Trump Trade: U.S. to raise tariffs on South Korean goods to 25%

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: U.S. President Donald Trump said in a post on Truth Social, “Our Trade Deals are very important to America. In each of these Deals, we have acted swiftly to reduce our TARIFFS in line with the Transaction agreed to. We, of course, expect our Trading Partners to do the same. South Korea’s Legislature is not living up to its Deal with the United States. President Lee and I reached a Great Deal for both Countries on July 30, 2025, and we reaffirmed these terms while I was in Korea on October 29, 2025. Why hasn’t the Korean Legislature approved it? Because the Korean Legislature hasn’t enacted our Historic Trade Agreement, which is their prerogative, I am hereby increasing South Korean TARIFFS on Autos, Lumber, Pharma, and all other Reciprocal TARIFFS, from 15% to 25%.”

FLAT INSURANCE RATES: The Trump administration is calling for 2027 rates received by Medicare insurers to be “roughly flat”, which would be well short of expectations, The Wall Street Journal’s Anna Wilde Mathews and Christopher Weaver report, citing the proposal by Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. Payments to the plans would increase by an estimated 0.09% on average in 2027, the report states. Publicly traded companies in the space are trading sharply lower afterhours on the report and include CVS Health (CVS), Centene (CNC), Cigna (CI), Elevance Health (ELV), Humana (HUM), Molina Healthcare (MOH) and UnitedHealth (UNH).

RATE CUTS: Federal Reserve officials are expected to pause interest rate cuts this week after three consecutive reductions since September, The Wall Street Journal’s Nick Timiraos reports. The Fed’s benchmark rate will likely remain between 3.5% and 3.75%, with officials divided on future cuts due to inflation and job market data.