Trump Says Semiconductors Will Face 100% Tariffs: Chip Stocks Are Moving After Hours. Apple, Nvidia Supplier TSMC Surges Nearly 5% In Overnight Trade As Taipei Says Chip Giant 'Exempt' From Trump's 100% Chip Tariffs Benzinga's Premarket Playbook breaks down the news.
00:00Trump says semiconductors will face 100 percent tariffs. Chip stocks are moving after hours, but they're moving higher. Chip stocks are bouncing around in Wednesday's after-hour session after President Trump announced plans to slap tariffs on semiconductors companies that aren't building in the U.S.
00:15Apple CEO Tim Cook announced a new $100 billion commitment to increase investments in the U.S. from the White House on Wednesday.
00:23Trump told reporters at the beginning of the event that he's planning to put, quote, very large, end quote, tariffs on approximately 100 percent of semiconductors.
00:30That was per Bloomberg. Quote, the good news for companies like Apple is that if you're building in the United States, there will be no charge, end quote.
00:38This report indicates that the Trump administration could announce new duties on all products that use chips as soon as this week.
00:44This also shows that clearly what they are trying to do is speed up the investment here in the U.S.
00:50or reshore at least parts of the supply chain here to the U.S.
00:53And that is indeed working. The report indicates that we are sorry.
00:59We read the same thing. Several semiconductor names were moving following Trump's comments.
01:03Micron is up four point three percent. Shares were up about four point three five percent at the high Taiwan semiconductor.
01:10That's up five point five percent. Shares were up two point four percent earlier.
01:14Now, Intel down two point five percent. But there's a truth bomb that came out this morning.
01:19Trump saying that Lip Boutan, the new CEO of Intel, needs to resign immediately.
01:25He didn't really go into a lot of why in the truth post.
01:29I'm sure that means we're going to hear more of that coming later today.
01:32But if you've been with our show for a while, the morning that we reported the news about Lip Boutan, we also covered some of the possible ties to the Chinese government.
01:42And it's my suspicion that that's coming home to roost now, if you will.
01:46I'm not sure what's going to happen from this, but that's what's going on here.
01:49And we'll see.
01:49NVIDIA, that's up one point three three percent and Advanced Micro Devices, AMD, which has been on an absolute burner recently.
01:58That's up just shy of two percent, one point nine, four percent.
02:02Meanwhile, Broadcom, that was up about a percent and Qualcomm was up just over a percent.
02:08So a lot of those chip stocks that have some type of investment or manufacturing here in the United States actually trading higher on the back of this news.
02:18OK, now one of these are this a couple of these.
02:22I actually want to start with Apple.
02:24So let me go back to the Benzinga Pro here real quick.
02:28We'll go back to the chart.
02:29We'll take a look at Apple.
02:30I want to remind you of the setup that we were looking at in Apple and where we're at now.
02:35So, OK, here's your Apple chart.
02:37We've been talking about this one quite a bit recently.
02:41There are a number of folks that all seem to be looking at the same thing on this as well.
02:45We talked about Katie Stockton was on CNBC, I think, a couple of weeks ago, saying that Apple's really kind of waiting to do this 215 breakout.
02:54And that actually looks like a good trade.
02:56So now we're actually getting that breakout.
02:58I think the question remains to be seen that this ends up becoming a crowded trade that I don't know the answer to.
03:04But here's here's where we're at.
03:06You can see Apple on this move higher here by just shy of three percent here this morning, up about 626, just shy of 220.
03:13But we are above this 215 top end of the triangle.
03:16The bottom wedge of this triangle was made by a series of higher lows.
03:22And so it looks like now we're breaking out of here.
03:24Next resistance area is going to be your 200 day here at 221.13.
03:29We stopped just shy of this.
03:31I know we were a little bit higher here in the pre-market, but we didn't even really peak above this level.
03:36So this is going to be the next level of interest, I think, for me.
03:39After that, we've got this 226.
03:43I almost wonder if the 222 or excuse me, the 221 to 226 area provides some type of resistance.
03:50And then above that, we have 233.
03:53If we get above that, we can start looking at this 250 and then the all time high up there near 260.
03:58But this is the trade.
04:00We talked about this, maybe breaking above this 215.
04:03We seem to be getting that here today.
04:05How much more room is there for Apple?
04:07One of the things that I would like to see is that if you're not already in this, a back test of this 215 breakout area and a hold, that would be ideal.
04:19Ideal for potential entry here to Apple.
04:22So we'll see if we get that so far here.
04:25So good.
04:25It is moving higher here today.
04:27Now, Apple NVIDIA supplier TSM surges nearly 5% in the overnight trade.
04:34What's going on here?
04:35Well, this is comes after Trump's tariff announcement, quote, because Taiwan's main exporter is TSMC, which has factories in the United States.
04:46TSMC is exempt from the semiconductor tariffs.
04:49National Development Council leader chief Liu Chin Ching told a parliamentary briefing, according to the AFP.
04:56The exemption comes as Trump has threatened 100 percent tariffs on semiconductor companies not manufacturing in the U.S.
05:03TSMC operates fabs facilities in Arizona as part of one hundred and sixty five billion dollar investment commitment.
05:10If anyone wants this for the other tweets and stuff.
05:14Here you go.
05:16All right.
05:17Trump's escalating investment claims.
05:19Trump previously stated that TSMC would invest 200 billion in Arizona up from earlier claims.
05:25Excuse me.
05:26300 billion in Arizona up from earlier claims of 200.
05:30However, TSMC has only committed one hundred and sixty five.
05:33Renowned analyst Ming-Chi Ku suggested Trump's escalating figure serves as laying the groundwork for upcoming semiconductor tariffs, positioning the inflated number as a negotiation tactic.
05:44Boy, someone else has been saying that these are all negotiation tactics for a long time, but I can't quite place who that was.
05:51The tariff exemption provides crucial clarity for investors as TSMC supplies chips to major U.S. companies, including Apple and NVIDIA.
06:02TSMC CEO C.C.
06:05Wade, try saying that 10 times fast.
06:07That's not easy.
06:08It looks easy, but it's not.
06:10Trust me.
06:11C.C.
06:11Wade previously acknowledged that U.S. tariffs create indirect headwinds, but maintain that AI chip demand consistently outpaces supply, supporting the company's strategic positioning.
06:21Despite these trade uncertainties.
06:24So back to the chart we go.
06:26Now we'll take a look at TSM.
06:29You know, we've talked a lot about some of these different semiconductor companies or just chips and AI.
06:35And we often talk about Google and Apple and Amazon and NVIDIA and Meta and all of these other companies.
06:42And I feel like we don't trade or look at TSM enough.
06:49I've talked about this with 13.
06:50I've talked about this with the Happy Hour crew a number of times.
06:54But TSM, man, I feel like maybe we should be looking at this a little bit more or a little bit more often, I suppose I should say.
07:02Now, where is TSM right now?
07:04Well, a huge, huge move off the 500-day, which also coincided with the Liberation Day sell-off.
07:10Now, we've really stayed above the 20-day the entire time, except the one time that we, or excuse me, the two times that we tested this, we ended up bouncing and going higher.
07:20Now, the third time we actually gapped beneath it.
07:23Let me zoom in here and see if it's a little bit easier for you folks to see.
07:26We gapped beneath it, traded back up, really couldn't get above it.
07:30And then today, today, we are now gapping above the 20-day.
07:35So this makes it fairly easy for our key levels here for a trade.
07:39I think if we stay above this 238.45, probably risk on here for TSM, as we'll continue to try and take out some of these highs.
07:47Now, we do have the makings of a potential double top-up here.
07:50I want to call this 247 to 248 in terms of an area.
07:55So we'll see if we're able to take that out here.
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