Stock markets sank for the third day Monday after U.S. President Donald Trump announced sweeping global tariffs last week, and no one is coming out unscathed — but some sectors are seeing more volatility than others.
All three major U.S. indexes touched their lowest levels in more than a year in early trading on Monday, before rebounding somewhat, with the S&P 500 and the Dow Jones closing lower and the Nasdaq gaining 0.10 per cent.
Here’s a quick look at how some of the market’s sectors are faring.
Tech stocks see plummets and rises
Technology stocks have been some of the hardest hit in the market sell-off.
The Magnificent Seven — a group of seven high-performing tech stocks including Apple, Microsoft and Nvidia — have seen $2 trillion US of their combined value wiped out in the market’s recent slide.
U.S. President Donald Trump on Monday said he has no intention of pausing tariffs as markets reel and that ‘many, many countries … are coming to negotiate deals with us.’ He also threatened to slap an additional 50 per cent tariff on China.
On Monday, a rebounding of tech stocks helped to raise the S&P 500. Chip manufacturer Nvidia recovered from a more than seven per cent stumble in morning trading and was up 3.5 per cent at market’s close.
But overall, sectors like tech that rely on international supply chains are going to be more heavily affected by tariffs, according to Sebastien Betermier, an associate professor of finance in the Desautels Faculty of Management at McGill University.
Apple, for instance, lost 3.67 per cent of its value by market close on Monday after dropping more than five per cent earlier in the day.
A lot of Apple’s hardware production takes place in China, and Betermier told CBC News that because of all the tariff action — Trump placed a 34 per cent tariff on China last week, on top of those announced earlier in the year, and China retaliated by announcing a matching 34 per cent tariff on U.S. goods — Apple is getting hit by “a bit of a double whammy.”
Though the company has made efforts in recent years to diversify its supply chain beyond China, other countries that make Apple products are also being targeted by the U.S. tariffs, with India and Vietnam facing tariffs of 26 per cent and 46 per cent, respectively.
And further blows to the tech industry fuelled by the U.S.-China feud could be on the way as Trump threatened Monday to place an additional 50 per cent tariff on China if Beijing does not withdraw its retaliatory tariffs on the U.S.
Consumer staples slightly more stable
One sector that’s seen less severe drops in market value during the recent turmoil is consumer staples such…
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