Malcolm Owen
After a brief respite on Wednesday, Apple's stock restarted its downward trajectory triggered by President Trump's accelerating tariff battle with China.
On Wednesday, Apple ended the day at $198.85, up 15.3% from Tuesday's closing level, after Trump announced a pause on tariffs. Just one day later, Thursday's end of trading saw the Apple stock return to its previous downward trend.
At the start of the session, early trading brought Apple's price down to 189.06, but that hit was short-lived as it shot up to $194.78 within an hour. At the time of closure, however, Apple's shares reached $190.42, down 4.24% from the start of the day.
It's not the lowest value the share price reached during the trading session, as the price dipped down to $183 after 12pm Eastern, before gradually recovering in the following hours.
More tariff shenanigans
While there is no way of getting an actual reason from shareholders for the dip, the activity is almost certainly going to relate to the ongoing battle between President Donald Trump and China.
On Thursday, the tit-for-tat tariff fight continued. The 125% tariff rate that Trump set for the U.S. set for Chinese imports was clarified, and is confirmed to be 145% just one day later.
At the same time, investors started to get worried about the 90-day pause on some of Trump's reciprocal tariffs. CNBC determined that investors were concerned that, even with a pause in effect, Trump's continued attacks on China could still slow down economic activity.
The historic rallying of the stock markets after the pause announcement on Wednesday was only a brief help to investors. By Thursday, the recovered levels were again in the process of being eroded, with markets once more showing significant drops in value.
The sheer level of the China tariff rate is too big of a problem for investors to feel secure about their holdings, it seems. With continued uncertainty over the tariff battle and whether it will conclude sooner or later, it's understandable for the markets to feel the pinch.
An extremely dim light of hope for Apple
Amid the doom and gloom, there was a bit of a bonus for Apple. Albeit something briefly mentioned in a Trump speech.
Late on Wednesday, Trump proposed that some companies that were hit hard by the tariff fight could get some relief. Trump confirmed that this relief would take the form of exemptions, which are still under consideration.
As a tech giant so reliant on China, an exemption for Apple would be a massive boon. It would help to isolate the company from the effects of repeatedly rising tariffs against the country where most of its products are assembled for the United States.
Of course, that relies on the exemptions offsetting enough of the tariff to be worthwhile. That, and if it's not suddenly pulled or modified by the Trump administration at a later date.
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Marko Zivkovic
William Gallagher
Christine McKee
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30 Comments
In essence, Trump is going to hold court and whoever kisses his aXX the best gets the exemption. Better pucker up Tim - take one for the shareholders.
This, if it comes to pass, is the President of the United States getting to decide who are the winners and who are the losers. I guess letting the 'free market' decide is not required in this new Banana Republic.
For what it's worth, I challenge the assumption that Apple is most deserving of protection because it "is so reliant on China". There are 34 MILLION small and medium sized businesses in the US, many of which are just as reliant - if not more so - on parts and/or products from China. And this 145% tariff is going to have a much more immediate devastating effect on them than it does on a giant corporation like AAPL. Little dollar stores don't have the 39% margin cushion Apple enjoys with its devices and, more importantly, they don't have $50+b in cash they can rely on to weather this tariff storm.
I'm sure Steve Jobs would not be caving to Trumps extorion demands to avoid tarrifs on Apple. Pretty sure there Tim Cook !
Tim, you and your tech bro's thought money, and kissing his ring would mean business as usual, wrong. The day Siri can beat the "Nero Claudius" of Queens, will never happen.
Hey you cannot go up 15% in one day and not give back a little bit the next day. No way not going to happen. Remember shortterm Wall Street is a casino.
Apple can add and will I add if necessary a tariff surcharge in big bold letters to iPhone in September so the whole world can def see it and thank Trump for it.