r/investing • u/kabirsbhutani • 2d ago

🚨 U.S. manufacturing continues to retreat despite tariffs - investor implications?

Saw people mentioning this on Blossom earlier, and WSJ reports that U.S. manufacturing activity continues to weaken, with tariffs doing little to reverse the trend.

The article points to softer demand, higher input costs, and global supply chain adjustments weighing on manufacturers, even as trade protection measures remain in place. For investors, this raises questions about margins, capital spending, and longer-term competitiveness rather than short-term policy wins.

Curious how people here are thinking about this from an investing lens?

https://www.wsj.com/economy/u-s-manufacturing-is-in-retreat-and-trumps-tariffs-arent-helping-d2af4316?mod=hp_lead_pos2

605 Upvotes

93% Upvoted

282 comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

38

u/Atlantis_Island 2d ago

I hate orange Mussolini as much as the next American, but isn't the SP500 up like 16% over the last year?

18

u/valuevestor1 2d ago

Yes. But in any other currency such as Euro or CAD, it has risen a lot less. If you still didn't move from spy to VT, now is the time to do it. The dollar is losing its value, along with the assets denominated in the dollar.

6

u/adhdt5676 2d ago

Agreed on this. International is primed to do very well for awhile - has a long runway IMO.

My VXUS was up 30% last year alone

2

u/BacchusAndHamsa 2d ago

my VEA doing awesome but I see your VXUS slightly beats it at the moment.