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\n A businessman walks by the New York Stock Exchange in New York City. As more than 100 big companies reported earnings this week, the S&P 500 and Nasdaq hit a series of record highs.<\/p>\n
Spencer Platt\/Getty Images<\/p>\n
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Spencer Platt\/Getty Images<\/p>\n
Corporate America is living through two vastly different experiences of President Trump’s tariff summer<\/a>.<\/p>\n More than 100 of the largest U.S. companies reported quarterly financial results in the last week, updating investors about how much money they earned (or lost) and what they’re expecting for the rest of the year. These updates provide a regular window into how CEOs and other business leaders feel not just about their companies but also about the broader economy.<\/p>\n Now, with another White House deadline looming next week<\/a> for tariff deals with other countries \u2014 and plenty of uncertainty<\/a> remaining over what these taxes will ultimately cost businesses and consumers \u2014 this month’s earnings reports have been closely watched.<\/p>\n And they’ve varied wildly. Some big companies, especially carmakers and other consumer-facing businesses, are reporting real financial pain from the tariffs that Trump has imposed so far. But for many of the tech and financial companies that are less reliant on imports, it has been a pretty great few months.<\/p>\n “There’s a large divergence in experiences among firms \u2014 some of whom are very exposed to import prices and some of whom really aren’t,” says Laura Veldkamp, a professor of finance and economics at Columbia Business School.<\/p>\n Investors seem to be focusing on the good news: The benchmark S&P 500 and the tech-heavy Nasdaq hit a series of record highs<\/a> this week. (The Dow Jones Industrial Average, which is made up of many fewer companies<\/a>, was tempered in part by bad news and share sell-offs at UnitedHealth Group<\/a>. But it also rose more than 500 points, or almost 1.3%, this week.)<\/p>\n Here are three takeaways from what CEOs and their companies are saying about the economy this month.<\/p>\n 1. They’re kind of tired of talking about tariffs <\/p>\n CEOs and other business leaders have spent months trying to figure out how to criticize<\/a> Trump’s policies without drawing his ire. And in April, days after the president first unveiled his sweeping new tariffs, some of the United States’ most powerful executives used their earnings reports<\/a> and other public appearances to warn about the potential damage these taxes could cause.<\/p>\n \n President Trump waves as he arrives at Glasgow Prestwick Airport in Scotland on July 25. Next Friday, Aug. 1, marks the latest deadline he has set for imposing sky-high import taxes on a large list of countries.<\/p>\n Andrew Harnik\/Getty Images<\/p>\n hide caption\n <\/p>\n toggle caption<\/p>\n Andrew Harnik\/Getty Images<\/p>\n Since then, Trump has delayed or softened some of his proposed tariffs, although plenty of uncertainty about their final shape remains. And business leaders have continued cycling through the five stages of tariff grief<\/a>.<\/p>\n But now some big companies are trying, as much as possible, to look beyond the trade elephant in the room.<\/p>\n “The corporate community has \u2026 sort of accepted that they just need to navigate through this and are kind of getting on with it,” JPMorganChase’s chief financial officer, Jeremy Barnum, told journalists during a conference call last week.<\/p>\n However, he acknowledged, “it’s still challenging for many individual firms.”<\/p>\n 2. Not all big businesses are feeling the same effects <\/p>\n Carmaker General Motors said this week<\/a> that tariffs cost it more than $1 billion in the past three months, joining a chorus of hurting automakers \u2014 though GM still posted a profit.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, restaurant chain Chipotle<\/a> said customers are worried about the economy and buying fewer burritos, while the company braces to pay more for its ingredients.<\/p>\n But not all consumer-facing companies were weighed down by the same problems. For example, Coca-Cola<\/a> and toy maker Hasbro<\/a> both posted better-than-expected results.<\/p>\n Over in Silicon Valley, Google did so well that it’s throwing another $10 billion<\/a> at its artificial intelligence efforts. And on Wall Street, big banks surfed this spring’s market volatility<\/a> to a terrific quarter.<\/p>\n Columbia Business School’s Veldkamp points out that retailers and other sellers of material goods are usually the first companies to feel the impact of tariffs \u2014 because, after all, they have to import the avocados or toys or components of the physical goods that they sell.<\/p>\n Some companies, including Walmart<\/a>, have said they will pass along some increased prices to consumers; others<\/a> say they’re trying to avoid doing so (or at least have avoided announcing it so far).<\/p>\n “Those firms might try to absorb some of those tariffs for a while, especially because the tariffs themselves are uncertain,” Veldkamp adds.<\/p>\n But if eventually companies “can’t make a profit selling what it is that they’re selling at the prices they had been selling at it, we’ll see them pass those increases in prices on to consumers,” she adds.<\/p>\n Which means \u2026<\/p>\n 3. We’re still months away, at least, from seeing the final impact of tariffs <\/p>\n There are signs that consumers are already feeling some pain from tariffs. Government data released last week shows that inflation picked up in June<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n