressional approval. The judges hearing the case seemed sceptical of the administration’s defense. This case will go to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Trump threatens pharma companies

The president wrote to 17 drug companies, insisting that they commit to lowering drug prices, or else. “If you refuse to step up, we will deploy every tool in our arsenal to protect American families from continued abusive drug prices,” Trump wrote. It is unclear whether Trump has the legal power to force companies to change their prices.

Apple and Amazon beat earnings expectations

Both Apple and Amazon beat Wall Street’s earnings expectations with their earnings reports on Thursday, with Apple specifically setting a quarterly revenue record of $94 billion. Apple saw the majority of its growth from its iPhone business while AWS, Amazon’s cloud-computing arm, fueled income gains.

Figma debut stuns

Figma shares nearly tripled on Thursday, the design software company’s first day trading on the New York Stock Exchange. It now has a market cap of roughly $46 billion, about $26 billion more than Adobe offered to buy the company for in 2023.

Ray Dalio sells final Bridgewater stake

It’s the end of an era: The voluble billionaire investor has also given up his board seat, but he remains personally invested in Bridgewater’s funds.

From the analysts

ING on tariffs: “The muted market impact signals lingering expectations of trade deals and the much greater focus on data,” per Francesco Pesole et al.

UBS on tariffs: “The global economy is reverberating with the dull thud of the yoke of taxation dropping onto the shoulders of U.S. consumers. These taxes do not show up in consumer baskets with full force until January next year—the question is whether the courts will overturn these taxes before then. If they do (forcing the government to return tax revenues to the U.S. supply chain), it is possible U.S. consumers will never fully appreciate the costs,” per Paul Donovan.

Goldman Sachs on expectations for today’s jobs number: “We estimate nonfarm payrolls rose by 100k in July, roughly in line with consensus of 105k and below the three-month average of +150k. On the positive side, big data indicators showed a rebound in private sector job growth, though to a still soft pace,” per Ronnie Walker and Jessica Rindels.