Good morning. Andrew Ferguson started his legal career with such a conventional antitrust practice—defending companies facing investigations and allegations of anticompetitive conduct—that his parents joked he was a “pro-trust lawyer.”

• The mandate: A decade later, Ferguson’s rapid ascendance through Republican circles has put him in charge of the Federal Trade Commission, where he will try to chart a new course for antitrust enforcement: mixing MAGA populism with strains of the GOP’s traditional lighter-touch approach to regulation.
   
• Tough stances: Ferguson, 38 years old, became chairman of the FTC, which enforces antitrust and consumer protection laws, after his progressive predecessor, Lina Khan, elevated the commission’s profile by arguing the nation’s largest companies, especially in the tech sector, needed to be reined in. The two share more in common than first meets the eye. In his first weeks on the job, Ferguson disappointed Wall Street by announcing that he would maintain Khan’s tough merger-oversight guidelines, which gave enforcers more leeway to block deals. He also shares her belief that antitrust enforcement should address a broader range of problems than just the classic concerns about consumer prices and the supply of goods.
   
• Trumpian at FTC: Still, the similarities only go so far. A former law clerk to Justice Clarence Thomas, Ferguson has brought a distinctly Trumpian bent to the chairman’s office. Last month, he launched an inquiry into how social-media firms sometimes censored or banned users who pushed contrary political views, such as questioning Covid-19 vaccines and former President Joe Biden’s victory in the 2020 election.

CEOs don’t plan to openly question Trump. Ask again if the market crashes 20%.

How business leaders talk about the Trump administration in private has been markedly different than what they are game to say in public. The dissonance was on full display in Washington this week.

Early on Tuesday, dozens of corporate executives and others assembled at a Yale CEO Caucus not far from the White House just as news emerged that the Trump administration planned to potentially double tariffs on steel and aluminum from Canada. Those in the room responded with a mix of groans and shocked laughter.

That sentiment wasn’t apparent hours later, when many of the same chief executives from the Yale event attended a question-and-answer session with President Trump at the Business Roundtable. There, the exchange was largely cordial and executives didn’t ask the president any pointed questions about his tariff strategy, according to people familiar with the event.

Judge halts Trump order targeting law firm Perkins Coie.

A federal judge blocked most of a White House executive order punishing Perkins Coie, saying the administration had put itself at odds with the First Amendment by targeting the law firm based on President Trump’s dislike of its clients’ political positions.

U.S. District Judge Beryl Howell in Washington, D.C., said the president’s order violated constitutional protections against viewpoint discrimination and interfered with clients’ right to representation. Perkins Coie, she said, also had demonstrated that Trump’s sanctions place “an enormous burden” on its ability to practice law.

• Lawmakers and industry experts sharply criticized the patchwork of federal rules that companies must follow when reporting hacks, with some calling for a full rewrite of an omnibus rule due this fall.

Europe, Canada hit back at U.S. steel tariffs. 

The European Union and Canada announced retaliatory tariffs against the U.S. on Wednesday, further escalating a global trade war after the U.S. imposed levies on global steel and aluminum imports.

Canada said it would put 25% tariffs on an additional $20.6 billion in U.S. imported goods including steel and aluminum products and other American goods such as computers and sports equipment. The Canadian tariffs are set to take effect Thursday.

 Meanwhile, President Trump’s trade war with China has landed Walmart in the hot seat in Beijing.

• Trump Takes On Ireland Over Trade at St. Patrick’s Day Event

Inflation cooled to 2.8% in February, lower than expected.

Inflation cooled last month, but the latest data may offer less comfort to U.S. businesses, consumers, and Federal Reserve policymakers than it otherwise would because tariffs are threatening to raise some prices in the months ahead.

Meanwhile, investors worry that President Trump’s antitrade measures would keep the 12-month pace of price increases above the Federal Reserve’s 2% target while curbing economic growth. With inflation above target, the Fed would be reluctant to lower borrowing costs to jump-start the economy. Inflation and recession would coexist.

• Consumer Angst Is Striking All Income Levels

• Ukraine has managed to flip the diplomatic script on Russia. Whether it proves enough to end the fighting is another matter. In the wake of a combative Oval Office meeting last month, the Trump administration questioned whether Kyiv was ready to talk peace.
   
• Global flows of goods across borders continue to grow despite rising tariffs on imports to the U.S. and other countries, according to a leading indicator compiled by the World Trade Organization.
   
• The International Energy Agency said the macroeconomic conditions underpinning its oil-demand projections have worsened over the past month due to global trade tensions, and that it sees a bigger-than-anticipated supply surplus if OPEC+ raises output beyond April.

• Asahi Group Holdings, one of Japan’s largest drink makers, is investing more in the U.S., paying heed to President Trump’s tariff threats, which have led many global companies to recalibrate their investment strategies.
   
• Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D., N.Y.) threw a wrench into a Republican plan to avert a government shutdown this weekend, saying there wasn’t enough Democratic support to advance the measure funding federal agencies through Sept. 30.
   
• Mark Carney will be sworn in as Canada’s 24th prime minister on Friday. Carney, the former chief central banker in Canada and the U.K., handily won the leadership of the governing Liberal Party this past weekend.

Follow us on X at @WSJRisk. Follow Risk & Compliance editor David Smagalla @DSmagalla_DJ and reporters Mengqi Sun @_MengqiSun and Richard Vanderford @VanderfordRich.

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