- Shares of Facebook, Apple, Amazon, Netflix and Google — known as the FAANG stocks— tumbled as China hit back at the US after the Trump Administration said it planned new tariffs.
- Apple took the biggest hit as its share fell 5% on worries that the new tariffs are a "potential gut punch" for the iPhone maker. The plunge represented $53 billion in market value.
- The FAANG market cap losses totaled $150 billion, the value of a company bigger than either Costco or IBM.
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The giants of the US tech industry shed $150 billion in market value on Monday, as China hit back in an escalating trade war with the US.
The lost market value is the equivalent of a company the size of Costco or IBM instantly evaporating into thin air, a sobering sign of how the raging trade tit-for-tat is rattling Wall Street. For tech companies, which are heavily reliant on China for components and manufacturing of their products, the trade war is especially concerning.
The battle heated up after China let its currency, the yuan, weaken to below 7 to a dollar on Monday, in response to the Trump Administration’s recent announcement that it will impose new tariffs on Chinese goods. That triggered a selloff that swept the broader markets. The Dow Jones Industrial Average plunged 767 points, or 3%, to close at 25,718 on Monday, while the Nasdaq lost 278 points, or 3.5% to close at 7,726.
Shares of the tech companies, known collectively as FAANG — Facebook, Apple, Amazon, Netflix and Google — set the pace for the broad market retreat.
Apple was the biggest loser in the group, dropping 5.2% to close at $193.34, wiping away $53 billion from the iPhone maker’s market cap. Apple was seen as the most vulnerable company in the intensifying trade war. Wedbush analyst Daniel Ives called the new Trump Administration tariffs a "potential gut punch" for the Silicon Valley icon.
Facebook fell nearly 4% to close at $181.73, while Amazon retreated 3.2% to close at $1,765.13, Google was off 3.5% to close at $1,152.32 and Netflix slid 3.5% to close at $307.63.
The market cap loss combined represented value of a company bigger than a Costco. The retail giant ended the trading session with a market cap of $117 billion after its shares dropped 2.7% to close at $265.10.
The market loss decline also was bigger than a tech behemoth like IBM which now has a market cap of $125 billion after its stock sank 4.4% to close at $140.76.
Got a tip about Facebook, Apple, Amazon or another tech company? Contact this reporter via email at bpimentel@businessinsider.com, message him on Twitter @benpimentel. You can also contact Business Insider securely via SecureDrop.
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Source: Business Insider – bpimentel@businessinsider.com (Benjamin Pimentel)