The US trade war and China is already digital, with the development of 5G technology in the spotlight, which has caused fear among Wall Street investors who have penalized with an average reduction of 15% in the last month to American technology companies with interests in China.
The International Monetary Fund, the OECD and even the economic services of the UN agree that the trade war between the two most important economies in the world – they only handle a third of world trade – will harm consumers, companies and , ultimately, global economic growth.
What began as a review of a trade pact bounded in time is going to run aground, and the US presidential mandate. of not selling technological components to the Chinese Huawei for reasons of national security has led to a “technological cold war” that markets do not like at all.
According to a note from the head of global strategy of investment banking Jefferies, Sean Darby, the increase in tariffs has given way to a strategy that seeks to “stop China as a leader in the development of 5G”.
This technology must offer bandwidth and speed never seen before and to which the experts closely link the development of the internet of things, the use of autonomous vehicles and projects related to Artificial Intelligence.
The Achilles heel for China – but also for US companies – is that this paradigm shift needs a large part of US semiconductor and component companies, such as Qualcomm, Nvidia, Intel, Xilinx, Skyworks Solutions and Macom. Technologies.
And is that companies that manufacture chips for “smartphones”, video games and data centers are the most exposed to the digital war.
The United States was responsible for approximately half of the $ 470 billion from chips sold worldwide, and China was its main market, according to Investing.com analyst Haris Anwar.
The signature that most emblematically is affected in this crossfire is Qualcomm. The San Diego company, which made two-thirds of its sales from its last fiscal year to China, lost 23.58% on the Nasdaq in one month, 18.76% in the last week alone.
The same monthly loss has Macom Technologies, while Skyworks Solutions fell by 20.10% in the last month, Intel by 15%, Nvidia by 18.5% and something less Xilinx, with close to 14.90%.
The commercial war, when becoming digital, leaves in the air the support of the investors to these companies, very exposed to the commercialization with China, while of other firms that directly manufacture there, like Apple, it fears the ‘an eye for an eye and tooth for tooth ‘, that is to say, that retaliation is taken.
Apple has lost 5.3% this last week and in a month no less than 12.4%, declining more and more from the fight for the trillion of capitalization it has with Amazon and Microsoft.
Here the fear of the investors is that, just as Huawei is the emblematic brand of China abroad, the iPhone is an American standard that could be the target of the Chinese.
US President Donald Trump tried to soften the tone on Thursday, saying the trade war may end quickly, but analysts are not convinced and believe it will take time.
Another less well known terrain that also worries investors is sports footwear, which will become more expensive with new tariffs when 75% of that consumed in the United States is manufactured in China, although industrial weight is gaining more and more Vietnam.
Nike has lost 7% in the last month, while another footwear retailer such as Foot Locker has lost up to 25%, especially last week due to poor corporate results.
Just this week, a group of more than 170 companies, including multinationals Nike and Adidas, have already demanded that President Donald Trump eliminate footwear from the list of Chinese products whose imports to the country could be affected by tariffs of 25%.
Not to mention the farmers. Last Thursday Trump had to approve a package of aid to the agricultural sector of 16,000 million dollars in order to alleviate the effects of the trade dispute with China.
