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On today's business matters, U.S. retail sales surged last month. The latest report from a commerce department shows spending at U.S. retailers rose 1.4 percent in March from February and that's the highest monthly gain since January 23. Economists believe the new U.S. tariffs have unsettled Americans in recent months and it's having an effect on people's purchasing behavior They said Americans likely race to stores in March for big-ticket items that could see big price jumps because of import taxes. Economists think the retail sales boost could happen again this month, but it won't last. The U.S. government is placing new restrictions on the export of NVIDIA's artificial intelligence chips to China. In a regulatory filing Tuesday, NVIDIA said the government is requiring a special license for its H20 chips to be exported to China. The H20 chip was specifically designed to accommodate U.S. export controls to China. The model has less computing power than the more powerful H100 artificial intelligence chip, which has already been banned for sale to China. As a result, NVIDIA says it will take a $5.5 billion financial hit. California Governor Gavin Newsom announced today that the state will file a lawsuit challenging President Trump's authority to impose sweeping tariffs. According to a press release, the lawsuit will argue that Trump's use of the International Emergency Economic Powers Act to impose tariffs is illegal. The act gives the president the power to freeze and block transactions in response to foreign threats. Newsom says the current tariffs have led to higher costs and billions of dollars in losses in his state. California has the largest economy among U.S. states, and it is a massive exporter. All hail Hermes. The Birkin bag maker briefly became Europe's largest luxury company by market capitalization after LVMH shared its disappointing first quarter. The Louis Vuitton owner reported sales fell short of analysts' expectations. In response, its shares plunged. At one point, more than $25 billion in market value was wiped out. LVMH also owns Dior, jewelry brand Tiffany & Co., and beauty chain Sephora. The company says it's seeing a slowdown at U.S. Sephora stores, and demand overall has remained weak in China. LVMH later regained its top spot as the world's most valuable luxury group from Hermes when its stocks recovered some losses. Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell spoke today on the nation's economic outlook at the Economic Club of Chicago. Here's more on what the head of the central bank had to say amid President Trump's global trade shakeup. The administration is, as I mentioned in my remarks, is implementing significant policy changes, and particularly trade now is the focus. And the effects of that are likely to move us away from our goals. So unemployment is likely to go up as the economy slows, in all likelihood, and inflation is likely to go up as tariffs find their way. And some part of those tariffs come to be paid by the public. So that's the strong likelihood. And, you know, my hope is that we'll get through this and get back. We're always going to be aiming for maximum employment and price stability. That's what we do. I do think we'll be moving away from those goals probably for the balance of this year, and then or at least not making any progress. And then we'll resume that progress as we can. Powell reported that overall U.S. economic growth appears to be slowing with consumer spending growing modestly. However, the Fed chair also added, quote, despite heightened uncertainty and downside risks, the U.S. economy is still in a solid position. Now, in the first quarter of this year, the labor market saw an average growth of 150,000 jobs a unemployment is hovering around 4%. Inflation has eased significantly from its pandemic highs of mid 2022. The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported 2.3% inflation in March, and that's slightly above the Fed's 2% target. Hong Kong has suspended its postal service for packages to or from the United States. That's the latest retaliatory move in trade between Washington and Beijing. Hong Kong announced the decision Wednesday, citing President Trump's decision last week to eliminate an exception for items sent from Hong Kong to the U.S. The exemption applied to international shipments worth $800 or less entering the U.S. Hong Kong will stop accepting packages transported by sea immediately and stop taking airborne packages starting April 27th. Letters or other postal items containing only documents will not be affected. Hong Kong residents will now have to pay private companies to deliver packages. A turf war in the real estate market over off-market or pocket listings. Redfin has joined Zillow in banning privately marketed homes from their sites. The new policies are in response to a rule from the National Association of Realtors. They require homes to be listed on shared databases known as multiple listing services within one day of marketing a property publicly. There is a provision that allows sellers to delay advertising their homes online. There are also some brokerages who advertise listings on their own website and test pricing before sharing the property more widely on the internet. Zillow and Redfin have both made the argument that all buyers should be able to see all listings. The 2025 New York International Auto Show is underway and to tell us all about that with me now is Deloren Fix. She's an auto industry expert at Car Coach Reports. Deloren, good to see you. How are you doing today? Good. The show is great. 125 years from the New York Auto Show and there's product from way back all the way up to current and a lot of product. Yeah. Talk to us about that. What did you see? What caught your attention at the show? Well, there's a lot of great product. There's also some concept cars from Genesis. They brought two concepts. One is, well, actually a race car. They're going to get into racing, which means they're bringing a performance line. So you're going to see a performance line called magma, like in lava, and that's going to be coming soon. But the race car was there. They showed us the drivers. Pippo Durrani, you got to be into racing to know who these people are. I love these people. They're great drivers. It's very exciting. And they brought a concept for an off-road vehicle, which I don't know if that's going to be production. But then switching over to Kia, they had the EB4 hatchback, which looks like a wagon. And it's great, nice and bright colors. I thought they did a really nice job with that. And they bring in nightfall editions and a lot of new products from literally almost every brand that showed there. Volkswagen is going to have brand there as well. Yeah. So they always have these fancy cars, futuristic, some even. So what were some of the innovations that were really impressive to you? Well, I think it's a lot of technology, not just trying to figure out how to utilize electric vehicles that don't work for every single application. So they're going to put range extenders on. You're going to see different propulsions. And a lot of this, you know, with hydrogen, we don't have infrastructure much like that of electric. It's going to take time. So we're seeing a lot of hybrid technology, allowing people to have both gas and electric. And what about fully electric vehicles? Any innovations there? More range. Lucid was there with Gravity, which is their SUV. And no one can get 500 miles on a charge. And I think that's the number that it would take for consumers to say, yes, I'll consider this. But at this point, we have charging anxiety. We have range anxiety. So we're still seeing a lot of product coming our way. But now that the mandate is being pulled away by President Trump, I think you're going to see a lot of mixture of choices. Yes. Speaking of which, of course, we can't talk about the auto show without talking about Trump's tariffs recently on the auto industry. What has been the impact or the forecasted impact with these tariffs? Well, I think some brands are going to absorb some of it. But I think what's the confusion is the mainstream media is saying, oh, they're going to raise the prices like if the car is ten thousand dollars, it's something going to be 25 percent of that. That's not how this works. They take the components and those components of their cost that are made outside the U.S. will have the tariff. And then once it finally gets to the middleman and it gets to the final end user, you might see between a three and six thousand dollar price increase. Some won't have any. Others like Ferrari, they're going up 10 percent. I don't think that's going to impact their sales. And Porsche is going to increase their prices by 7 percent. And again, I don't think that's going to impact their sales whatsoever. So you mentioned some companies perhaps may absorb the cost. Right. What are some other strategies that automakers may be using? Maybe strategies, sales incentives, maybe in response to these tariffs? Oh, there's definitely incentives to get product off the lot. Just so everyone knows, there's three million cars that are on the ground that are no tariff that are coming from lots of different manufacturers that have been built and they're sitting in lots waiting to be delivered to dealers. So the manufacturer has the window sticker. That window sticker tells you where the vehicle is built, where it's finally assembled and where it's finally assembled in the components. And it's important to note that those cars should not be tariffed. And if you go to a dealer lot and it says a line for auto tariff, you don't want to buy from that deal. That's just not good business because they're not being tariffed for those cars. We don't know what the final numbers are going to be until President Trump makes a deal with every single country. And once that we're like one hundred and thirty people of countries have come to him so far, then we'll know what the increase is. It may not be anything. That's we don't know. And so I always tell people the cars that are on what they call landed already here prior to the April 2nd. Those cars should not be tariffed. But are you concerned at all? Is there any level of concern in your mind when it comes to the car market, perhaps car sales going down due to these car sales are pretty hot right now because everyone's trying to get those cars that aren't going to be tariffed. But also we know that smaller companies here in the U.S. are getting approached to build product here. One of them, for example, is like you're seeing tire manufacturers. They might have built them in another country. They're going to build them here. You're going to see driveline components built here because only 19 percent of engines and transmissions are currently made here in the U.S. And that's what President Trump's trying to bring back. Companies like Stellantis, which is a Jeep Ram Dodge, they're already saying we're going to bring jobs back. They're planning to move all the jobs to Mexico. Honda is going to bring jobs back from Canada. So we're only about 60 percent production capable right now and we have 40 percent available to expand. So I think you're going to see more jobs coming back, a lot of them. Of course, one purpose of these tariffs, Trump says, is to bring back manufacturing into the U.S., bring jobs back. How long do you think it will take for companies to ship their manufacturing domestically? Well, that's going to take time because when you it's not just it's not just, oh, let's move the car here. You've got all the tooling, all the production line. You have to hire employees, you have to train those employees. So you might be talking as early as six months, but then down the road a year from now, they should be up and running. Is it a good time to buy a car right now? Absolutely. Now is a good time to buy a car. There are incentives. They know car sales are up for this month. They're going to continue to grow. And if you don't find a good deal at the lot that you like, go to another one because they're going to want your business. How are prices compared now to a year ago? Well, prices are still pretty strong. That's the whole thing. So prices went up because of the chip shortage and they never went down. And used car prices have gone up as well. And they're getting stronger because people are realizing, well, that car I wanted, it's going to have a tariff on it because I want to order something special. Maybe I'll just look for a certified pre-owned car and then they get a better deal. OK, so what's your recommendation then? Should you go to the used car market or should you buy new? Well, if you want to lease something, you have to go to the new car market. If you're looking for a vehicle that that is not a lease, you want to purchase it. Maybe you drive under 10,000 miles a year or over 15,000 miles a year. Then you're going to want to look to purchase. I always suggest certified pre-owned from the brand. It's a Honda. You go to a Honda dealer. You want a Ford? Go to a Ford dealer. The reason you do that is they're going to give you the longer warranty and transfer that warranty to you. So what's what should people look for when buying a used car? Any tips there? Well, yes. If you're looking at a certified pre-owned, like I said, brand to brand is the way to go. But if you're saying I'm going to use car lot, I'm looking on Craigslist or Facebook market or eBay, that's when I tell people you want to take that vehicle to an ASC certified technician, have them go through it. There are a lot of flood damage cars out there, over 650,000 of them in the market. And if you get them, there's no warranty at all. So why? Because water damages computers. We all know that. We've all seen water on a computer. Well, that's done. So this is the problem. Once a car is flooded, there's no warranty for rust through protection emissions or anything. So make sure you don't buy a car that's either been in a bad accident or been flood damaged. Okay. Those are some of the red flags, but can you give us a little bit more? Because I'm always concerned when I buy a used car that is going to break down, like in a year or something. Yeah. So that's why you take it to an ASC certified technician. It's probably going to cost you about $150. And what you're going to say is I need a green, yellow, red, green. Is the car great? Yellow. What am I going to need down the road? What's an expense I should know coming my way, whether it be exhaust system or brakes or whatever. And red. Hey, this is the car you walk away from. And I think a lot of people want to know this. How do you avoid overpaying for a car? Well, that's cross shopping. Just like you would, if you were going to buy a house, you're going to shop around. You were going to buy, put a new roof on your home or windows. You're going to shop around. And the same thing is true when it comes to a car. If you find a car you like, it has to be red. I want a red Toyota Camry. Well, that's great. Then what you want to do is check with all the dealers online and it's best to buy local, but don't be afraid to get online. I've purchased cars all over the country and you do your homework and you can pick them up and drive them or they'll even deliver them to you. Do you have any financing strategies for us? Absolutely. Always ask the dealer what kind of deal they have, because they're always having a deal going with the bank, but your community savings bank will have it. And also shop around because if you've got a relationship with a community savings bank or through your business, there's a lot of things you can use to save money. Shop online as well. Get the best rate. Your thoughts on getting an EV right now? Well, if you want an electric vehicle, there's some great deals on electric vehicles, but you should be aware that $7,500 tax credit is disappearing and some states don't have money left in their funds like California, Illinois, New Jersey, there's no funds left. So they can't they were matching an additional $2,000. So that's gone. And remember, it's a tax credit. You're not getting a check. It's not the price off the bottom line. And that means if you own $10,000 in taxes and you have a $7,500 tax credit, then you only owe $2,500. But if you have $5,000 in taxes, the rest of it goes away. So it's a tax credit. And that's, I think people don't realize it's not a check. I wish it was a check. That'd be fantastic. Well, Lauren, I think that's our time today. Again, thank you very much for coming here. It's always great to speak with you and in person. Yes. Word change. Yes. Thank you. Now there's always uncertainty and risk when it comes to investing. Lately, many have probably felt even more uneasy about putting their money in the market. Experts have taken a look back to see how this could all play out. Here's more. The stock market has been hammered recently as investors ebb and flow with daily, if not hourly, changes to global trade policy. While there is certainly uncertainty right now, experts at The Motley Fool are making the argument that it's a good time to buy. Here's why. History has a way of repeating itself. Looking back, investing during downturns tends to yield positive results. That's the same argument being made by another expert who looked at buying the S&P 500 historically when it was down 15 percent. He found that average returns were strong. The harder question to answer is what should someone invest in right now? The Motley Fool laid out two options. For those who are growth oriented, buying the dip of the magnificent seven could be prosperous in the long run. For more insulated opportunities, they recommend spreading capital across exchange traded funds that track the major indexes. In the end, the key takeaway from the experts is that investing during periods of uncertainty tends to be a good strategy in the long run. DEI is back in the spotlight as 15 state attorneys general take aim at the controversial workplace policies led by Missouri's Andrew Bailey. The group sent a letter yesterday urging top corporate leaders to drop their DEI programs. They called their initiatives divisive and unlawful in a six-page document addressed to the Business Roundtable. The group represents CEOs from major U.S. companies including JPMorgan Chase, Kaiser Permanente, Apple, and Pfizer. The letter signed by attorneys general from states like Florida, Ohio, and Indiana argues that many corporations are embracing DEI policies that attorneys general see as problematic. ATMs were paying out like slot machines in a so-called infinite money glitch that went viral online. Now JPMorgan Chase is suing more customers who took advantage of the system error. How it worked was customers were able to deposit checks and immediately withdraw funds even if those checks later bounced. A report shows the bank is now going after customers who made off with less than $75,000. The bank already filed the case against customers who pocketed six figures in cash. Lawmakers digging into details on changes to tax rates with several tax cuts on the table. Some Senate Republicans are floating tax hikes for the wealthiest. Others say it's not an option. NTD's Melina Wisecup has more. Republican lawmakers are getting down into the details and crafting their massive budget bill. Tax rates are a major part of the discussion. The hard work of ensuring that there isn't a four trillion dollar taxing increase on the American people at the end of the year. President Trump has promised to eliminate taxes on tips, overtime, and social security, leaving the question of how the costs will be offset. This week a Democrat congressman representing Silicon Valley said Congress should tax his constituents more. And when the guy who represents more billionaires than any person in the world is saying tax them more, how this is a hard vote for the other 434 members of Congress. If we were to get rid of the tax giveaways for the billionaires and the very rich and at the same rates that we had in the 1990s, a time of high economic growth in this country, we would raise five trillion dollars just by doing that. Contrary to traditional party opinions, some top Senate Republicans are expressing openness to higher taxes on the wealthy. To discuss is raising from 37 to 39.6 on the very group of people you talk about. Now that doesn't make, that doesn't mean it's going to happen. Republicans plan to renew Trump's 2017 tax cuts, but could give it some tweaks. Meanwhile, other Republicans are firmly rejecting the idea. The House Speaker saying he prefers cuts across the board. I'm not a big fan of doing that. I mean, we're the Republican Party and we're for tax reduction for everyone. I wouldn't put any money on any of that yet. Just, I guess everybody, I would say just stay tuned. The next five to six weeks are going to be critical. As for the corporate tax rate, President Trump is undecided. Does the president support raising the corporate tax rate to pay for all these other tax cuts he wants to see move through Congress? Look, I've seen this idea proposed. I've heard this idea discussed, but I don't believe the president has made a determination on whether he supports it or not. Republicans are aiming for May to pass the massive budget bill. Reporting from Washington, D.C., Melina Weiskopf, NTV News. The after party is happening at Michael's. The craft store is filing a void left by Party City. It's filling that void, and the arts and craft chain announced that it's expanding its party supply selection, and this will include 300 new balloon options and hundreds of new products for celebrations from graduations to birthdays. Michael's reported that searches for party supplies on its website soared 155 percent since the new year. This comes after Party City filed for bankruptcy and closed all its stores in late February. Costco members know it all too well, the Costco effect, going in for a rotisserie chicken and walking out with a hot tub. Impulse buys are a vital part of Costco's business. Non-food sales account for about 25 percent of its total revenue, but Costco's CFO says shoppers have been more Even with inflation and tariff pressure, Costco will likely maintain its reputation for value. That's because Costco makes a substantial amount of money from subscribers and membership dues, so its average markup is 11 percent compared to 25 to 50 percent elsewhere. There's a new battleground for the tariff war. It's the slightly sketchy sales world of TikTok. It's become a prime time for Chinese suppliers to push what they say are high-end brands for low-end prices. But experts aren't buying yet, saying these are not normal tactics from luxury suppliers. NTT Charm Marshall has more. Why don't you just contact us and buy from us? You won't believe the prices we give you. You won't believe the price because experts say the bags in this TikTok video are most likely fake. Manufacturers of high-end brands usually sign a non-disclosure agreement and don't speak about which brands they supply. Chinese sellers on TikTok are taking full advantage of the current tariff uncertainty. Bag manufacturers like Wang Sen say they're offering luxury bags at surprisingly low prices. Do you recognize this style, this bag? Of course you do. For the past more than 30 years, we have been OEM factory for most of the luxury brands around the world. Gucci, Prada, Cooch, Louis Vuitton, you name it. The video has since been taken down by the app, but others are racing forward to the front lines of the tariff war. DHGate, an online store whose sellers have been known to offer Chinese knockoffs of luxury goods, has shot to the number two spot in the U.S. Apple App Store. Another app, Taobao, one of China's oldest e-commerce sites, is at number seven. In one video, an influencer who goes by the name LunasourcingChina says her company has two factories in Yiwu, a city famous for its wholesale market. She claims that activewear brand Lululemon sources its $98 leggings directly from them. I guess most of you know the price of Lululemon or other big brands. They sell you legging pants for $100. And guess what? Here in these two factories, you can get them for around five to six bucks. Crazy. Lululemon, however, has quickly denied those claims of cheaply priced versions of their products. In a statement Monday, Lululemon said it does not work with manufacturers identified in the online videos, and we urge consumers to be aware of potentially counterfeit products and misinformation. The two factories mentioned in the TikTok video aren't included in Lululemon's April 2025 supplier list. The company does work with a number of factories in China, but it also has suppliers in countries like Vietnam, Peru, and Cambodia. Experts warn that any factory offering direct orders to American consumers is probably not The Department of Agriculture is cutting a $3 billion climate-focused farming program. In yesterday's announcement, the agency said the program created too much red tape and delivered too little benefits to farmers. The department says the program often sent less than half of federal funds directly to farmers, while administrative costs ran high. Some individual projects could continue if the USDA determines the funds would directly support farmers. Agriculture Secretary Brook Rollins criticized the program, saying it prioritized NGOs over farmers' needs. The Biden-era program was expected to support 60,000 farms and supposedly reduce millions of metric tons of carbon emissions. The World Trade Organization cuts its growth forecast for 2025, comparing expected results to what was seen during the COVID lockdown. The World Trade Organization slashed its forecast for global merchandise trade from solid growth to a decline on Wednesday. It said U.S. tariffs and spillover effects could lead to the heaviest slump since the height of the COVID pandemic. WTO's Director General Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala. We project that global merchandise trade volumes will decline by 0.2 percent in 2025, nearly three percentage points below the level we would have expected without recent trade policy shifts. The WTO said its new estimate was based on measures in place at the start of this week. U.S. President Donald Trump imposed extra duties on steel and car imports, as well as more sweeping global tariffs. That was before unexpectedly pausing higher duties on a dozen economies. His trade war with China has also intensified, with tit-for-tat exchanges pushing levies on each other's imports beyond 100 percent. We currently estimate that merchandise trade between the two economies will fall by 81 percent, a drop that would have reached 91 percent without recent exemptions for products such as smartphones. So without the smartphones, 91 percent, with that exemption, 81. And this level of a drop in U.S.-China trade, of the magnitudes we are talking about, is virtually tantamount to a decoupling of the two economies. The WTO chief added that this trade disruption could increase Chinese merchandise exports across all regions outside North America by between four percent and nine percent. And other countries would have opportunities to fill the gap in the U.S. in sectors like textiles and clothing. The WTO said the services trade, though not subject to tariffs, would also take a hit. That was by weakening demand related to goods trade, such as transport and logistics. Broader uncertainty could dampen spending on travel and investment-related services. The WTO said it expected commercial services trade to grow by four percent in 2025 and 4.1 percent in 2026. That's well below baseline projections of 5.1 percent and 4.8 percent, respectively. The New Orleans Saints scored a legal victory in a case involving its logo. A man who says he is a descendant of the kings of France claimed he and his family own the intellectual property rights to the fleur-de-lis symbol. That's the three-petaled flower that the NFL franchise uses. A federal appeals court dismissed the man's claim this week. He says he will appeal. The Saints were granted a trademark to use a stylized fleur-de-lis symbol back in 1974. Okay, on to Wall Street today. Down sharply lower, as you can see here. The S&P 500 down over 120 points, around two percent here. The Dow down nearly 700 points, 1.7 percent. And the Nasdaq down 500 points, or three percent. And that's it on today's business matters.