Given that the initial falls are typically the deepest, the Australian share market appears to have weathered today’s tariff announcements relatively well, with the ASX trading around 1% lower at noon after falling by around 2% at the open.
Not unlike midnight on 31 December 1999 - at the height of the Y2K fear – investors woke up this morning to find that regardless of U.S. President Donald Trump’s tariffs, the sky hadn’t fallen and the world was still spinning.
That’s not to say there were winners and losers in today’s announcements.
Key winners today
Given its safe-haven status, gold shone bright today, with the precious yellow metal's price topping US$3,146 per ounce this morning.
Unsurprisingly, despite the materials sector having followed all other sectors down today (consumer staples up 0.84%) gold stocks also defied gravity today.
Gold miners Northern Star Resources (ASX: NST), Newmont Corporation (ASX: NEW), Ramelius Resources (ASX: RMS), Spartan Resources (ASX: SPR), Westgold Resources (ASX: WGX) and De Grey Mining (ASX: DEG) were all 2% to 5% higher at midday.
Consumer stables, the only sector that showed black ink today, were up around 1% at noon. This was with key players like Coles (ASX: COL), Synlait Milk (ASX: SM1), Woolworths (ASX: WOW) and Ingham Group (ASX: ING) up 1.6%, 6.77%, 1.25 and 1.45% respectively.
Key casualties today
However, stocks experiencing the strongest sell-down today were those directly affected by Trump's tariffs 2.0.
Two of them were small appliances manufacturer Breville (ASX: BRG) and global online retailer Cettire (ASX: CTT), down 5.5% and 14.4% respectively after issuing market explainers this morning.
Breville Group: With around 45% of Breville’s products exported into the U.S., the company told investors it was progressing plans to diversify away from China, which manufactures around 90% of its products, by value.
Today’s tariff rate on Beijing comes in addition to existing 20% tariffs on Chinese imports, meaning the true tariff rate on China is 54%.
Cettire: Meanwhile, Cettire told investors it is assessing the full implications of these tariff changes on the company and its global operations.
The online retailer noted that several major luxury brands have flagged plans to increase pricing of luxury goods in the U.S. to offset possible tariff changes.
To further qualify its exposure to the U.S. market, Cettire also told investors that around 41% of the platform’s total gross sales in 1H FY25 related to goods manufactured in the EU and sold to customers in the U.S.
Other stocks sold off following explainers
Ansell (ASX: ANN): While Ansell did not update the market this morning, the medical equipment manufacturer's share price shed around 14% following revelations that its gloves made in China could be hard hit by the 34% “discount” tariff.
As well as raising prices to counter the tariff impact, the company is also assessing options to broaden its manufacturing base.
Treasury Wine Estates (ASX: TWE): Meanwhile, Treasury Wines also shed around 2% after attempting to reassure investors of a "minimal" impact on its bottom line from the new tariffs.
It’s understood that only 15% of wines from its American business are imported from outside the U.S.
Two stocks that rose following explainers
Fisher and Paykel (ASX: FPH): Shares in Kiwi-based Fisher and Paykel (ASX: FPH) were up around 2.5% after the appliance manufacturer told investors it does not anticipate a material impact from the U.S. tariffs on its net profit after tax for the 2025 financial year, which ended 31 March 2025.
However, in FY26 the company expects costs to increase along with higher forex volatility risk exposure.
The company’s Mexican manufacturing operations – comprising around 45% of its total volumes – remain subject to the highly volatile U.S.-Mexico relationship.
CSL (ASX: CSL): Shares in CSL were nudging 1% higher today after reminding the market that at this stage pharmaceutical products are not subject to reciprocal tariffs.
However, missing from the company’s update was any reference to its operations in Europe (Germany and Switzerland) where it exports its product.
Assuming pharmaceutical tariffs are eventually subject to the baseline 20% tariff imposed on the EU, CSL manufacturing sites will also come under additional scrutiny.
