Downtown Pittsburgh. (Jim Harris/PBT)

By Riley Dunn, Pittsburgh Business Times

The first half of 2025 brought with it a whirlwind of change and market uncertainty. In their earnings calls, several of the Pittsburgh region’s public companies commented on how new federally imposed tariffs have impacted their business, while others noted the choppiness and uncertainty of the current economic market, and still others were optimistic. 

Energy 

Local energy firms have been in growth mode this year with efforts underway to increase domestic production of energy, but tariffs have presented some unique challenges.

EQT Corp. grew through its acquisition of Canonsburg-based Olympus Energy.

“We’ve transformed the operating model of this business. You’re seeing us flex the asset base and continue to see operational efficiency gains,” EQT President and CEO Toby Rice told analysts on the company’s first-quarter earnings call. “That momentum is going to continue, and it’s going to continue to give us the ability to have opportunities in the future.”

Rice believes that Olympus’s operating model and its high-quality assets will fit in well with EQT. 

Meanwhile, Core Natural Resources Inc., a newly formed company with the merger of Consol Energy Inc. and Arch Resources Inc., has large footprints in international markets and had to move quickly with China’s tariffs on exported coal. 

Robert J. Braithwaite, SVP of marketing and sales at Core, commented on Core’s cargos of coal destined for China throughout the first quarter. 

“China has always been an opportunistic market for us, for Core and for both legacy Arch and legacy Consol now Core,” Braithwaite said. “Even though we moved 3 million tons of Bailey (Mine) coal into China in 2024, that was very opportunistic.”

With tariffs affecting markets in China, Core is looking elsewhere, particularly into India’s market. 

Banking

Many banks also have dealt with the economic uncertainties introduced by tariffs last quarter, with some even taking preemptive measures. 

F.N.B. Corp. was one such bank, having kept a close eye on market volatility since January, as well as any potential impact on its loan portfolio. 

“We have a pretty heavy focus on manufacturing in the Rust Belt states where we operate, and we were able to gather quite a bit of feedback,” Vincent Delie Jr., chairman, president and CEO at F.N.B., told financial analysts during the bank’s first quarter earnings call. “There’s a lot of uncertainty, obviously, around the tariffs and how it’s going to impact them specifically.”

PNC Financial Services Group Inc. also noted increased market volatility during its first quarter earnings call. 

Bill Demchak, PNC’s chairman and CEO, said that such volatility was “roiling the markets and raising concerns over a potential recession.” 

However, he also said that it is still “very early” to judge the full impact. 

PNC acknowledged that market uncertainty impacted capital markets activity, but expenses remained well-controlled, resulting in another quarter of strong results for the Pittsburgh-based bank. 

“As always, we will continue to focus on the things we can control … providing superior products and services and executing on opportunities,” Demchak said.

Manufacturing 

Manufacturing was the sector that talked the most about tariffs on recent earnings calls.

Though PPG Industries Inc. has so far only seen a slight impact from the Trump administration’s tariffs, Chairman and CEO Tim Knavish said an overall worsening of economic conditions could potentially affect the company down the road. 

He addressed the matter of tariffs during the company’s first-quarter earnings call on April 30, saying that PPG was structured to have a shelter between the macroeconomy and company operations. 

“I call it the PPG shock absorber, a little bit of a buffer impact, it’s structural,” Knavish said. “(It’s) our diverse portfolio, lack of dependency on any individual country, momentum in productivity combined with the structural resilience and mitigation efforts.”

Koppers Holdings Inc. is keeping a close watch on tariffs and how they will affect its chemical and wood manufacturing down the line. So far, the company has committed mitigation methods — just in case they are needed down the line. 

“Tariffs remain somewhat the wildcard in this business,” Koppers told financial analysts during its most-recent earnings call.

At the start of the quarter, Kennametal Inc. also found itself navigating choppy and uncertain economic seas. 

However, advanced manufacturing tax credits from the Inflation Reduction Act were able to give a lift to the company’s financials. Yet, while the IRA tax credit helped this quarter, Kennametal CFO Patrick Watson said on the earnings call that the boost was a one-time thing. 

Also providing uncertainty was the tariff situation, which Kennametal estimated would be worth about $80 million to the company if it all went through. But the company is implementing a plan to counter all of the primary impact of the tariffs, including tariff surcharges. About half of the tariff impact is either on products shipped to or from China.

“We do intend to fully mitigate all the direct impact of tariffs,” Kennametal President and CEO Sanjay Chowbey said.

Tech 

Despite uncertainties posed by tariffs, positive news persisted from the automotive industry and more specifically Aurora Innovation Inc.

As the first half of the year closes, Aurora looks forward to the road ahead, as CEO Chris Urmson revealed during the company’s first quarter earnings call on May 8. 

The week prior, the company had deployed its first ever fully driverless semi-truck without a human driver behind the wheel. 

“I’m fired up for the next decade at Aurora, which I’m convinced is going to be something very special,” Urmson said during the call. “We’ve shown the technology is real. Our focus now turns to proving the promise of the technology, increasing the value of our product for our customers and ultimately becoming an essential partner in the freight industry.”

Meanwhile, language learning company Duolingo Inc. made headlines due to its announcement that it would become “AI first.” 

During its first quarter earnings call, Duolingo CEO Luis von Ahn commented on AI and how the company plans on using it. 

“The main improvement in AI the last couple of years is large language models, and language is what we teach, so it particularly applies to us,” von Ahn said. “We’re not changing our estimates because, yes, this is going to save us some costs on things that humans used to do that now AI can do. However, … the cost savings are going to be offset by the fact that we’re just investing a lot in making the right features.”

The last year also has brought a significant period of change with it for Coherent Corp., as the company has focused on producing components for data centers and has seen several C-Suite changes. Jim Anderson, Coherent’s new CEO, also said on the company’s earnings call that “the impact of tariffs to our business in the current quarter is not expected to be significant,” despite economic uncertainty. 

Retail

It has been a challenging quarter for local retailers, however.

“We’re disappointed with our results,” Jay Schottenstein, American Eagle Outfitters Inc.’s executive chairman and CEO, said during a fourth quarter earnings call on May 29. 

During the call, the company referenced several factors that could have led to lower earnings, including a cooler spring, missed trends and rising costs. 

“Clearly, this was a tough quarter,” Jennifer Foyle, president and executive creative director for the company’s American Eagle and Aerie brands, said. “We had misses on the merchandise front in a couple of key categories.”

The company also has had to work through challenges raised by new tariffs. 

Chief Financial Officer Mike Mathias said that AEO has worked to limit its exposure to sourcing from China so much that it is at less than 10% this year. 

“We’re implementing various mitigation strategies,” Mathias said, including working with vendor partners to save costs. 

Mathias expects results to trend similarly in the new quarter. 

Dick’s Sporting Goods Inc. also has had a rough quarter, with company shares dropping upon its planned acquisition of Foot Locker for $2.4 billion, announced earlier this year. 

Dick’s Executive Chairman Ed Stack acknowledged the lack of enthusiasm for the corporate buy during the company’s first quarter earnings call. 

“We understand that there’s really a group of people out there – shareholders – that prefer that we continue to do what we’re doing,” Stack said. “Our business is very strong.”

Riley Dunn is a student at the University of Iowa and one of 10 Pittsburgh Media Partnership summer interns.