Market Beats | Trump Vows to Double Automobile Tariffs on Canadian Vehicles and Parts; Pricey Elite US Private Schools Rethink Strategy; FTC Reaches Settlement with Zillow and Redfin; TotalEnergies CEO Says Hormuz Oil Shipping Costs About $20 Million; Porsche Partners with TCS in €1.25 Billion AI Deal; Ukraine Systematically Targets Warehouses of Russia’s Ozon Marketplace; Trump Administration Seeks $100,000 H-1B Fee via Regulation

—— Trump Vows to Double Automobile Tariffs on Canadian Vehicles and Parts; Pricey Elite US Private Schools Rethink Strategy; FTC Reaches Settlement with Zillow and Redfin; TotalEnergies CEO Says Hormuz Oil Shipping Costs About $20 Million; Porsche Partners with TCS in €1.25 Billion AI Deal; Ukraine Systematically Targets Warehouses of Russia’s Ozon Marketplace; Trump Administration Seeks $100,000 H-1B Fee via Regulation

1. Trump Vows to Double Automobile Tariffs on Canadian Vehicles and Parts

US President Donald Trump pledged to double the automobile tariff on Canadian vehicles and parts starting next year, escalating the spiraling trade fight between the two economies.

Trump posted on Monday that “Tariffs on all Cars, Trucks, both large and small, Automotive Parts, and Steel” would rise to 50%, effective Jan. 1. The current auto rate is 25% but is applied only to non-US content. Imported steel already faces a 50% charge.

The latest tariff threat comes after negotiations between the US and Canada broke down Friday, which led to a 50% levy on billions of dollars worth of Canadian goods to take effect. Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney has announced a package of retaliatory duties. Following through on the auto tariffs could significantly disrupt a supply chain between the US and Canada that has become deeply integrated over the past few decades. Trump has previously pledged to tariff auto parts but had not yet proceeded with the logistically complicated task. It was not immediately clear how Trump would address the carve-out for US content in vehicles, which substantially affects the tariff rate. Levies on Canadian vehicles, in practice, are about half the headline rate because the vehicles are typically half US-made.

It is unclear if the new tariffs Trump announced Monday will be enacted. The Jan. 1 implementation sets up runway for potential negotiations, even as the Canadians see little chance of those resuming before the midterms. Carney is set to respond to the weekend tariffs with levies of his own on Sept. 8 and the US has threatened to escalate further if he does.

Monday’s threat was Trump’s most fulsome response yet since the sudden collapse of trade talks killed an emerging deal to head off the new levies and adjust existing ones. The two sides have blamed each other for the collapse of negotiations.

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2. Pricey Elite US Private Schools Rethink Strategy

It’s never been more expensive to attend one of America’s most elite private schools, where tuition averages almost $50,000 a year and can approach $80,000 for boarding — and that’s before class trips, the pressure to donate and other extras. Little surprise, then, that schools increasingly draw from two ends of the income spectrum: the ultrawealthy, who can pay full freight, and lower-income students receiving substantial aid.

Now that model is starting to crack. A declining population of school-age children is intensifying competition for students, while soaring tuition has made even affluent families balk at the price. So schools are starting to advertise what was once handled more quietly: discounts, cost-of-living adjustments, awards and flexible tuition. Private schools around the country accustomed to courting families rich enough to pay in full are increasingly making a pitch to those rich enough to pay something. And they’re also open to giving full rides for a wider range of families. Brearley, an all-girls day school in New York, in 2025 started offering free tuition for families earning $100,000 or less and a sliding scale extending to more than $200,000. At St. Stephen’s Episcopal School in Austin, 22% of last year’s financial assistance went to families earning more than $200,000.

And in 2024, Deerfield Academy in Massachusetts announced that families earning under $150,000 would pay no tuition, while others would pay no more than 10% of their income.

That fall, Caddie and Patrick, two Western Massachusetts teachers who earn less than $150,000 combined, joined their 14-year-old son on a tour through Deerfield’s leafy campus. It offers amenities that would make most parents and kids swoon, including a hockey rink, 15 squash courts, robotics facilities and a planetarium.

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3. FTC Reaches Settlement with Zillow and Redfin

The US Federal Trade Commission reached a settlement resolving its antitrust case against Zillow Group Inc. and Rocket Companies Inc.’s Redfin, the agency said.

Redfin will re-enter the market to independently sell online rental listings, an FTC lawyer told a judge in federal court in Virginia, where a trial had been scheduled to start Monday. The companies will also pay $2 million to reimburse state attorneys general who brought the case along with the agency, FTC lawyer Allyson Maltas said.

The FTC said in a statement that the order will restore competition in the online platforms that renters use to find apartments and property managers use to list rentals. Zillow said in a separate statement that the deal will allow its partnership with Redfin to continue. Redfin said that the settlement would allow it to continue syndicating Zillow’s listings while it reinvests in a stand-alone rental listings business.

The agency sued Zillow and Redfin last year, arguing a partnership between the companies on rental listings violated US antitrust law. A trial in the case had been scheduled to begin Monday morning.

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4. TotalEnergies CEO Says Hormuz Oil Shipping Costs About $20 Million

The cost of shipping oil cargoes on a supertanker through the Strait of Hormuz is about $20 million, the boss of TotalEnergies SE said, underscoring the wide margins to be made by traders and shipowners.

TotalEnergies Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Patrick Pouyanne said the company is buying barrels at $50 to $60 inside the Persian Gulf as producers are desperate to get their supplies onto the market following six months of conflict. The additional freight costs for a supertanker equate to about $10 a barrel, he said. Benchmark Brent futures were trading above $90 on Monday. The French energy giant is one of the largest traders of oil from Iraq and Qatar, two countries that have continued to move barrels through Hormuz in recent weeks, Pouyanne added.

A growing number of producers have been ferrying cargoes through the critical waterway, which before the Iran war carried about a fifth of the world’s oil flows. Those volumes have helped prevent a surge in global prices beyond $100 a barrel, but also offer lucrative trading opportunities for shipowners and middlemen.

While some shipments sail directly to refineries around the world, many are loaded onto ships in the Gulf of Oman, before being taken to their eventual destinations.

Pouyanne said that there’s a split between crude oil markets, which look bearish — in part thanks to flows through Hormuz — and fuel markets that remain tight. Prices of products like gasoline and diesel have rallied due to Ukrainian attacks on Russian refineries and the fact that crude dominates Hormuz shipments.

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5. Porsche Partners with TCS in €1.25 Billion AI Deal

Porsche AG has partnered with Tata Consultancy Services Ltd. (TCS) for deploying artificial intelligence in a €1.25 billion ($1.5 billion) deal, while agreeing to sell its consulting unit to the Indian software services company.

The five-year partnership aims to enable AI across Porsche’s engineering, manufacturing, operations and customer experience functions, as well as advance software-defined mobility platforms, according to a statement by TCS on Monday. Under the broader deal, the Indian technology firm will also buy the sports carmaker’s Germany-based consulting unit, MHP Management- und IT-Beratung GmbH, for an enterprise value of €320 million ($373 million).

Porsche sold MHP as part of its strategy to focus on its core sports car business (under its “Sportwagenschmiede 35” framework), the TCS statement quoted the automaker’s CEO, Michael Leiters, as saying. Following the transaction, MHP will retain its brand and continue operating as an independent consultancy within TCS. The acquisition is expected to be completed within three to four months, subject to regulatory and competition law approvals.

The partnership and acquisition will give TCS a stronger foothold in Europe, positioning the firm as a premier consulting and technology partner for broader automotive and industrial customers across the region.

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6. Ukraine Systematically Targets Warehouses of Russia’s Ozon Marketplace

Ukraine has begun systematically targeting the warehouses of Russia’s second-largest online marketplace, Ozon, after weeks of drone strikes against market leader Wildberries.

Ozon said on Monday that a logistics centre in Krasnodar was set ablaze by a drone after four of its warehouses in southern Russia had come under attack over the weekend, with fires breaking out at least two of the sites.

“A logistics centre in the suburbs of Krasnodar came under attack by a UAV . . . A major fire has broken out, and emergency services are on the scene. Operations at the warehouse have been suspended,” the company said.

Over the weekend, Ozon reported fires at its warehouse in Makhachkala, the capital of Dagestan, while two other sites, in Adygeysk and Nevinnomyssk, were evacuated after drone attack warnings. The company said the facilities and goods at the latter sites remained intact.

The incidents followed strikes on Saturday on Ozon facilities in the central Russian region of Samara and in nearby Orenburg.

The attacks mark a new stage in Ukraine’s campaign against Russian ecommerce logistics, after weeks of drone strikes on facilities belonging to Wildberries, the market leader known as “Russia’s Amazon”.

“After Ukrainian forces hit Wildberries’ 15 largest logistics hubs, it is Ozon’s turn,” Ukraine’s defence ministry said on Saturday.

Robert Brovdi, commander of Ukraine’s Unmanned Systems Forces, said drones had hit 66 targets across Russia and Russian-controlled regions overnight into Monday. His statement on social media included a definition of “ozone” — an apparent reference to the strikes on Ozon warehouses.

Russia’s defence ministry said on Monday its air defences had shot down almost 1,000 Ukrainian drones over the previous 24 hours.

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7. Trump Administration Seeks $100,000 H-1B Fee via Regulation

Former senior Bank of America Corp. investment banker Jason Satsky was accused by the US Securities and Exchange Commission of providing an insider-trading tip to a friend who allegedly made $18.5 million in illegal profits.

Satsky, who was previously Bank of America’s head of energy and power infrastructure banking, was sued Friday by the SEC along with the friend, Gavin Wolfe. According to the SEC, Satsky tipped Wolfe off on an acquisition offer for South Jersey Industries Inc. during a November 2021 basketball game.

Between November and December 2021, Wolfe bought at least $53 million in stock and the pair continued to converse, the SEC said.

The SEC suit doesn’t name Bank of America as Satsky’s then-employer, but Bloomberg has previously reported that federal prosecutors were probing trades around the deal.

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