Markets Rattled, But Trump Remains Resolute On Tariffs

For all of the advancements in modern fitness technology, one of the latest viral crazes is remarkably simple: a headband with a ball attached by a stretchy string.

Boxbollen has received endorsements from celebrities like Khloé Kardashian, Conor McGregor, Tom Brady and Snoop Dogg, a strategy that hasn’t been cheap—Boxbollen has reinvested as much as 50% of its revenue into its marketing. But it’s paid off: In 2024, the company posted $59.2 million in revenue, its best year yet.

“The question is sustainability,” a retail analyst told Forbes. “[A] $50 million business can grow into something larger, or it could fade away. … It’s hard to know what a $50 million business looks like a decade out.”

FIRST UP

President Donald Trump downplayed last week’s stock market drop in an interview Sunday with Fox News’ Maria Bartiromo, “There is a period of transition, because what we’re doing is very big.” Last week featured a dizzying amount of tariff news, and Trump on Friday said he might impose reciprocal tariffs on some Canadian goods, despite previously delaying the 25% levies on Canadian and Mexican goods for a month.

MORE: The uncertainty of tariffs weighed on markets, as the S&P 500 recorded its worst weekly loss since September, declining 3.1%. More than $3 trillion in market value has been wiped out from the S&P from its February 19 all-time high, according to FactSet data.

Mark Carney will replace Justin Trudeau as Canada’s prime minister, and was critical of President Donald Trump in his victory speech on Sunday night. Carney, an economist who previously served as the governor of both Canada and England’s central banks, won with nearly 86% of the Canadian Liberal Party’s leadership vote, and vowed to keep retaliatory tariffs in place “until the Americans show us respect.”

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BUSINESS + FINANCE

Cracks are starting to show in the labor market, as fewer jobs were added than expected last month, according to the Labor Department. The unemployment rate was 4.1% in February, and government jobs fell by about 10,000, though the March report is more likely to be impacted by DOGE’s cost-cutting efforts due to the timing of the February survey.

William Lansing took over as CEO of credit scoring company FICO in 2012, when the business was still recovering from the financial crisis. In 13 years, he’s made a bundle for long-term shareholders and himself an almost-billionaire, largely by pushing through margin fattening price increases. The once secretive analytics company has become a consumer brand that anyone looking to finance a car or home obsesses over.

TECH + INNOVATION ​​

Elon Musk claims Tesla is not an electric car maker, but rather an AI company that can become the most valuable in the world—thanks to the data it collects from its cars. In theory, it could help train vehicles to operate without human assistance, but that data isn’t necessarily as helpful as Musk claims: Training AI on videos of people driving down highways doesn’t do much to help the AI learn how to handle the most critical edge cases that cause collisions or other dangerous scenarios.

Federal investigators suspect that hackers of password manager LastPass caused one victim to lose XRP cryptocurrency that is now worth some $716 million, due to a massive spike in crypto values following the election of President Donald Trump. It’s already been a big year for massive crypto thefts, after hackers stole $1.5 billion from the ByBit exchange in February, in what was dubbed the biggest crypto heist in history.

MONEY + POLITICS

Donald Trump Jr., Eric Trump and other insiders at Dominari Holdings, a Nasdaq-listed wealth management firm, acquired 1 million company shares through a private placement and bonuses—the day before it was announced that the Trump brothers would join its advisory board. The timing probably does not violate insider trading laws, experts told Forbes, but raises questions about whether directors acted in the company’s best interests by selling the shares cheaply to themselves.

Senator Elizabeth Warren on Friday sent a letter to President Donald Trump’s crypto and AI czar David Sacks raising concerns about potential conflicts of interest and asked him to make his financial disclosures with the government public, days after Trump announced the creation of an American crypto strategic reserve. In her letter, Warren asked how Sacks intends to prevent “the President and other private individuals from directly profiting off of the Trump Administration’s efforts to selectively pump the value of certain crypto assets.”

The latest casualty of DOGE’s work is Notify.gov, a federal system designed to send mass texts to the public, and it’s in imminent danger of shutting down, according to publicly-available proposed changes to its website. The tool is used by governments at all levels to send out important warnings and reminders to citizens, but sources tell Forbes most of the team that manages it have been “fired, transferred, or have resigned.”

SCIENCE + HEALTHCARE

The CDC is planning to study potential connections between vaccines and autism, a link that has been pushed controversially by Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Kennedy was among the most well-known public figures spreading the long-debunked theory for years, and health experts have widely condemned his stance.

MORE: Health officials in Maryland reported a positive measles case in a resident who had traveled internationally last week, unrelated to outbreaks of the disease in Texas and New Mexico. Measles was announced as being eradicated in the U.S. in 2000, given the success of vaccines in eliminating the disease, though outbreaks of the virus have still popped up among the unvaccinated.

WORLD

President Donald Trump said Friday he is considering new “large-scale” sanctions and tariffs on Russia to compel an end the Russia-Ukraine war, but hours later, he said “it may be easier dealing with Russia” compared to Ukraine. The warnings contradict a Reuters report earlier last week that the White House was considering easing sanctions against Russia to improve relations as it works to negotiate a ceasefire and permanent end to the conflict.

DAILY COVER STORY

How Kettle & Fire Turned Bone Broth Into A $100 Million Business

TOPLINE Kettle & Fire cofounder Justin Mares’ quest to sell what he considers healthier food to some of the most health-obsessed customers on the planet has fueled his bone broth brand for nearly a decade.

Kettle & Fire has also spent the past nine years pioneering a return to what the soup and stock aisles used to look like—products filled with fortifying natural ingredients. It’s no longer a niche product: Cartons of Kettle & Fire are now sold at 22,000 stores nationwide, from Whole Foods to Walmart and Target, as well on its own website and at Amazon, Walmart.com, Thrive Market and more. Kettle & Fire has some of the highest repeat purchasing rates across grocery store soup aisles industry-wide, and the brand has brought in new customers to a once-sleepy category.

Despite its growth, Mares wants the company to remain private, for now, and keep growing on his own terms. To that end, he and his brother bought out their early backers at the end of last year with the help of independent board member Sam McBride, who founded the Chicago-based Colter Ventures. McBride raised additional funds from new investors, which valued Kettle & Fire at an estimated $200 million, or roughly double its revenue.

With that kind of momentum behind Mares, he is now emboldened to scale up his business and begin selling what he deems as healthier food on a mass scale. “I have a vision much more than an investor does around what the food system should look like,” he says. “With what I want to build in the world, it’s much easier to realize your vision if you have more control.”

WHY IT MATTERS Kettle & Fire cooks its products for 14 to 20 hours and sources grassfed beef with a strict set of standards to ensure high levels of collagen, amino acids, and vitamins and minerals. Mares and his team also remove the kinds of additives and ingredients like seed oils targeted by Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. and the Make America Healthy Again crowd. Kennedy has touted the benefits of bone broth on social media, and podcaster Joe Rogan, who has extolled the benefits of the carnivore diet for years, is also a big fan of bone broth.

MORE Inside The Food Industry’s Biggest Buyback Of 2024

FACTS + COMMENTS

Retailers shed among the most jobs of any private-sector industry last month, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. But that could be just the tip of the iceberg:

6,300: The number of jobs the retail industry lost in February, second only to food services and drinking establishments, which lost 27,500 positions

19,000: The number of jobs cost from the bankruptcy of crafts retailer Joann, and another 16,000 jobs were lost from Party City

Up to 15,000: The number of stores that retailers are expected to close this year, more than double the amount that closed in 2024

STRATEGY + SUCCESS

With all the talk of tariffs, layoffs and more, economic uncertainty is bound to cause stress. Focus on the things you can control: For instance, come up with a Plan B, like a side hustle to earn extra income. Exercise self-care and immerse yourself in the things that bring you joy, and don’t leave your financial situation up to chance—keep track of the money coming in and out. And remember that the unknown can have positive outcomes, too.

VIDEO

QUIZ

A pop star who rose to fame in 2008 released a new album last week, which soared to the top of the charts. Who is it?

A. Rihanna

B. Taylor Swift

C. Lady Gaga

D. Beyoncé

Check your answer.

Thanks for reading! This edition of Forbes Daily was edited by Sarah Whitmire and Chris Dobstaff.