Trump Trade: U.S. delays tariffs on Chinese semiconductors

Catch up on the top industries and stocks that were impacted, or were predicted to be impacted, by the comments, actions and policies of President Donald Trump with this daily recap compiled by The Fly.

TARIFFS: The Trump administration has concluded a semiconductor trade investigation citing harm from China’s industry dominance but opted to delay new tariffs, setting an initial zero percent rate on Chinese chip exports for at least 18 months, The New York Times’ Ana Swanson reports. The move reflects efforts to preserve a fragile trade truce with China following earlier tariff escalations and retaliatory measures. Publicly traded companies in the space include AMD (AMD), Intel (INTC), Marvell (MRVL), Microchip (MCHP), Micron (MU), Nvidia (NVDA), Qualcomm (QCOM) and Texas Instruments (TXN).

CANNABIS RESCHEDULING: President Trump has instructed Attorney General Pam Bondi to finalize a decision on marijuana rescheduling by the end of January, Anthony Martinelli of The Marijuana Herald reported, citing sources close to the president. An executive order signed by Trump last week directs Bondi to “take all necessary steps to complete the rulemaking process related to rescheduling marijuana to Schedule III of the Controlled Substances Act as quickly as possible, in accordance with federal law.” Federal law requires that any change to marijuana’s scheduling be formally completed through the Department of Justice. Publicly traded companies in the space include Aurora Cannabis (ACB), CV Sciences (CVSI), Canopy Growth (CGC), Cronos Group (CRON), Goodness Growth (GDNSF), Green Thumb Industries (GTBIF), IGC Pharma (IGC), Tilray (TLRY), Trees Corporation (CANN) and Trulieve Cannabis (TCNNF).

SEABED MINING: The Trump administration announced that it had received an application from Metals Company (TMC) to explore seabed mining in international waters, Sachi Kitajima Mulkey of The New York Times reported. Federal officials said they are formally reviewing the initial permit requests from the company, a leading candidate in the race to extract valuable minerals from the deep ocean, according to the article. The company has stated that it aims to begin commercial mining operations in the Pacific Ocean by 2027.

FED CHAIRMAN: President Trump stated in a post to Truth Social, “THE TRUMP RULE: The Financial News today was great – GDP up 4.2% as opposed to the predicted 2.5% (and this, despite the downward pressure of the recent Democrat Shutdown!) – But in the Modern Market, when you have good news, the Market stays even, or goes down, because Wall Street’s ‘heads’ are wired differently than they used to be… We are going to be encouraging the Good Market to get better, rather than make it impossible for it to do so. We are going to see numbers that are far more natural, and far better, than they have ever been before. We are going to, MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN! The United States should be rewarded for SUCCESS, not brought down by it. Anybody that disagrees with me will never be the Fed Chairman!”

INCREASE IN HIRING: Treasury Secretary Bessent stated on his X account, “Real GDP growth excluding government is up 4.7% at an annualized rate over the last two quarters. This is the exact opposite of what happened under Biden, when government growth contributed to historic inflation and depressed living standards. The current Trump-led surge points to a significant increase in hiring in the months ahead and the large paychecks that will inevitably accompany these jobs.