A U.S. company that earns 60% of its revenue overseas, sources its components from three continents, and ships its product across two oceans is making a geopolitical bet whether it knows it or not.

Reading the world means reading those exposures. Three forces dominate the geopolitical layer of equity analysis: tariffs, supply-chain concentration, and foreign exchange exposure. Each one shows up somewhere in a company's 10-K — usually in the Risk Factors section, the segment-by-segment revenue disclosure, and the management discussion.

A tariff is a tax on imports. Section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act of 1962 lets the executive branch impose tariffs on national-security grounds (used for steel and aluminum). Section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974 lets the executive impose tariffs in response to unfair foreign trade practices (used extensively in the 2018-2019 China actions).

Tariffs raise the cost of imported inputs for U.S. companies, raise consumer prices, and can trigger retaliatory tariffs that hit U.

S. exporters.