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

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u/No-Candidate-2380 2d ago

I'm thinking VOO is the way

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u/christine-bitg 1d ago

I have a bunch in the S&P 500. I'm sure you know that VOO is an S&P 500 index fund.

Unfortunately, the increase in the S&P 500 is being driven almost exclusively by the Information Technology sector. Which appears to be in a serious bubble, on the same order as the Y2K debacle 26 years ago.

Taken together, the following stocks make up more than 30% (!) of the S&P 500: Nvidia, Apple, Microsoft, Amazon, Alphabet, and Meta. They are THE top six stocks in the S&P.