Diversification is the name of the game
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Smartphones, green light. Pharmaceuticals and computer chips, yellow light.

I'm David Brancaccio in Los Angeles. The Trump administration is taking steps to put higher import taxes on medicines and semiconductor chips from other countries. The Commerce Department is examining whether it can do those tariffs in the name of national security. Meanwhile, South Korea just announced a major financial package for its chips industry, more than $23 billion.

Some of this would help compensate for higher U.S. tariffs. Seoul and Washington are due to begin negotiations on their respective tariffs next week. The BBC's Jean McKenzie reports from South Korea. South Korea is one of the world's leading chip makers, and many of its semiconductors go straight to the U.S.,

Today, the government said it would increase the amount of money it gives its major companies, like Samsung, to help them weather the uncertainty caused by this US administration. Seoul's economy relies heavily on exports, especially of chips and cars, two industries which stand to be hit hard by tariffs.

The government is also rushing to prop up its carmakers. Though overnight, Mr. Trump suggested he might temporarily pause tariffs on cars. This caused stocks in Seoul's leading car company Hyundai to surge by 4%. So Hyundai but also Mercedes and VW stocks are up more than 2% right now. Yesterday Ford closed up 4%, GM up 3.5% although those were droopy this morning.

Marketplace's Samantha Fields has more on the hints of a reprieve, at least for now, on higher import duties for cars, trucks and parts.

Trump has not officially paused tariffs on imported cars, but he said yesterday that American auto manufacturers need a little bit of time to transition their supply chains and start making more cars and car parts in the U.S., and that he's looking at something to help them. Trump's 25 percent tariff on cars has been in place since April 3rd. Starting in early May, imported auto parts are set to be taxed, too, with some exceptions for parts made in Canada and Mexico.

Currently, no cars are fully made in the United States, which means most are subject to tariffs. Analysts say that will likely raise car prices in the U.S. by anywhere from $2,000 to over $12,000 in the near future. But that's only if Trump's tariffs remain in place, which right now is up in the air.

I'm Samantha Fields for Marketplace. Stock market is now open and the Dow is up 219 points, five-tenths percent. The S&P and the NASDAQ are each up seven-tenths percent. The International Energy Agency is worried about a global economic downturn given tariffs and has cut its forecast for crude oil consumption by 30 percent. Downturn means less oil required. The price of crude remains low today, less than $62 a barrel.

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So far, it's been a gently up morning for stocks, but any moment now for those lucky enough to have savings. Statements will come in for retirement or brokerage accounts for January to March, a quarter where the S&P fell 4.6 percent. The Nasdaq was down 10 percent and the Dow fell 9 percent, and that's before the tariff tumult.

That came a few days after that quarter ended. Let's check in with a Texas business and markets analyst who's a longtime friend of our program here, David Johnson in Dallas. Hi, old friend.

Hello, Dave. You know, you never call when the market's up. You never go, we wanted to go to Dow's. We want to check in with Johnson because the Dow's up 2,000 points. I know, but we do need someone of your seasoned skill to help us through this. First of all, you're a bit like me, right? We have to talk to a lot of captains of industry in our line of work. I think you do it daily. What are you hearing about how to plan in this environment? Yeah.

They can't. You can't do it. And it's been that way since before the imposition of the tariffs. Well, we'll wait and see. But if you have these big capital spending plans, you just put them on hold. So it started with the bankers. I was talking to bankers. They said, well, we've seen low-end demand kind of back off because they really are kind of postponing making commitments. And then you talk to them themselves. They said, well, we've kind of put that on hold for the time being to win. I said, well, I don't.

All right. But what if one is not a professional but worried about their retirement savings or their nest egg at their brokerage account? I mean, there's a readout on stock market volatility. It's called the VIX index out of Chicago. I know you follow it. You know, it used to run 13, 15, 18 on their crazy little scale. The VIX hit 52 last week. I mean, that's like pandemic lockdown level. Well, actually, it was 53. But who's counting? Who pays attention to such things?

But it's true. I mean, that's that's it. And again, it's a reflection of that. Now, I mean, for your own investments, I mean, you don't just sit back benignly. We've learned that you don't just buy some good stuff and put on a shelf and and forget about it, because otherwise you'd have a shelf full of, you know, Montgomery Wards and Pan Am and Sears and a bunch of stuff like that.

It needs to be dynamic. But look, people know the work that you do. They know that you're following this very closely. And I'm sure they're calling you saying, I cannot sleep at night because of all this toing and froing in these portfolios. What do you tell them?

Everybody's different because, you know, how old are you? Are you employed? You know, what's the likelihood of you not being employed? Are you going to get laid off? Have you got kids that are going to go to school? What's kind of a mortgage have you got? What are the demands? So everybody needs to have cash reserves. You can't be completely committed to the marketplace, whether it's stocks or bonds or whatever.

hedge funds or anything else all at once. You need to have some sort of cash reserves. And for some people, that may be a year's worth of cash.

But you need to have that. You need to be diversified. You don't need to put all your eggs in one basket and know owning NVIDIA and Google and Apple and Microsoft is not diversification. Long time business and markets analyst David Johnson. Dallas Folk will know his work on KRLD there. And back when dinosaurs ruled the earth, our KERA over the years. David, always good to catch up. Good to talk to you, my friend. Be well.

And our producers are Naomi Rainey, Craig Henderson, Elizabeth Hodson, Ariana Rosas, Alex Schroeder and Erica Soderstrom. Our senior producer is Meredith Gerritsen-Morby. In Los Angeles, I'm David Brancaccio. It's the Marketplace Morning Report from APM American Public Media. If there's one thing we know about social media, it's that misinformation is everywhere, especially when it comes to personal finance.

Financially Inclined from Marketplace is a podcast you can trust to help you get serious about your money so you can build a life you've always dreamed of. I'm the host, Janelia Espinal, and each week I ask experts important money questions, like how to negotiate job offers, how to choose a college that you can afford, and how to talk about money with friends and family. Listen to Financially Inclined wherever you get your podcasts.