Here are the winners and losers of the Trump trade war pause

President Donald Trump abruptly paused sweeping tariffs, prompting the stock market to rally.
President Donald Trump’s 90-day pause on sweeping tariffs was felt worldwide and in the financial markets, with some stakeholders making out better than others.
On Wednesday afternoon, Trump abruptly paused most of the tariffs, which took effect after midnight on Wednesday. Before his rollback, stocks cratered for days amid the volatility brought on by the plan.
The reversal quickly sent stocks skyward. The S&P 500 had its biggest single-day gain since 2008 at 9%, while the Dow rose nearly 3,000 points and the Nasdaq surged 12%.
Some business leaders reacted with relief to the move, but not everyone went unscathed. China was hit with even greater tariffs, which Trump said were due to the retaliatory tariffs the country enacted on the US.
Here’s who was sitting a bit prettier at the market close on Wednesday and who could be worse off.
Winners
Airlines and other travel companies
Travel companies saw some of the biggest market gains on Wednesday, with United Airlines’ share price surging 26% and Delta Air Lines’ stock rising 23%. Cruise companies did well, too, with Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings up 19% and Carnival Corp. up 18%. Expedia Group was also up 18% on the day.
“It wasn’t just the airlines. All travel brands really were the winners today on Wall Street,” Amir Eylon, the president and CEO of Longwoods International, a travel tourism market research consultancy, told B-17.
Eylon said two main issues travel companies faced with the tariffs were increased supplier costs on things like aircraft parts, hotel supplies, and building materials, as well as a fear that increased prices across the economy could weaken travel spending.
Semiconductor companies
Intel, Nvidia, and several other semiconductor companies were among the biggest winners regarding share price increases. Both Intel’s and Nvidia’s share prices rose by about 18%.
Even though semiconductors were exempt from tariffs, other components used in products with chips could’ve been affected.
“We’re not exactly sure what to do with all this,” Bernstein analysts wrote in a note last week. “Most semiconductors enter the US inside other things for which tariffs are likely to have a much bigger influence, hence secondary effects are likely to be far more material.”
Tesla and Elon Musk
Tesla’s stock rose 22% on Wednesday, likely a welcome reprieve for a company that’s been facing heavy backlash and a declining share price for months.
Its CEO, Elon Musk, also emerged as a winner, partly due to the stock price rise. According to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, his net worth increased to $326 billion, up from $290 billion as of the market close a day prior, which was the lowest it had been since November.
Musk had also publicly criticized tariffs in recent days and went after Peter Navarro, the president’s top trade advisor, so the pause appeared to give the billionaire what he wanted.
Losers
China
Unlike other US trade partners, China was excluded from the pause on tariffs. And Trump said he would raise the tariff rate on China over the country’s retaliatory levies. The new total tariff rate for imports from China is 125%.
As Meagan Martin-Schoenberger, a senior economist and trade expert at KPMG, and some other economists have noted, the rise in tariffs against China ups the effective tariff rate.
Amazon
Though Amazon’s stock price rose about 12% on Wednesday, the hefty tariffs on China could spell trouble for the online retailer because many of the products it sells, directly or through third-party merchants, come from the country.
Morgan Stanley estimated that of the e-commerce companies it covers, Amazon was the most exposed to Trump’s tariffs, citing the products it sells that come from China.
Not many, for now
All in all, if the stock market is any indication, there weren’t many losers from the pause on tariffs. Only nine companies out of the S&P 500 saw their stock value decline on Wednesday (sorry, Dollar General).
Still, time will tell whether the tariffs will be reinstated or whether the uncertainty and whiplash of the ordeal will have lasting impacts that are not yet clear.
Neither winners nor losers
Martin-Schoenberger from KPMG said that “winners and losers” may not be the best way to view the situation.
“Even though most countries got a pause the higher rates on China, Canada, and Mexico actually sent the effective tariff rate above what it would have been with no changes,” she told B-17 in an emailed statement, adding this was likely to “accelerate usage of connector countries to avoid tariffs.”
“Uncertainty is high which acts like its own tax on the economy,” she said, adding that industries with complex supply chains, like car and tech manufacturing, could be harder hit.
The European Union is set to pause its retaliatory tariffs on a host of US goods for 90 days, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said Thursday less than 24 hours after Trump’s pause.
EU members had just voted Wednesday to support the countermeasures.