Tariff Man is back, and American consumers will pay for it

The Tariff Man is back. President Donald Trump’s newly proposed tariffs on China would be particularly bad news for US consumers.

Investors sold off well-known retail and tech stocks in response, because they would get hit hardest by the additional tariffs.

“Tariffs are taxes on American consumers,” said Rick Helfenbein, president and CEO of the American Apparel & Footwear Association. “The president’s decision to proceed with adding these additional costs for hard-working American families is truly shocking,”

Trump tweeted Thursday that he’s proposing an additional 10% tariff on $300 billion’s worth of Chinese-made products entering the United States. That includes things like smartphones, toys, footwear and many other consumer goods.

Shares of Best Buy plunged more than 10%. Hasbro fell more than 4% while rival toymaker Mattel was down 7%. Apple fell about 2.5% while Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba was down more than 5%.

And the SPDR S&P Retail ETF, which counts Dillard’s, Abercrombie & Fitch, Guess?, L Brands and Kohl’s among its top 10 holdings, lost about 4%. Target was down 5%.

Semiconductor stocks, which have a big presence in China, also plunged due to worries that China could retaliate with further tarffis against the US tech industry.

The Philadelphia Semiconductor Index fell 2%, led by drops in Intel, AMD, Nvidia, Qualcomm and Broadcom.

That led to a dramatic turnaround on Wall Street Thursday, with the Dow swinging from a 300-point gain earlier in the day to a more than 250-point loss.