President Trump’s announcement of tariffs and retaliatory measures by China has seen Apple’s shares drop to their lowest point since June 2024, as investors predict rising iPhone prices and falling sales.
The sweeping tariffs introduced by Trump will affect every single one of the very many countries Apple relies on for its manufacturing. Consequently, as with all technology firms, the company’s share price took an immediate battering — but now it’s getting worse.
In response to the purportedly reciprocal Trump tariffs, China has announced its own retaliatory ones. Trump is levying a 54% import tax on China, now Chinese firms importing goods from the US will face a 34% tariff.
As spotted by BBC News, Trump responded to China’s retaliation in a post on Truth Social. “China played it wrong, they panicked,” Trump wrote. “The one thing they cannot afford to do!”
President Trump is currently golfing, but spoke to reporters prior to his departure when asked about the impact of his tariffs.
“I think it’s going very well,” he said. “It was an operation like when a patient gets operated on and it’s a big thing. We’ve never seen anything like it.”
“The markets are going to boom… the stock is going to boom,” he added. “The country is going to boom.”
The consensus outside the White House and presidential advisors suggests otherwise, though. And, those same advisors came up with the faulty formula that the president applied, that has nothing to do with tariffs applied by countries importing US goods.
According to CNN, the 54% tariff that China has responded to, was made by dividing a given country’s trade deficit by its exports to the US. Then the resulting figure was divided in half.
There was also a baseline 10% that was applied everywhere.
Real-world impact
In a research note seen by AppleInsider, investment advisors from Morgan Stanley see a $51 billion tariff cost in the short term to US Big Tech, minus the additional cost of any US manufacturing improvements. About $33 billion of that alone is attributed to Apple.
And as far as Apple stock goes, before the announcement on April 2, 2025, Apple shares were trading at a high of $225.19. As of noon Eastern on April 4, the shares are trading at $195.63.
This is the first time the shares have been below $200 since June 11, 2024. Even during COVID and what was then seen as a calamitous drop, Apple’s share price was at $243.34.
Other subsequent drops have been around supply concerns, or in mid-2024 about slowing sales in China, but this one is entirely because of the tariffs. In each of those, though, analysts were advising investors to take advantage of the low price because it would rise again.
In this case, there is no consensus from investment advisors regarding buying or selling Apple shares, as the situation is simply too complex and volatile in the short- and medium-term. The one certainty appears to be that it is impossible for even a company the size of Apple to swallow the kinds of costs and profit losses that are now being forced on it.
Apple has held the price of iPhones the same for some years — although only in the US and China. Even if Apple can absorb some of the new costs, it seems inevitable that the iPhone 17 range will see price increases.
That’s because there are no devices or components that Apple imports for which it will not have to pay tariffs. This even affects its processor supplier TSMC’s plants in Arizona, as the company has to import rare metals to make the chips.
During Trump’s first presidency, Apple managed to escape much of the impact of his tariffs. Tim Cook had successfully negotiated exemptions for Apple, but at present it has not succeeded in doing the same again.
This story originally appeared on Appleinsider
