Displaying items by tag: tech

(Washington)

The panic over Trump’s blacklisting of Huawei was reaching a fever pitch. The fall out had gotten so bad that it looks like the President decided to take a step back. Trump has now granted a three-month reprieve on the blacklist to give companies time to adjust. The stay is not a cancellation of the decision, just a window for adjustment. Huawei says it “doesn’t mean much”.

FINSUM: This is smarter than a sudden blanket ban as it will give a little adjustment period which may make it a bit easier for companies and markets to digest.

(San Francisco)

Make no mistake, the US’ new blacklisting of Huawei is going to have a serious effect on American tech companies. Huawei is deeply integrated with many US suppliers of technology components, so the import and export restrictions will be significant. Here is a lit of US companies with major relationships with Huawei: Qualcomm, Broadcom, Xilinx, Synopsys, Marvell Technology, Seagate Technology, Western Digital, Texas Instruments, and Micron technology.

FINSUM: The impact on the top and bottom lines of all these companies will take some time to figure out, but for now we thought it would be useful to know which ones are at risk.

(New York)

The trade war has far reaching consequences. One way to think about it, as bleak as it sounds, is that there is no winner whatsoever. However, there are sectors, ETFs, and stocks that will likely lose more than others. The technology, materials, and industrial sectors stand to lose the most in a prolonged trade war as they have the largest proportion of manufacturing in China and the highest proportion of Chinese customers. Boeing and Ingersoll-Rand, for instance, are both very exposed to China. However, the greatest pain is likely to be felt by technology companies in the iShares PHLX Semiconductor ETF like Qualcomm, Micron Technology, Broadcom, and Texas Instruments.

FINSUM: Basically anyone making or selling a large amount of products in China is in trouble. We also wonder about how increased tariffs would flow through to retailers who source a high percentage of their products in China (e.g. Walmart, Target etc.).

(New York)

Stocks woke up to a volatility explosion this morning. President Trump made a surprise announcement that he was considering boosting tariffs on China. Specifically, the president threatened to raise tariffs to 25%. Beijing is reportedly infuriated. The comments come towards the end of what seemed to be a smooth negotiation with Beijing about a new trade package. Therefore, they riled markets to a major extent. Headline indexes shed a couple percent at peak (so far) and sectors like technology and industrials sold off sharply. The trade delegation from Beijing is still expected to attended a planned tariff meeting this week.

FINSUM: It is very hard to know how significant this is (whether Trump actually wants to do this), or whether this is just a negotiating tactic.

(New York)

The trade war seems to be back on with full force. Trump spooked markets today by warning that he may impose higher tariffs on China. With that in mind, here are the stocks and sectors most at risk of big selloffs. Industrials and technology shares are the most vulnerable to tariff worries. It is difficult to say what stocks will be most affected because the potential impacts are widespread. However, the following list looks very at-risk: Colfax, Danaher, Emerson Electric, Fortive, Gates Industrial, 3M, and Kennametal.

FINSUM: We are very early in the volatility for this round of trade fears. Hopefully this minor panic will be the extent of it.