"Fresh food and perishables are almost like the canary in the coal mine," when energy prices go up, according to Vidya Mani, an associate professor at the University of Virginia's Darden School of Business.
"The people in the market are obviously going to be feeling like everyone else, very concerned," he said, pointing to the cumulative impact of rising business rates, tariffs and supply chain disruption.
Jet fuel tends to be an airline's biggest expense. An analysis by the International Air Transport Association showed that, for the week ending March 27, the weekly average price of jet fuel has skyrocketed 116.8 per cent compared to the previous year's average.
Mexico's equity market does not trade in isolation from Washington. The country's economic relationship with the United States, governed by the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA), is the single biggest external variable for EWW over the next 12 months. When trade flows are stable, Mexican exporters, industrials, and materials companies see reliable demand. When that relationship is stressed, the fund reacts quickly.
Sales are down nearly 70 percent at Jahn Engineering, a tool and die shop that serves automakers here and in the United States. Dozens of workers have been let go following decisions made in the White House. The Canadian auto industry has been rocked by President Donald Trump's abandonment of subsidies for electric vehicles and embrace of tariffs.
China has been flooding Latin American markets with low-priced exports, especially autos and e-commerce goods, as its exporters adjust to U.S. President Donald Trump's tariffs and geopolitical moves. The world's second-largest economy has become a major trading partner for many Latin American nations, seeking access to their abundant natural resources and growing markets while expanding its influence in a region Trump views as America's Backyard.
This literally could not be happening at a worse time. The conflict in the Middle East is choking global supplies of fertilizer right before the crucial spring planting season, affecting American farmers already squeezed for months by tariff wars and threatening the global supply chain of essential agricultural inputs.
Strong cattle prices, record beef demand, and renewed policy attention are giving the North American cattle sector reasons for optimism - but supply constraints and cross-border issues remain front and centre, says Colin Woodall, CEO of the National Cattlemen's Beef Association (NCBA). RealAgriculture's Shaun Haney was at CattleCon 2026 in Nashville, Tennessee, this week, to discuss the state of the cattle industry, trade relationships, and the policy challenges shaping the years ahead.
It was a rough week for the Canadian economy. GM laid off 500 workers at a plant in Oshawa, Ont. New threats from the White House targeted Canada's aerospace industry. And Statistics Canada announced its preliminary estimates show gross domestic product contracted in the fourth quarter of last year. Looming over all that bad news is a question about how much and how quickly Canada can realistically expect to diversify its exports.
