In the third quarter results released in the past few weeks, companies such as cat. N, 3M. N and Texas Instruments (TxN. O) accused the long-running trade dispute of weakening their revenue or profits and damaging their financial prospects.
The U.S. and China are "close to finalizing" parts of a trade agreement, the U.S. trade representative's office said Friday.
But judging from the comments of several companies, trade-related challenges may have a lasting impact on their performance in the coming quarters.
3M, for example, said in a conference call after Thursday's earnings announcement that it expected the Chinese market to "continue to weaken" at least in the fourth quarter and lowered its full year profit forecast. The slowdown in China's economy has affected industrial production, resulting in reduced demand for 3M's automotive products. The company's shares fell 4.1% Thursday, their biggest one-day decline since April.
Texas Instruments, the chip maker, fell 7.5% after its quarterly report on Tuesday, with a similar tone.
"We've been through four quarters and more," said Rafael LIZARDI, senior vice president of Finance and operations at Dei, speaking on a conference call with analysts about trade tensions.
Several companies, including Honeywell, said they had been able to mitigate the impact of tariffs.
But tariffs themselves may not be the biggest concern, according to some investors, as the US China trade war has also weakened business confidence.
"That's what we need to focus on." "With the trade deal, there may be an initial boost, but corporate spending will not necessarily recover soon," said JJ kinahan, chief market strategist at TD Ameritrade in Chicago.
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