Trillions of dollars in U.S. stock values have teetered since President Donald Trump announced steep foreign tariffs on April 3, despite the president reversing course one week later. Santa Barbara County companies have not been immune to the wild rollercoaster ride.
Goleta-based Deckers Outdoor Corporation manufactures its goods in China and Vietnam, two countries hit hard by the tariffs. The first day of trading after the tariffs announcement triggered an initial decrease in Deckers stock of 14 percent. Trump backed off on April 10, reducing tariffs to 10 percent for 90 days, with the exception of China; the country’s goods carry a 145 percent U.S. tariff. Deckers stock has recovered with a 13.92 percent increase.
Santa Barbara’s Sonos, an audio technology company, did not weather the market volatility quite as well. The company saw a 17 percent decrease last week before its stock rebounded on Thursday with a 10.18 percent increase. The volatile market conditions have caused the company to keep a watchful eye on the effects on business and its customers.
“We are closely monitoring developments related to the proposed tariffs and actively assessing potential implications for our business, customers, and supply chain,” said Alyssa Levin, a senior account executive who handles public relations for Sonos, on Monday.
Since his inauguration, Trump has promised to impose tariffs and taxes on foreign countries “to enrich our citizens,” but the current decline in the stock market makes the opposite case. Because the stock market roughly reflects a business’s profitability, such a decline highlights that businesses will feel some pain. This could result in lower profits or layoffs, said Peter Rupert, an economics professor and Director of the Economic Forecast Project at UC Santa Barbara.
Rupert stated that the Central Coast will feel the effects of the tariffs as they cross “pretty much everything we know.”
“Everyone becomes poorer,” said Rupert. He said he saw no pros to tariffs, predicting that prices will go up and output will go down.
