It was a doozy of a day for stocks Thursday, with the main indexes taking a nosedive out of the gate and staying there through the close.
The selling was prompted by President Donald Trump's late-Wednesday press conference where he unveiled sweeping tariffs against a long list of U.S. trading partners.
"With a chart that basically shouted, 'Please don't read the fine print,' there were figures that ranged everywhere from 10% to 49%," says Dann Ryan, managing partner at Sincerus Advisory.
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The unfortunate result of this, Ryan adds, is that there "will probably be several more days of uncertainty to process what this all means and what exemptions there will be, as any last-minute deals continue to be made."
And it gave markets "none of the reassurances" they are wanting.
As a result, the Dow Jones Industrial Average closed down 4.0% at 40,545, the S&P 500 was off 4.8% at 5,396 – falling back into correction territory – and the Nasdaq Composite had plunged 6.0% to 16,550.
Thursday's sell-off erased roughly $3.1 trillion in U.S. equity valuation, according to Dow Jones Market Data. This is the biggest single-day drop in stock market valuation since March 16, 2020.
Apple stock could see an outsized tariff impact
Some of the day's biggest decliners were once many of Wall Street's highest fliers. Amazon.com (AMZN), for one, slumped 9.0%, while Meta Platforms (META) shed 9.0%.
And Apple (AAPL) plunged 9.3%, with Morgan Stanley analyst Erik Woodring saying the iPhone maker is one of the worst-positioned to absorb the tariffs.
Apple relies "on extensive international manufacturing, with the large majority of finished goods sold into the U.S. assembled in SE Asian nations," Woodring says.
He believes the company is potentially facing an added tariff cost of more than $38 billion, which works out to roughly 26% of EBIT (earnings before interest and taxes) for fiscal 2026.
Nike leads Dow stocks lower
While Apple's decline is noteworthy, Nike (NKE) was actually the worst Dow Jones stock today. Shares tumbled 14.4%, bringing their year to date decline to 26%.
Nike recently forecast slower-than-expected sales growth for its current quarter, citing the impact of tariffs. The athletic apparel and footwear maker, which has strong ties to China, also said during its earnings call that "new tariffs" were among several things creating uncertainty at the moment.
But Jefferies analyst Randal Konik is taking a glass-half-full approach to Nike. Not only is the company well-positioned to "compete on price over the longer term and gain market share as a result," he says, but NKE stock is near a bottom and management's turnaround plans should spark upside.
RH craters nearly 40% after earnings, tariff news
Having an even worse day than Nike was fellow consumer discretionary stock RH (RH), which plummeted 40.1%.
The luxury home goods retailer reported lower-than-expected fiscal fourth-quarter results. It also forecast full-year revenue growth of 10% to 13%, below the 15% Wall Street is anticipating, due to the "negative impact" of tariffs.
Meanwhile, during the company's earnings call, RH CEO Gary Friedman was asked about the stock's price after Trump unveiled his sweeping tariffs.
"Oh sh*t," Friedman said. "I just looked at the screen. I hadn't looked at it. You know, it got hit when I think the tariffs came out. And, you know, everybody can see in our 10-K where we're sourcing from, so it's not a secret."
Indeed, the regulatory filing shows that based on dollar volumes, RH sources 72% of its products from Asia.
Shares of RH, which was a member of Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway equity portfolio from Q3 2019 to Q1 2023, are now down 62% for the year to date.
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