- In today’s CEO Daily: Diane Brady on the war against WFH.
- The big story: Signs of economic slowdown in China and uncertainty in the U.S.
- The markets: Continued resilience in the West.
- Analyst notes from Panmure Liberum’s Joachim Klement on the possibility of capital controls in the U.S., Apollo on Friday’s jobs number, and Nomura on the tariff hit to China GDP.
- Plus: All the news and watercooler chat from Fortune.
Good morning. In the early days of the pandemic, it was a revelation to discover that many of the things we did in the office could be done from home. We collaborated, hired, fired, mentored, and found opportunities to connect virtually through check-ins and team activities like in-home scavenger hunts and wine tastings. (At least that was the experience for me.) Now, more than five years later, many leaders have tightened their work-from-home policies in the belief that remote work undercuts culture and productivity. The latest move comes from Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi, who sent a memo to employees this week saying they’ll have to spend three days in the office each week as of June. Companies like Spotify embrace remote work.
Every week, I get a barrage of conflicting studies: There was a Criteria report that found 35% of workers prefer to be fully remote. Nearly half were women, which its team touted as a reason for employers to worry about losing women workers; I thought it was newsworthy that more than half of respondents with that preference were men. Minutes later, I was pitched a new Headway survey that found one-quarter of remote workers surveyed said they clock off after four hours or less, take a nap during the work day, and have taken a day off without anyone noticing; 40% said they fake activities to trick their company tracking system.
The effectiveness of remote work clearly depends on one’s personality, job, life circumstances, and career stage. We’re back to five days a week in the office for most workers at Fortune but many of us spent significant chunks of time out of the office, too. I think it’s especially important for entry-level colleagues to get in-person collaboration and learning—which means the rest of us need to be here to do it. That said, we also need to be in physical environments that encourage the benefits of in-person work and we need to design workflows that make the commute feel worthwhile. Remember when Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella said his title stands for Chief Event Officer? Pizza aside, I do wonder if employers are doing enough to answer a key question: Why do we have to come here?
Most CEOs I meet lean towards getting people back into an office. Some have placed their WFH days in the middle of the week to reduce the temptation of taking a long weekend. What’s less common are the kinds of practices we saw five years ago: the mental-health check-ins and team-building activities that build loyalty and culture.
If you want to continue the conversation, join me at noon EST today for a live webinar with Accenture CEO Julie Sweet, Delta Air Lines CEO Ed Bastian and Michael C. Bush of Great Place to Work. Click here to register.
More news below.
Contact CEO Daily via Diane Brady at diane.brady@fortune.com
Top news
Bond investors unimpressed by White House meeting. Stephen Miran, chair of the Trump’s Council of Economic Advisers, met 15 executives from hedge funds and institutional investors (Citigroup, Citadel, and Blackrock among them) on Friday to talk about the president’s economic policies and it did not go well, according to the FT. Sources described Miran as “incoherent” and “out of his depth”. “When you’re with an audience that knows a lot, the talking points are taken apart pretty quickly,” one source said. Miran was the author of a 2024 paper that argued the world trade system should be rebalanced in favor of the U.S.
The Trump economy, 100 days later. The first 100 days of the new Trump Administration have had historic effects on the economy. Fortune reporters Ben Weiss and Irina Ivanova break down Trump 2.0’s effect on the markets in a series of charts here.
Amazon denies tariff pricing move attacked by Trump Administration. The Trump Administration slammed a Tuesday morning report claiming Amazon would display tariff-related price increases on its site as a “hostile and political move.” Shortly after, an Amazon spokesperson noted that such a change “was never approved and is not going to happen.”
CEOs are giving up on guidance. General Motors, JetBlue, Snap, and Volvo have dropped their earnings guidance because the tariff situation is too unpredictable. Stellantis, reporting earnings this morning, joined the club.
China stats indicate economic slowdown. New export orders fell in April to their lowest since Covid-19 and China’s purchasing managers’ index for manufacturing fell to 49, indicating a contraction in activity.
Christmas will be different this year. “Factories in China produce nearly 80 percent of all toys and 90 percent of Christmas goods sold in America,” the NYT reports. All of those goods are now stuck behind Trump’s wall of tariffs.
Goldman’s Solomon sees markets settling. Goldman Sachs CEO David Solomon said he thinks markets will “settle down” after tariff-induced uncertainty. Dealmaking will rebound as well, Solomon predicts, given the Trump Administration’s deregulation agenda.
Putin wants more Ukrainian land as the price for peace. Trump envoy Steve Witkoff would rather Russia stay where it is.
The markets
- Western markets have been resilient over the last 18 hours but Chinese stocks sunk on data showing a slowdown in economic activity driven by the U.S. tariff barrier. The S&P 500 was up 0.58% yesterday, its sixth straight day of gains. (It remains down 5.45% YTD.) Futures contracts on the index were down 0.15% this morning. China’s SSE was down 0.23%. Japan’s Topix was up 0.63%. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng was up 0.51%. India’s Nifty 50 was flat. The Stoxx Europe 600 was up 0.32% in early trading.
From the analysts:
- Panmure Liberum on the possibility of capital controls in the U.S.: “If the current situation is resolved via … reverting to most of the tariffs announced on April 2, the minor impairment we have seen in U.S. Treasuries could worsen rapidly as international investors rush to the exit. In this case, the capital flight could become so destabilising that the administration would seek to stem the flow by using a tool typically associated with emerging markets: capital controls,” per Joachim Klement.
- Apollo on Friday’s jobs number: “The consensus expects 130K jobs created in April. There are significant risks the number is going to be lower, perhaps even negative,” per Tortsen Sløk.
- Nomura on the tariff hit to China GDP: “We estimate ~2.2% of China’s GDP is directly hit by the tariffs. Assuming a 50% loss of exports to the US, China might lose ~1.1% of GDP in the near term. The actual loss will be larger as the shock ripples through to other sectors, especially the services sectors that facilitate merchandise exports,” per Ting Lu et al.
Around the watercooler
The GOP’s proposed cuts to FEMA and Medicaid reveal the paradox of red state dependence by Jeffrey Sonnenfeld and Stephen Enriques
Perplexity CEO shares the Elon Musk-inspired mantra that helped him build the $9 billion rival to OpenAI by Preston Fore
Customs warehouses are booming as U.S. businesses turn to a ‘hope and prayer’ strategy of waiting out the tariff war by Sheryl Estrada
A record number of Americans are only making their minimum credit card payment by Greg McKenna
A failed takeover bid by Global 500 insurer Allianz is now a political hot potato in Singapore’s election by Lionel Lim
CEO Daily is compiled and edited by Joey Abrams and Jim Edwards.
