Wall Street is beginning to focus on the issue of tariffs as worries about inflation return.

Since the US presidential election, companies in the S&P 500 Index have been treating tariffs as a key policy issue when discussing performance with analysts. According to analysis by RBC Capital Markets, investors are closely watching the potential impact of the Trump administration's global trade policy on the stock market. Lori Calvasina, US equity strategist at RBC Capital Markets, stated in a report on Monday, "The US stock market is finally starting to pay more attention to tariff issues." Her team of analysts studied the content of S&P 500 company earnings conference calls and found that "tariffs and trade policy are the most frequently mentioned issues." Calvasina noted that companies in most major industries mentioned tariff issues, especially in non-essential consumer goods, healthcare, industrial, and materials sectors. She pointed out that some companies mentioned being able to pass on tariff costs to consumers in the past, or being able to do so in the future, "which exacerbates our concerns about inflation returning." During Trump's previous term, the industrial sector was one of the industries most severely impacted. The report from RBC suggests that the current valuation of this sector is too high. Despite initially performing well after the November 5 election, the sector has seen a significant decline in recent days and is no longer one of the "best-performing sectors after the election." In recent earnings conference calls, many companies discussed their experiences dealing with tariffs imposed by the previous Trump administration on China, and how they are adjusting their production and procurement strategies to address potential tariff changes in the future. However, Calvasina expressed concern about this. She pointed out that many companies only mentioned China, while ignoring other countries and regions that tariffs might involve. "When it comes to tariffs on goods from other countries, companies seem to have not given it enough consideration or discussion." Although the US stock market had a strong rebound after the election results were announced, all three major indices fell last Wednesday. According to Dow Jones market data, the S&P 500 index fell by 2.1% last week, reducing the cumulative gain in November to 2.9%. Calvasina said, "Over the past week, we are increasingly convinced that the S&P 500 index may have started a 5% to 10% correction." She added that the rapid rise in the 10-year US Treasury yield due to concerns about inflation and the US deficit is putting pressure on the market. As of Monday afternoon, the 10-year US Treasury yield has been trending upwards this month and this quarter, with the latest data at 4.43%. Meanwhile, most US stocks rose on Monday afternoon, with the S&P 500 index up by 0.4%, the Nasdaq Composite index up by 0.6%, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average down slightly by 0.1%. Among the 11 sectors of the S&P 500, except for the healthcare and industrial sectors which slightly declined, the rest of the sectors rose. The healthcare sector saw a significant decline over the weekend, as a result of Trump's nomination of Robert Kennedy as Secretary of Health and Human Services, which was negatively received by the market. Calvasina concluded that while many companies stated in recent earnings conference calls that it was still too early to assess the specific impact of the new government policies on their business, investors' concerns about the potential adverse impacts of Trump's policies are beginning to emerge early.