President Donald Trump’s move to crack down on what he sees as unfair competition to U.S. firms reverberated around the world as investors assessed the relative impacts on companies hit by tariffs on solar panels and washing machines.
American beneficiaries such as First Solar Inc. climbed more than 6 percent in after-hours trading Monday in New York. In Seoul, washing-machine maker LG Electronics Inc. tumbled more than 5 percent within the first 15 minutes of trading before reversing losses to close higher. Samsung Electronics Co., which also counts those appliances among its many products, shrugged off the news from the start, closing with a 1.9 percent advance.
Muted moves in many stock prices suggested investors had been well prepared for the measures, and analysts noted the solar tariffs were below indications from U.S. authorities last year. Elsewhere across Asian equity markets, benchmark indexes marched higher.
“Solar panels and washing machines may be not so damaging,” Suan Teck Kin, head of research at United Overseas Bank Ltd in Singapore, said by phone. “That’s why the markets aren’t reacting in a very negative way. From the U.S. point of view, they probably want to send a message ‘Get to the table, let’s negotiate’ rather than really punish these producers.”