Top tech gainers and losers this week as tariffs continue to rattle markets: Broadcom leads, Enphase Energy lags

Seeking Alpha News (Sun, 13-Apr 3:05 PM)

  • Wall Street’s euphoria disappeared soon after reaching historic highs earlier this week as U.S. President Donald Trump announced a pause on reciprocal tariffs against most countries except China.

China, in retaliation, increased its tariffs on U.S. goods to 125% and stated it will disregard any additional tariff hikes announced by Washington moving forward.

The impact of the trade-war escalation was felt the most by semiconductor stocks, as some analysts expressed concern that tariffs have upended the global tech supply chain, which could lead to many tech companies withholding guidance in the upcoming earnings season. 

Despite a choppy week, the Technology Select Sector SPDR Fund ETF (NYSEARCA:XLK), which tracks the S&P 500’s Information Technology sector, gained more than 5% this week as a pause in tariffs reinstated some investor confidence. 

Let’s take a look at this week’s gainers and losers in the tech industry: 

Gainers: 

  • Broadcom (NASDAQ:AVGO) +23.20% : The chipmaker’s stock advanced after it announced a share repurchase program of up to $10B, noting that the move underscores the board’s confidence in Broadcom’s robust cash flow and commitment to returning value to shareholders.
  • Palantir Technologies (NASDAQ:PLTR) +18.48% : Palantir shares continued their rally throughout the week, helped by Trump’s pause in tariffs.
  • Crowdstrike (NASDAQ:CRWD) +16.82%
  • Nvidia (NASDAQ:NVDA) +16.64% : It was reported this week that the White House had stepped back from banning all of Nvidia's H20 GPUs to China, which had previously been under consideration.
  • KLA Corp (NASDAQ:KLAC) +16.52%: Citi maintained KLA Corp as one of its top picks while updating its Wafer Fab Equipment sector's outlook. Analysts said that while semi caps have relatively low 10% to 20% U.S. sales exposure and have been diversifying away from China in recent years, the impact of new tariffs in the rest of Asia impacts them.

Losers: 

  • Enphase Energy (NASDAQ:ENPH) -9.73%
  • First Solar (NASDAQ:FSLR) -2.58%
  • Intel (NASDAQ:INTC) -1.31% : China's import tariffs on U.S. goods provide an exemption for U.S. semiconductor firms that outsource their manufacturing. Intel, which operates its own U.S.-based fabs - may be classified as U.S. origin and be liable for tariff rates of 84% or higher.
  • Texas Instruments (NASDAQ:TXN) -2.15% : Texas Instruments also operates its own U.S.-based fabs, making it liable for higher tariff rates from China.
  • Accenture (NYSE:ACN) -0.42%

U.S. Tech-based ETFs to track:  (NASDAQ:QQQ), (NYSEARCA:VGT), (XLK), (NASDAQ:SMH), (NYSEARCA:IYW), (NYSEARCA:FTEC), (NASDAQ:SOXX), (BATS:IGV), (NASDAQ:CIBR), (NYSEARCA:IGM), (NYSEARCA:IXN).