Voters who put President Donald Trump in office — worried about higher egg prices — haven't seen anything yet.
Already five S&P 500 companies — including Best Buy, Carrier Global and Eastman Chemical — in the past four weeks are talking about raising prices. And President Trump's tariffs on Mexico, Canada and China have only just started — a move likely to force many other firms to raise prices, too. The S&P 500 has been tanking for days on the realization that Trump is actually planning to levy tariffs, as opposed to just threatening to levy them.
You're already looking at price hikes for everything from electronics to air conditioners and key chemicals used in many products.
"Tariffs are likely to add upward pressure to inflation and be a headwind to economic growth at the margin, an unfavorable combination for risk assets broadly," said Josh Jamner, senior investment analyst at ClearBridge Investments.
Talking About Raising Prices In The S&P 500
Everyone loves their gadgets: phones, tablets and game consoles. But get ready to pay more for them.
An analyst asked Best Buy Senior Executive Vice President Matthew Bilunas Tuesday about how badly the China tariffs would hurt the company's profit. Many electronics are imported from China. The response? Brace for higher prices.
"Of course, we prefer not to raise prices, but because of the higher (costs), we need to enact some price increases and that is going to vary based on product category ... competitive environment and other factors," Bilunas said. "The giant wild card here, obviously, is how the consumers are going to react to the price increases in light of a lot of price increases potentially throughout the year and a general consumer confidence that is showing a little signs of weakness at the moment."
And CEO Corie Barry said Best Buy isn't the only retailer that will hike prices. "I think I need to state the obvious: We've never seen this kind of breadth of tariffs and this, of course, impacts the whole industry. So it's not just a Best Buy question. It is a broad industry question," she said.
Not Waiting To Jack Up Prices
And it's not just China. Back in February, climate control equipment maker Carrier announced it would raise prices. CEO David Gitlin said the Mexico tariffs are a bigger issue for the company. And price hikes will kick in fast.
"We've notified our distributors that we would raise prices that day (when tariffs go into effect)," Gitlin said.
But that's just part one of a three-point plan. Next, the company said it "will work with our suppliers to pay less to our supply chain. ... We pay in dollars; the peso would likely devalue," Gitlin said. "We consider them partners, but we think we should share in some of the pain that would come with that." And, "we have to look at cost takeout elsewhere in the business. So we're hopeful that 25% doesn't come into place. We will prepare for the worst, but hope for the best."
Other Sources Of Inflation
Some industries were already raising prices prior to the tariffs. Insurance is a good example of that. But expect more industries to follow suit.
"We've raised some people's prices 30%, 40%," said Allstate CEO Thomas Wilson in early February. "We had to do it quickly because we were losing money."
But there's now talk of newly raised prices for chemicals and industrial equipment. Those will compound as companies that pay more for raw materials pass on higher costs. "So we're assuming we don't have the ability to raise prices in this environment, but we do — we will do a good job of holding prices up and only modestly giving some prices back in some places," said Eastman Chemical CEO Mark Costa in mid-February.
Shawn Vadala, chief financial officer at Mettler-Toledo, said in February to expect higher prices throughout the scientific tools market.
"I think that the environment of tariffs could lead to a higher inflationary environment or it could lead to an environment where our market is just going to raise prices higher, but it will very much be dependent on what the tariffs are, what countries are hit or not hit, how broad it is or not," he said. "So we'll play it out."
S&P 500 Companies Already Talking About Higher Prices
| Company | Ticker | Date of announcing higher prices |
|---|---|---|
| Best Buy | BBY | March 4, 2025 |
| Carrier Global | CARR | Feb. 20, 2025 |
| Eastman Chemical | EMN | Feb. 19, 2025 |
| Mettler-Toledo | MTD | Feb. 7, 2025 |
| Allstate | ALL | Feb. 6, 2025 |
