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Trump effect: Samsung may build U.S. factory

Ahn Young-joon / AP

Samsung is considering constructing a U.S. factory to produce home appliances, per Reuters.

If the plan comes to fruition, Samsung would join Whirlpool as the only major appliance companies that manufacture in the United States.

A win-win: Companies can grab headlines with news of even considering bringing production to the U.S., and the Trump White House benefits from the ability to take credit. These moves may not add up to significant job growth, but it's hard to beat the PR.

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Theresa May can't afford a Trumpian stance on trade

Matt Dunham/AP

Prime Minister Theresa May's white paper on Brexit negotiations stresses the importance of trade, which has risen to about 60% of British GDP in recent years.

Data: World Bank; Chart: Andrew Witherspoon / Axios

Why it matters: Theresa May may struggle to keep borders open to trade, but as closed to immigration as her base demands. The United States, on the other hand, is a much more closed economy. where most economic activity occurs intra-nationally. Trump has a little more wiggle room to play hardball.

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Trump tells Congress to fix NAFTA "catastrophe"

Carolyn Kaster / AP

At a White House meeting today with congressional leaders that included Sen. Orrin Hatch, Sen. Ron Wyden, and Rep. Kevin Brady, President Trump — with VP Pence at his side — discussed free trade changes:

And maybe we do it and maybe we do a new NAFTA and we add an extra 'F' in NAFTA for 'free and fair trade' because it's very unfair.
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Border adjustment: The war officially begins

Matt Rourke / AP

Background: House Speaker Paul Ryan thinks the only way he can pay for massive tax cuts is through a $1.2 trillion revenue plan known as "border adjustment" that raises taxes on imports and lowers them on exports.

Fighting for border adjustment: The "American Made Coalition," a coalition of more than 25 American businesses. GE is playing a leading role and hosted coalition partners at its D.C. offices recently. Boeing is another big player on this side of the fight. Other industries include manufacturing, high tech, software, medical device production, agriculture, energy production, biopharmaceuticals and information services.

Oh, and Paul Ryan, House GOP leadership, Trump's chief strategist Steve Bannon and (maybe) a lukewarm President Trump.

Fighting against border adjustment: "Americans for Affordable Products." As the AP reports: "More than 100 retailers including Wal-Mart and Target as well as key trade associations are launching a new coalition" aimed at fighting border adjustment. The coalition includes The National Retail Federation, along with the American International Automobile Dealers Association, the National Grocers Association. Walmart is a major hitter in this group and the well-funded Koch network will be supporting the opposition to border adjustment.

Why this matters: It's the biggest fight of the tax season. But, as we have reported, Ryan has his work cut out for him. Especially in the Senate.

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3 takeaways from a VC summit

  1. Many Silicon Valley firms have begun spending significant time outside of traditional tech hotbeds.
  2. Sovereign wealth funds have slowed down their startup investment pace.
  3. There has been a major uptick in non-tech companies seeking to buy tech startups.

On that last one: It would seem that the "staying private longer" trend has artificially reduced the number of potential tech startup acquirers, since the next-gen of tech buyers doesn't yet have a public currency.

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India's tech sector starts lobbying against H-1B visa changes

Aijaz Rahi / AP File Photo

India-based IT services companies are heading to Washington to lobby against new restrictions on a temporary work-visa program that they use heavily to recruit talent, Bloomberg reports.

Industry group Nasscom represents India's largest tech companies — including Tata Consultancy, Wipro and Infosys — whose stocks have taken a beating this week ahead of a Trump executive order expected to start the process of reprioritizing the visa lottery system in favor of the highest-paying jobs.

Why it matters: These India-based tech companies are among the largest users of the H-1B visa program. New visa restrictions would make it more expensive for these firms to hire workers, who are often used to staff corporate IT departments for U.S. companies. Or, they could be pulled to the back of the line in the visa application pool, also making it difficult to find talent. Several bills have been introduced in Congress aiming to reform the program.

What they're saying: "We want to help the officials and lawmakers understand the gains for the U.S. economy and the benefits to Americans because of businesses using Indian IT services," said Nasscom president R Chandrashekhar.

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The military is already leaking details of Trump's Yemen raid

Susan Walsh / AP

Reuters has a new report on the raid in Yemen this weekend that resulted in the death of Navy SEAL William "Ryan" Owens. It includes some shocking claims from anonymous U.S. military officials:

  • Trump approved the raid without proper intelligence, ground support, or contingency plans.
  • The intelligence lapses caused the SEAL team to drop into a reinforced compound with a larger group of Al Qaeda soldiers than expected.
  • The "brutal firefight" that killed Owens also resulted in the deaths of 15 women and children, including an 8-year old girl.
Why it matters: A leak like this is highly unusual in the military community — and especially shocking when it comes just 12 days into a new presidency. It raises questions about Trump's standing among his military leaders, as these officials have now thrown their commander-in-chief under the bus.
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Google dethrones Apple

Tsering Topgyal / AP

Google has surpassed Apple as the world's most valuable brand, according to the latest Brand Finance Global 500 report, per MarketWatch. Google, which hasn't been in the No. 1 spot since 2011, saw its brand value rise 24% to $109.5 billion in 2017 from $88.2 billion in 2016. Brand Finance cites its "unchallenged" search business as the leading source of its successful advertising income.

Meanwhile, Apple has slipped into the second spot with a 2017 brand value of $107.1 billion, down 27% from $145.9 billion in 2016. The report says that Apple has lost its "luster" and is now forced to compete on a higher playing field with a number of new Chinese brands.

"Put simply, Apple has over-exploited the goodwill of its customers, it has failed to generate significant revenues from newer products such as the Apple Watch and cannot demonstrate that genuinely innovative technologies are in the pipeline" wrote Brand Finance.

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WH: Trump's troops to Mexico comment was "lighthearted"

Marco Ugarte / AP

Trump's line about being ready to send the U.S. military to Mexico to deal with all the "bad hombres was "lighthearted," the AP reports today, citing an unnamed White House official.

Last night, AP cited a transcript of the call where Trump said Mexico wasn't doing enough.

I think your military is scared. Our military isn't, so I just might send them down to take care of it.

That White House official tells AP, however, that the remark was about fighting drug cartels together, and the conversation was "pleasant and constructive."

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The Trump Administration's war on labor statistics

Donald Trump spent much time during his campaign calling the official unemployment rate a "hoax," arguing that "real unemployment" was as much as 40%. These claims had little basis in fact, but they fit the Trumpian narrative that the economy was in disarray.

Friday jobs: The real statistics say the unemployment rate is at historically low levels. Tomorrow's report on new job growth will likely reinforce the strength of the labor market. The forecast is 175,000 new jobs and a 4.7% unemployment rate.

Alternative measures: Even broader measures of the unemployment rate show dramatic improvement in the jobs situation, and levels of unemployment nowhere near 40%.

Data: Bureau of Labor Statistics; Chart: Andrew Witherspoon / Axios

Why it matters: Investors and researchers rely heavily on government data, but the Trump Administration has shown antipathy for stats that contradict his world view. Tomorrow's jobs report will be the first of the Trump administration. Watch to see if the White House plays down good news to bolster the narrative of an economy needing saving.

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Corporate America is obsessed with Trump

Associated Press

Winter earnings season has revealed how many American executives have Trump on the brain. The Wall Street Journal reports that "of the 242 companies in the S&P 500 index that held conference calls or other investor events in January, half mentioned Mr. Trump directly or indirectly."

Why it matters: Donald Trump's big plans for tax, trade and infrastructure affect nearly every American business model. Trump's penchant for calling out, and cutting deals, with individual companies has gotten Corporate America's attention, too.

Irony alert: After the Republican Party spent years criticizing crony capitalism, a Republican President has made good relations with the White House a business must.

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