The frontrunning of potential tariffs is currently in high gear but may fall off as soon as the end of January.
Additionally the dockworkers strike on the U.S. East Coast is far from resolved. Maersk and the other shipping lines, along with the port operators agreed to the $30/hour raise over six years but the more contentious issue, automating some longshoreman functions was only set aside as a favor to the Biden/Harris team ahead of the election and will be revisited in early January with the two sides as far apart as is possible short of all-out war on the docks.
From Bloomberg via gCaptain, December 4:
Sell recommendations on A.P. Moller – Maersk A/S shares are piling up as worries return about oversupply in the shipping market.
Morgan Stanley gave the Danish company its 10th sell-equivalent rating on Wednesday as it cut the stock to underweight from equalweight. Only two members of the Stoxx Europe 600 index — Polish video-game maker CD Projekt SA and Austrian power firm Verbund AG — had a higher tally of bearish ratings as of Dec. 3, data compiled by Bloomberg shows.
“Negative earnings risks make Maersk a value trap,” said Morgan Stanley analyst Cedar Ekblom and colleagues in a note. “We see container supply growth materially outpacing demand.”
Oversupply concerns have reemerged after a boost to shipping rates from attacks on Red Sea vessels by Houthi rebells faded. The sector has been left with excess capacity after it invested in fleets during disruption caused by Covid-19. Meanwhile, new tariffs pledged by US president elect Donald Trump are seen potentially curbing demand....
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If you are going into hunker-down mode ahead of the resumption of the strike the first affected products will be automobiles, beef and bananas:
The U.S. Bananapocalypse Is Nigh
The Longshoreman's Strike As An Example Of Greedflation (ILA)
I am all for private sector unions and have written favorably about them* but this guy leading the longshoreman union sounds a bit whack....And back in 2018:
"Where can you get paid $466K a year to wash trucks? Special deals, union clout at N.J. port"
Here's the President of the International Longshoreman's Association stating flat-out that he will cripple the U.S. economy (beginning at 15:06):
