Wall Street's main indexes jumped at the open on Monday, with most tech stocks rising after the White House exempted smartphones and computers from new tariffs on China, although further semiconductor levies remain imminent.
Palantir up 10%; Apple up 6.8%; Super Micro up 5%; AMD, Tesla up more than 3%; Nvidia, Meta up over 2%.
The late Friday reprieve — exempting a range of popular electronics from 125% tariffs on China and a 10% flat rate around the globe — is temporary and a part of the longstanding plan to apply a different, specific levy to the sector. Trump doubled down on the plan Sunday.
“NOBODY is getting ‘off the hook,’” Trump said in a social media post Sunday, issued shortly after he finished his Sunday golf game. The exempted products are “just moving to a different Tariff ‘bucket’” and the administration will be “taking a look at Semiconductors and the WHOLE ELECTRONICS SUPPLY CHAIN,” he added.
Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One his decisions will come soon, indicating that details on a tariff rate for semiconductors would be announced in the coming week.
Yet Trump also signaled an openness to talks with companies over the scope of his sectoral tariff on semiconductors and products like iPhones and tablets that rely on them. “We’ll be discussing it, but we’ll also talk to companies,” he said. “You have to show a certain flexibility. Nobody should be so rigid.”
Taken together, the comments from Trump and his top trade chiefs Sunday are a stark reminder of the scope of his planned tariff onslaught. Still, the maneuver means weeks, maybe months, without extra tariffs on the array of phones and computers before the specific sectoral tariff on electronics kicks in — one virtually certain to be lower than the 125% rate on China, another level of reprieve. It also opens a window for companies and lobbyists to push for different parameters and exclusions.
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