How to talk tariffs: IR in the new era of uncertainty

How to engage around the potential impact of tariffs – even when those impacts are unknown

The US economy is in ‘a period of transition,’ US President Donald Trump told Fox News on Sunday. By close of trading on Monday, the US S&P 500 had dropped almost 3 percent, with tech stocks taking a particularly heavy hit. Weeks of back and forth as Trump threatened tariffs, paused tariffs, reintroduced tariffs – and saw retaliatory levies by affected markets – finally came to a head.

Even for firms accustomed to volatility, the impact of these external uncertainties is hard to manage. Paulina Gutierrez, who heads up investor relations at IR Impact Award-winning digital bank Sofi, describes the company as one that has ‘controversy coming at us from every angle’. Between news cycles around everything from the bank’s student loan arm to its cryptocurrency operations or its brand-building campaigns on TikTok and giant football stadiums, Gutierrez explains that Sofi stock can ‘swing 5 percent to 10 percent in a day’.

Add to that the whirlwind that is Trump and volatility is up even more. ‘Instead of us going up and down 5 percent or 10 percent on news, now we’re going up and down from 10 to 20 percent on tariff and macro uncertainty,’ she says.