Apple shares clawing back, after $638 billion in value is destroyed

Ahead of the markets opening on April 8, 2025, Apple stock has inched into positive territory after Trump's tariff announcement knocked the entire value of Visa or WalMart out of the company.

Apple has continued to be punched by Trump's tariffs, despite claims its inescapable price rises could be a lower than expected. On its third consecutive market day, Apple was further hit by the news of a 104% tariff on everything it imports from China.

The continued impact for Apple came despite the overall stock market doing better on this third day. According to CNBC, of the major technology firms, only Apple, Microsoft, and Tesla were down again on April 7.

Describing it as a "rout," CNBC says that this downdraft has wiped out $638 billion from Apple's market cap, exclusively because of Trump's tariffs.

This means that in three market days, Apple has lost more than the value of Visa or Mastercard, and close to the value of Walmart. Its drop is greater than the combined value of Coca-Cola and Home Depot.

If Apple had spent the money instead, it could have bought Samsung 2.7 times over. Or it could have bought its historic rival, IBM, thrown in McDonald's and PepsiCo, and still had some change left over.

What's happening now

In overnight trading, though, Apple shares rose by 1.22% to $183.67. While the market has been extraordinarily volatile — rebounding on rumors, only to crash again — it's possible Apple saw a benefit from a report that it may import more iPhones from India.

This goes against Trump's stated aim of bringing manufacturing back to the US. But given the cost of such a move, the years it would take, and the lack of skilled labor in the States, reshoring iPhones to India could be the best of the options available to Apple.

Such a move would expose Apple to lower tariffs — or at least it would at present. With tariffs able to be doubled on Trump's word, there is no more way for Apple to be certain of getting lower tariffs than there is for it to avoid them at all.

Apple's entire supply chain is vulnerable

Apple is particularly vulnerable to the tariffs as while US firms and consumers may now be paying double for goods imported from China, Apple is more dependent on that country than most. This is despite billions of dollars being spent over many years to cut down on its over-reliance on China.

Consequently, while pre-market trading has seen the first even slight rise for Apple, it is a rise from an extraordinarily low point. CNBC calculates that over the first three market days since the tariffs were announced, Apple shares have lost 19% of their value.

While Apple is facing having to pay 104% more for goods imported from China, the rest of its supply chain is impacted as well. Absolutely every country that Apple relies on for manufacturing is seeing radical increases in costs.

That includes the US, as despite TSMC manufacturing processors for Apple in Arizona, those chips need imported materials and are also finished in Taiwan, until the AMKOR finishing plant comes on line.