Biden’s tariffs on Chinese imports are boosting these beaten-down stocks

By CNN Newsource

Published May 17, 2024 5:43 AM

Analysis by Krystal Hur, CNN

New York (CNN) — A version of this story first appeared in CNN Business’ Before the Bell newsletter. Not a subscriber? You can sign up right here. You can listen to an audio version of the newsletter by clicking the same link.

It’s not just meme stocks that saw a resurgence this week.

Beaten-down clean energy stocks have rallied this week. The iShares Global Clean Energy exchange-traded fund, which tracks sectors from renewable electricity to semiconductors to solar energy, has gained roughly 3%. Plug Power shares have climbed 33%, Enphase Energy shares have gained 8% and NextEra Energy shares have added 4%.

Behind the rally? President Joe Biden is raising tariffs on $18 billion in Chinese imports across sectors including steel and aluminum, electric vehicles, solar cells and medical products. The new rates range from 100% on electric vehicles to 50% on solar components to 25% for the other sectors, reports CNN’s Kayla Tausche.

“China can’t be the only country that produces clean technology for the world we need,” a senior Biden administration official said. “We need diversified, not concentrated, production of our most critical goods and technologies. … That’s the kind of dynamic we think will produce resilient supply chains and clean technology.”

Clean energy stocks were battered last year by supply chain snarls and sky-high interest rates, which drove up borrowing costs for growing companies trying to load up on capital. Hopes that an influx of US government spending on climate solutions would help revive the sector didn’t pan out, either.

Higher rates also tend to make it more difficult for consumers to transition to using clean energy, since sources like a residential solar system can cost thousands of dollars and require a loan. While some investors hoped that the Federal Reserve would begin cutting rates this year, the central bank has continued to hold rates at a 23-year high.

Some investors warn that though the tariffs could continue boosting clean energy stocks, the recent rally isn’t driven by just improving fundamentals. The surge is also in part due to traders’ willingness to take on more risk in their portfolios as stocks continue notching record highs, they say.

“The investment thesis post-tariffs in the sector is better than it was before. But that doesn’t mean that all these companies are out of the woods,” Steve Sosnick, chief strategist at Interactive Brokers, told CNN.

Wall Street’s large risk appetite was in full force this week. Shares of meme stocks such as GameStop and AMC Entertainment have swung wildly after the Roaring Kitty X account run by Keith Gill, a trader who helped spawn the 2021 meme stock frenzy, posted for the first time in three years. Meme stocks are shares of companies that tend to see wide swings based on their popularity on social media rather than their fundamentals.

Dow briefly tops 40,000 for first time but ends the day lower

The Dow Jones Industrial Average broke past the 40,000 threshold Thursday for the first time ever, fueled by an encouraging inflation report, reports my colleague Nicole Goodkind.

The blue-chip index briefly crossed the key threshold in morning trading before falling back below the line in the afternoon to close at 39,869, down 38 points, or 0.1%.

All three major indexes closed lower on Thursday. The S&P 500 ended the day down 0.2% and the Nasdaq Composite was 0.3% lower.

Markets had rallied to new record highs Wednesday after the latest Consumer Price Index showed a cooldown for the first time in months, stoking hopes that the Federal Reserve could start cutting interest rates as soon as September.

On a monthly basis, the inflation report showed that prices rose 0.3%, a slower pace than in the two months prior, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Economists were expecting a 0.4% monthly increase, according to FactSet consensus estimates.

Another key data point added to the enthusiasm: April retail sales came in significantly weaker than expected, indicating that consumers are pulling back on the spending that drives the economy. Spending missed the 0.4% increase that economists had projected.

“This is the first good CPI report in four months and the market likes it,” said Gary Pzegeo, head of fixed income at CIBC Private Wealth US. “Taken [together with retail sales] this supports a Fed rate cut in the fall. Markets are discounting a cut in September and have moved to price in a second cut by December.”

Damaging hacks expose the weak underbelly of America’s health care system

A pair of recent ransomware attacks crippled computer systems at two major American health care firms, disrupting patient care and exposing fundamental weaknesses in the US health care system’s defenses against hackers, reports my colleague Sean Lyngaas.

In both cases, federal officials and private cyber experts scrambled to try to limit the damage and get computers back online. But the cascading effects from the hacks, with ambulances diverted from hospitals and pharmacies unable to process insurance, has underscored for some US lawmakers, senior Biden administration officials and policy experts that the health care system is ill-prepared for the ripple effects of a cyberattack and needs new security regulations.

Health care lags other industries, such as big financial institutions and energy providers, when it comes to IT security, according to some experts.

“Industry has successfully demanded voluntary cybersecurity for years — and this is what we get,” Joshua Corman, a cybersecurity expert who has focused on the health sector for years, told CNN.

Sen. Ron Wyden, the Oregon Democrat who chairs the finance committee, told CNN that “every new devastating hack hammers home the need for mandatory cybersecurity standards in the health care sector, particularly when it comes to the largest companies that millions of patients depend on for care and medicine.”

Without action, the senator said, “patients’ access to care and their personal health information will be compromised and ransomed by hackers over and over again.”