The rising trade tensions between the United States and China has thrust Wall Street into a place of decline and uncertainty.
Following news of President Donald Trump’s recent threats to impose another layer of tariffs on $200 billion of Chinese goods, the U.S. stock market fell sharply on Tuesday, with the Dow losing 287 points (a 1.15% drop) and the S&P 500 index down 11 points (0.4%). Yet, in the wake of a potential trade war, some market observers remain highly bullish on FANG stocks (Facebook, Apple, Netflix, Alphabet).
Although the possible trade war news has caused the majority of the FANG stocks to fall slightly in price, GBH Insights’ new price target of $500 for Netflix (NFLX) left the video-streaming service up 3.7% to an all-time high of $404.98 on Tuesday. Some are still skeptical about Netflix’s future due to the rising popularity of streaming services provided by competitors like Hulu and Amazon; however, Netflix stock has performed remarkably well, up 103% this year, making it the second-best performance in the S&P 500, according to CNBC.
Facebook (FB) has also showed impressive performance recently, hitting an all-time high yesterday at $199.58. Although the social media company dropped slightly to a closing price of $197.36 Tuesday, its important to note its rapid recovery from the disastrous Cambridge Analytica data scandal that occurred less than two months ago. With a new “matchmaking system” between video creators and advertisers launched just today, Facebook is looking to implement competitive ways to parallel the commercial opportunities offered by its content rival YouTube.
Many also expressed concern for Apple (AAPL) stock after news of the U.S. tariffs upon Chinese imports, as a wide range of Apple products are assembled in China. Although President Trump assured Apple CEO Tim Cook that tariffs would not be placed on iPhones imported from China, Apple still dropped 1.62% to $185.73 Tuesday. The tech giant, which is up 11.5% this year, has recently announced a new deal with Oprah Winfrey to create exclusive original content, which looks to be the start of a video content campaign directed to compete with companies like Netflix and Amazon.