Colorado companies that sell goods imported from overseas were hammered during Thursday’s stock market plunge, which was the worst one-day drop seen in the U.S. since pandemic fears roiled investors on March 16, 2020.
Denver-based VF Corp., owner of several iconic brands like The North Face and Vans, lost 28.7% of its market value on Thursday, making it one of the hardest hit stocks in the country. VF shares suffered their largest one-day drop since Oct. 19, 1987, also known as Black Monday, when they fell 26.1%.
VF shares reached a 52-week high of $29.02 on Jan. 29, reflecting a rebound in a company that had once traded in the $80 range four years earlier. Shares of the apparel retailer, however, came under pressure when the Trump administration began proposing widespread tariffs. The day after details came out on Wednesday, shares dropped $4.71 to $11.68, erasing $2.57 billion in market value.
Broomfield-based Crocs, another apparel brand that imports many of its products from overseas, suffered a nearly 14% loss in its share price, comparable to the percentage loss suffered by Deckers Outdoor, maker of Ugg boots and Hoka running shoes, and Nike.
About 1% of footwear and 2.5% of the clothing purchased in the U.S. is made domestically, with China and Vietnam key sources of those items, according to the investment firm Jefferies.
Chinese-made goods face tariffs of 34%, which comes on top of 20% tariffs announced earlier this year. Vietnamese goods face a 46% hit, among the highest levied on Wednesday. During the first Trump administration, some companies tried to get around higher tariffs on Chinese goods by shifting production to Vietnam, but that approach won’t work this time around, nor will shifting production to Mexico.
Denver-based Gates Industrial Corp., originally made famous for its rubber fan belts and radiator hoses, relies heavily on overseas plants for its broad array of products. Shares in that company dropped 12.2% to $16.88.
Shares of Centennial-based Arrow Electronics, which distributes electronics and other components imported from around the globe, dropped $9.05 or 8.6% to close Thursday at $96.11, which represents a new 52-week low.
Denver-based Palantir, Colorado’s largest public company with a market value of $205 billion, saw its share price fall $3.85 to $83.60, which represents a 4.4% decline. Even with that drop, shares in the company remain four times higher than they were a year ago.
Canmaker Ball Corp. saw its shares drop 3.46% on Thursday. The Westminster company depends heavily on imported aluminum and its shares were hit harder when a separate 25% tariff on aluminum imports was announced on Feb. 10.
Oil and gas companies also saw their shares fall on concerns of reduced consumption due to a potential recession and higher production targets that OPEC announced. Denver-based Civitas Resources saw its shares plunge 16.4%, while Houston-based EOG Resources, which has a large office in Denver, saw its shares fall 7.76%. Denver-based Liberty Energy, a field support services firm founded by current Department of Energy Secretary Chris Wright, saw its value cut by 18.4%.
Not every Colorado stock was down on Thursday. Greeley-based Pilgrim’s Pride, which exports its chicken and turkey products internationally, saw its shares rise 4.2% to $51.06, hitting a 52-week high.
The tariffs announced on Wednesday are expected to generate $438 billion and $512 billion in revenue for the U.S. government, assuming current levels of imports and purchasing hold up. The amount that U.S. stock markets lost in response to those additional tariffs was around $3.1 trillion on Thursday, according to The Wall Street Journal.
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