As if last week wasn’t enough of a roller coaster already, late Friday night President Trump dropped another piece of game-changing tariff news: He exempted computers, smartphones, and other tech such as semiconductors and solar cells from reciprocal tariffs.
The move came after the White House hit China with a staggering 145% tariff late last week, while pausing reciprocal tariffs for most nations featured on that highly meme-able chart.
The White House said it rolled out the tech exemptions so countries could have time to move production to the US.
The news boosted tech stocks over the weekend, especially those with manufacturing in China. Apple, the biggest beneficiary of the exemption, jumped 2.21% today. Fellow Magnificent Seven names such as Nvidia and Amazon rose over the weekend, but ended today in the red.
Other tech stocks with manufacturing in China or that sell consumer tech, such as Dell, Advanced Micro Devices, and Best Buy, climbed today.
The Apple of investors’ eye
If you haven’t noticed already, seemingly every tariff announcement from the White House is usually followed by another contradictory statement mere days or even hours later—just look at today’s news on auto tariffs, for example.
On Sunday, Trump posted on Truth Social, “There was no Tariff ‘exception’ announced on Friday.” He added that tech would just be moved to a different tariff “bucket.” United States Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick went even further in a Saturday ABC interview, saying that separate semiconductor tariffs will be rolled out soon.
Making sense of market moves
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Even the pros have more questions than answers: “The mass confusion created by this constant news flow out of the White House is dizzying for the industry and investors and creating massive uncertainty and chaos for companies trying to plan their supply chain, inventory, and demand,” wrote Wedbush analyst Dan Ives in a note Sunday morning. “As we are in Masters week and it's Sunday....this would be like changing the hole locations for the pro golfers in Augusta while the final round is going on in real time...this is how investors feel right now. What are the rules of the game?”
That’s why most strategists are taking a wait-and-see approach when it comes to most tech stocks—though some are still positive on Apple. “Despite the tariff headwinds, we would view any potential cut to EPS as relatively muted compared to the potential global disruption that could be caused by an escalating trade war, and in our view AAPL may be seen as a relative safe haven,” wrote Bank of America analysts in a recent note where they reiterated their “buy” rating on Apple.
The bottom line: A lot is up in the air, but if you’re long-term bullish on AI and tech, there are some signs Trump’s tariff policy won’t hit the sector as hard as many originally presumed.—LB