6 Most Important Things in Business Today

By Douglas A. McIntyre Updated Mar 13, 3:31PM EDT · Published Aug 1, 5:02AM EDT

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President Trump may hit China with more tariffs. According to Reuters:

The Trump administration plans to propose slapping a 25-percent tariff on $200 billion of imported Chinese goods after initially setting them at 10 percent, in a bid to pressure Beijing into making trade concessions, a source familiar with the plan said on Tuesday.

President Donald Trump’s administration said on July 10 it would seek to impose the 10-percent tariffs on thousands of Chinese imports

A Chinese smartphone company has moved ahead of Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) in terms of global market share. According to Reuters:

China’s Huawei Technologies overtook Apple Inc to become the world’s second-biggest smartphone seller in the June quarter, data from market research firms showed, as it gained ground in Europe and expanded its lead back home.

The estimated rise in market share comes as a slowdown in the world’s biggest smartphone market, China, eased. Huawei has also managed to get ahead of rivals by selling more feature-packed phones, analysts said.

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Campbell Soup Co. (NYSE: CPB) is under pressure from a dissident investor who wants the company to restructure more rapidly. According to The Wall Street Journal:

Activist investor Third Point LLC has built a stake of more than $300 million in Campbell Soup Co., according to a person familiar with the matter, adding to pressure on the soup maker as it seeks to turn around its business and reverse a sharp stock-price decline.

While it isn’t clear exactly how big the stake is, it amounts to more than 2.5% of Campbell’s stock. Third Point had filed for antitrust clearance, people familiar with the matter said, which is necessary if the firm wants to increase its stake and get involved with business decisions at Campbell. A 30-day waiting period ended earlier this week without the government objecting.

A Chinese company said artificial intelligence (AI) was critical to improved earnings. According to The Wall Street Journal:

Chinese search engine giant Baidu Inc. has had its share of challenges in recent years, including turmoil in its executive ranks and a withering advertising scandal. But bets on artificial intelligence to drive ad sales appear to be paying off.

The Beijing-based company blew past analysts’ estimates Tuesday, reporting a record $3.93 billion in revenue for the quarter ended June 30, up 32% over the year-earlier period. Net income soared 45% to 6.4 billion yuan ($967 million).

Baidu, which sells advertising linked to web searches, news feeds and other content, credited the robust quarter to improvements in its mobile app, which uses AI to tailor its offerings to users based on their viewing habits and search history.

Tesla Inc. (NASDAQ: TSLA) is using non-factory workers to help with production. According to CNBC:

Electric vehicle maker Tesla is taking urgent steps to add workers to its vehicle and battery plants, including flying employees in from out of state and putting them up in hotels, and temporarily enlisting employees from unrelated divisions.

Extra hands are welcome at the factory as Tesla strives to produce 5,000 or more Model 3 sedans each week — a number the company says it must sustain to become profitable long-term. However, shifting employees to work in the factory strains budgets and other business units, according to seven current and former employees. Some of these people requested anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to press.

After strong earnings, Apple’s market cap is more likely to reach $1 trillion. According to CNNMoney:

Apple is within striking distance of a trillion dollar market value.

The iPhone maker is currently worth about $935 billion, and the stock only needs to go up about 7% for it to top the mark.

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About the Author Douglas A. McIntyre →

Douglas A. McIntyre is the co-founder, chief executive officer and editor in chief of 24/7 Wall St. and 24/7 Tempo. He has held these jobs since 2006.

McIntyre has written thousands of articles for 24/7 Wall St. He is an expert on corporate finance, the automotive industry, media companies and international finance. He has edited articles on national demographics, sports, personal income and travel.

His work has been quoted or mentioned in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, NBC News, Time, The New Yorker, HuffPost USA Today, Business Insider, Yahoo, AOL, MarketWatch, The Atlantic, Bloomberg, New York Post, Chicago Tribune, Forbes, The Guardian and many other major publications. McIntyre has been a guest on CNBC, the BBC and television and radio stations across the country.

A magna cum laude graduate of Harvard College, McIntyre also was president of The Harvard Advocate. Founded in 1866, the Advocate is the oldest college publication in the United States.

TheStreet.com, Comps.com and Edgar Online are some of the public companies for which McIntyre served on the board of directors. He was a Vicinity Corporation board member when the company was sold to Microsoft in 2002. He served on the audit committees of some of these companies.

McIntyre has been the CEO of FutureSource, a provider of trading terminals and news to commodities and futures traders. He was president of Switchboard, the online phone directory company. He served as chairman and CEO of On2 Technologies, the video compression company that provided video compression software for Adobe’s Flash. Google bought On2 in 2009.