U.S. manufacturers are pulling back harder on orders of parts and raw materials because of rising uncertainty around the future of the Trump administration’s signature tariffs, a new survey shows.

The WSJ Logistics Report’s Paul Berger writes that buying activity in November among North American manufacturers hit its lowest level since May, as measured in a global poll of 27,000 businesses by supply-chain software and consulting company GEP and S&P Market Intelligence.

The slowdown comes as U.S. retailers and manufacturers await a Supreme Court ruling on the constitutionality of the administration’s so-called reciprocal tariffs. The North American findings from the survey contrast with companies in the rest of the world, where supply-chain activity is weak, but holding up better than in the U.S.

• Eli Lilly plans to build a $6 billion facility in Huntsville, Ala., to make active pharmaceutical ingredients, including those used in weight-loss drugs. (WSJ)
• Taiwan’s Foxconn Technology, formally known as Hon Hai Precision Industry, plans to invest $173 million to launch its first U.S. manufacturing facility in Louisville, Ky. (Louisville Business First)

While American factories tone down their buying, factories in China are booming, with industrial production and the country’s trade surplus in goods setting records this year, despite the disruptions of the trade war with the U.S.

The Journal’s Jason Douglas and Jon Emont write that Chinese shipments to Asia, Europe, Latin America and Africa offset the hit from President Trump’s levies on direct sales to the U.S.

China reported a goods trade surplus of more than $1 trillion for the year through November, while manufacturing output in the first 10 months of the year was up 7% compared with the same period in 2024. This surprisingly strong export performance hasn’t come without costs, but it suggests U.S. efforts to contain China’s economic and strategic ambitions and weaken its grip on global supply chains may be falling flat.

• Nvidia’s H200 AI chips for China will undergo a special U.S. security review before export, an unusual step following the Trump administration’s decision to allow the controversial sales. (WSJ)

The U.S. Navy awarded Palantir Technologies a contract worth hundreds of millions of dollars to manage the supply chain of its nuclear submarine fleet in the hope of reducing maintenance downtime.

The Journal’s Marcus Weisgerber and Heather Somerville write the contract will initially focus on submarines and could expand to other types of vessels, including aircraft carriers and jet fighters, Navy Secretary John Phelan said Tuesday. Palantir’s software is designed to give the Navy more visibility into its supply chain, by replacing workers needed to manually track parts using spreadsheets, and better predict when parts are needed.

• The U.S. economy is expected to slow in 2026 amid a downturn in optimism among households and businesses, according to a basket of monthly economic indicators. (WSJ)
• Confidence among U.S. small businesses edged up in November, with the National Federation of Independent Business’s optimism index rising to 99.0 from 98.2 in October. (WSJ)
• Layoffs crept higher in recent months, but the job market remained fundamentally steady since the summer, the Labor Department reported in a monthly survey. (WSJ)
• Trump threatened to slap a 5% tariff on Mexico in retaliation for allegedly violating a treaty that gives U.S. farmers access to water from the Rio Grande. (Politico)
• Ford Motor is turning to French peer Renault to help reboot its European business, in a fresh sign of the upheaval being caused by Chinese automakers outside the U.S. (WSJ)
• BMW, America’s biggest auto exporter, appointed Milan Nedeljkovic, head of production since 2019, as its new chief. (WSJ)
• Home Depot forecast lower-than-expected sales growth for next year amid an extended downturn in home-improvement activity. (WSJ)
• Campbell’s said quarterly profit and revenue fell, as tariff-related price increases weighed on its ready-to-serve soup business. (WSJ)
• AutoZone’s quarterly revenue grew but profit fell due to continued higher costs because of tariffs. (WSJ)
• A group of investors launched a proxy fight to get candidates on the board of Zim Integrated Shipping Services after the Israeli carrier rejected a buyout offer from its CEO and reviews other potential bids. (Journal of Commerce)
• DP World is unifying and renaming three well-known shipping brands–Unifeeder, P&O Ferrymasters and P&O Maritime Logistics–as Shipping Solutions, Multimodal Solutions and Maritime Solutions. (Lloyd’s List)
• A Brazilian court blocked ocean carriers such as A.P. Moller-Maersk, Mediterranean Shipping Co. and CMA CGM from the first round of bidding for a large new container terminal at the Port of Santos. (TradeWinds)
• Natrion opened a new manufacturing site to produce rechargeable lithium and sodium battery technology for EVs, energy storage and defense uses near Buffalo, N.Y. (DC Velocity)
• BNSF Railway early next year will deploy locomotive-based sensors systemwide to increase its track-inspection capabilities. (TrainsPRO)

Mark R. Long is editor of WSJ Logistics Report. Reach him at mark.long@wsj.com. Follow the WSJ Logistics Report team on LinkedIn: Mark R. Long, Liz Young and Paul Berger.