Good morning, CFOs. The Trump administration considers slashing China tariffs; Boeing may stop making jets for China; plus, tariffs triggered an acceleration in consumers at AT&T.

Exclusive: The Trump administration is considering slashing its steep tariffs on Chinese imports—in some cases by more than half—in a bid to de-escalate tensions with Beijing that have roiled global trade and investment, according to people familiar with the matter.

President Trump hasn’t made a final determination, the people said, adding that the discussions remain fluid and several options are on the table. One administration official said Trump wouldn’t act unilaterally and would need to see some action from Beijing to lower tariffs.

One senior White House official said the China tariffs were likely to come down to between roughly 50% and 65%. The administration is also considering a tiered approach similar to the one proposed by the House committee on China late last year: 35% levies for items the U.S. deems not a threat to national security, and at least 100% for items deemed as strategic to America’s interest, some of the people said. The bill proposed phasing in those levies over five years.

“President Trump has been clear: China needs to make a deal with the United States of America. When decisions on tariffs are made, they will come directly from the president. Anything else is just pure speculation,” White House spokesman Kush Desai said.

Later on Wednesday, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told reporters that Trump hasn’t offered to take down U.S. tariffs on China on a unilateral basis, Bloomberg News reported.

Trump said Tuesday that he was willing to cut tariffs on Chinese goods and that the 145% tariffs he imposed on China during his second term would come down. “But it won’t be zero,” he said. The development was welcome news to investors who had been spooked by the White House’s aggressive moves in recent weeks.

• China Bets Trump Will Back Down on Tariffs
• Trump Tariffs Show Mixed Impact on Big Economies
• Trump Meets His Match: The Markets
• Markets Think They Hold All the Cards Over Trump
• Despite Trump’s Apparent U-Turn, Drawn-Out Capital Flight Could Still Hit U.S. Markets

📆 Earnings

• American Airlines
• Harley-Davidson
• Hasbro
• Intel
• PepsiCo
• Procter & Gamble

📈 Economic Indicators

The National Association of Realtors publishes data on existing-home sales for March.

The Fed publishes its Beige Book report, which compiles anecdotes about current economic conditions from key business contacts, economists, market experts, and other sources in each of its districts.

This was the quarter Boeing was waiting for. Then came President Trump’s trade war.

The jet maker wanted to highlight financial results from its latest quarter showing that the company is emerging from its yearslong financial crisis. Instead, Chief Executive Kelly Ortberg spent much of the morning Wednesday talking about a pair of Boeing jets returned by China and issuing reassurances that tariff wars won’t derail the company’s turnaround.

In exchanges on CNBC and on a conference call with analysts, Ortberg said that Boeing would stop making jets for China if airlines won’t take the planes and that Boeing could find other buyers for jets rejected by China. He said Chinese airlines returned the planes because of high tariffs resulting from the U.S.-China trade war.

• Boeing Leans on Backlog, Looks for Alternatives to China Trade

• AT&T logged higher profit and revenue in the first quarter, boosted in part by an increase in acquired customers and a spur of upgrades in response to tariffs.
• Kering posted lower sales that undershot analysts’ forecasts for the first quarter, as a slowdown in luxury-goods spending continues to plague an industry that is now up against heightened uncertainty from President Trump’s tariffs.

📰 Other headlines

• IBM Set to Benefit from Focus on AI, Automation as Clients Seek Efficiency in Uncertain Economy, CFO Says
• Southwest Airlines Drops Forecast as Leisure Travelers Pull Back
• Whirlpool Sales Slide as Tariff Fears Hit Results
• Ray-Ban Maker EssilorLuxottica to Implement Measures to Mitigate U.S. Tariffs
• Adidas Posts Better-Than-Expected Results Despite Tariff Threat
• The Morgan Stanley Star Now Leading Trump’s Invest-in-America Push

Boston Scientific, the Marlborough, Mass.-based medical-technology company, named Jon Monson, senior vice president of investor relations, as executive vice president and CFO, effective June 30. He succeeds Dan Brennan, who is retiring after nearly three decades with the company. Brennan will stay on as a senior adviser through early October. Monson joined Boston Scientific in 1999 and has been in his current post since last March.

—Colin Kellaher contributed to today’s Ledger.

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