2025-04-29
8 分钟Hey, listeners, it's April 29th.
I'm Spencer Jacob for The Wall Street Journal, and this is What's News and Earnings,
our look at the broad themes that stood out in the latest earnings season.
We're four months into 2025, and it's a changed world.
The United States,
which has for decades been at the center of international trade and capital flows,
and also the bulwark of security for the world's democracies,
is pulling back sharply from both roles.
Tariffs hurt most manufacturing businesses, of course,
but some defense companies operate in a world where that affects them less.
As Western democracies up spending for their own defense, how will that balance play out?
First quarter earnings season for defense contractors gave us a mixed picture on how this all will play out for those companies.
Sharon Turliff covers the business for The Journal and is here to help us understand.
Sharon, during their first quarter earnings calls,
defense company executives gave different accounts of how tariffs could affect them.
Northrop Grumman said that additional costs are built into their contracts,
and so they weren't very concerned.
General Dynamics said that they wouldn't answer questions about tariffs because of all the uncertainty.
And then GE Aerospace and Boeing were both more specific,
but they also have larger commercial footprints.