U.S. companies have so far had a muted response to President Donald Trump's global reciprocal tariffs, with many top CEOs remaining silent amid a steep rise in the cost of doing business. 

Trump's "Liberation Day" on Wednesday ended the free-trade era, unleashing a global rout. Wall Street was the worst hit, undergoing its biggest crisis since the COVID-19 market crash in 2020. 

The levies, which include universal 10% tariffs and higher rates for multiple countries including China, Japan, India, Vietnam and South Korea, will push up the costs of everything. The new tariffs on China will push up the costs of goods from the world's second-largest economy by over 50%. 

While global markets reacted swiftly, chief executives of major publicly listed companies have been silent so far. They seem to be instead relying on trade associations and special interest groups to speak on their behalf. 

"Damage to the U.S. economy will increase the longer the tariffs are in place and may be exacerbated by retaliatory measures," said the Business Roundtable, which represents America's top CEOs. "We strongly encourage the Administration to implement additional reasonable exemptions and put in place a transparent, predictable exclusion process." 

"What we have heard from business of all sizes, across all industries, from around the country is that these broad tariffs are a tax increase that will raise prices for American consumers and hurt the economy," said the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

Executives are not only uncertain about how to restructure their businesses in the wake of the new tariffs, amid doubts over how long the President will stick to the current plan, but are also worried about retaliation by the White House, the Financial Times reported. 

"You don’t want to be the barking dog for everyone else because you’re going to be the one who will get shot," said a board member of a leading U.S. corporate to the Financial Times. 

Disney (NYSE:DIS) CEO Bob Iger said during an internal editorial meeting that it would be difficult for U.S. firms to shift production because of specialized workforces and differing skillsets across borders, citing Apple’s (NASDAQ:AAPL) Foxconn (OTCPK:FXCOF) facilities in China as an example, the report said. 

The report added that Iger cautioned that Disney's (DIS) cruise ships business would be impacted by rising steel prices. 

However, some companies have spoken about price hikes. Chef Boyardee maker Conagra Brands (NYSE:CAG) and retailers Best Buy (NYSE:BBY) and Target (NYSE:TGT) have warned of the possibility of higher prices. 

There have also been no statements from tech leaders like Apple's (AAPL) Tim Cook, Meta's (NASDAQ:META) Mark Zuckerberg, Google's (NASDAQ:GOOG) (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Sundar Pichai and Amazon's (NASDAQ:AMZN) Jeff Bezos, who famously flanked Trump at his inauguration. 

"We have spoken to hundreds of investors, tech CEOs, supply chain experts around the world this week to gauge the Trump tariff Armageddon unleashed this week," said investment firm Wedbush. "In a nutshell, if these tariffs (in current form/rates) hold there is no debate...it would set the US tech world back a decade in our opinion while China is the clear winner...and we see no debate." 

The S&P 500 index (SP500) ended the week in correction territory as sentiment was slammed globally by Trump's tariffs. Here are some exchange-traded funds that track the benchmark gauge: (NYSEARCA:SPY), (NYSEARCA:VOO), (NYSEARCA:IVV), (NYSEARCA:RSP), (NYSEARCA:SSO), (NYSEARCA:UPRO), (NYSEARCA:SH), (NYSEARCA:SDS), and (NYSEARCA:SPXU).

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