VIX, Wall Street’s fear gauge, sinks nearly 20% on temporary tech tariff relief

Published 14/04/2025, 21:26
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Investing.com -- The VIX, or fear index, collapsed 18% on Monday to $30.73.  It has been as high as $65.73 in the recent tariff melee.

The downside action in the volatility index follows news over the weekend that reciprocal tariffs on electronics coming from China, including smartphones, would not be subject to the 145% tariff rate.  Instead, Trump said the 20% tariff rate would still apply. 

However, the lower rate on electronics will only be temporary as they are expected to be included in a separate upcoming tariff bucket.

The biggest beneficiary of the news was Apple Inc (NASDAQ:AAPL), which makes 90% of its smartphones available in China. Apple’s shares rose by 2.2% on Monday.

Based on the lower rate, BofA Securities analyst Wamsi Mohan said the tariff impact on Apple EPS would go down to -4.9% from -36.6% at the higher tarrif rate.

“I speak to Tim Cook,” Trump said Monday. “ I helped him recently and that whole business."

“I don’t want to hurt anybody,” Trump added. “But the end result is we’re going to get to the position of greatness for our country with the greatest economic power in the world if we’re smart.”

Elsewhere, Dell Technologies Inc (NYSE:DELL) rose 4%, and HP Inc (NYSE:HPQ) rose 2.5%.

Deutsche Bank (ETR:DBKGn) strategists Parag Thatte noted that the selloff in stocks has been mainly driven by positioning, as inflows have been strong.  They added that last week’s inflows were $50 billion, the largest this year.  "Selloffs of this magnitude in the past have been associated with similarly sized outflows, not inflows," Thatte commented.

The strategist also noted the sharp underperformance of US equities largely during overnight trading adds to concerns about capital outflows from the US.  "From the equity side, it is interesting to note that most of the selloff in the S&P 500 has come during overnight trading (futures) rather than during the cash trading hours," he said. "This is a reversal of the pattern of the past several years which saw outperformance during overnight trading hours."

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