Stock market today: Dow, S&P 500, Nasdaq pause rally as tariff fears revive to kick off big Fed week
Netflix (NFLX), Warner Bros. (WBD), and other media stocks fell Monday following President Trump’s call for a 100% tariff on all foreign-produced films.
Stocks recouped steeper losses by mid-morning, although Netflix continued to lead the declines, down about 2%. Warner Bros. Discovery and Paramount Global (PARA) slipped around 1% after also recovering from earlier session lows. Disney (DIS) traded flat.
The companies did not immediately respond to Yahoo Finance’s request for comment.
The market reaction comes after Trump directed his administration late Sunday to impose “a 100% tariff on any and all movies coming into our country that are produced in foreign lands,” sending shockwaves through an industry still reeling from the pandemic shutdown and the recent writers’ and actors’ strikes.
The proposed tariffs could affect several blockbusters filmed abroad, including Disney’s “Avengers: Doomsday” and “Spider-Man: Brand New Day” (London); 20th Century’s “Avatar: Fire and Ash” (New Zealand); Paramount’s “Mission: Impossible — The Final Reckoning” (global locations); Lionsgate’s “Ballerina” (Czech Republic); and Lucasfilm’s “Star Wars: Starfighter” (UK).
“Until there is more clarity, this new development — which should’ve been predicted by all Hollywood C-suites — will likely slow down the business, or, in a worst case, shut it down in exactly the same way that the strikes affected Hollywood,” Chris Fenton, a longtime Hollywood executive, told Yahoo Finance.
Veteran film producer Kathryn Arnold called the proposed tariffs “insane and devastating,” warning they could wipe out low- to mid-budget films by driving up costs and disrupting a globally interconnected system.
“If films are forced to be made here, the pricing of labor and goods and services is higher. Budgets will go up,” she said, noting US tax incentives aren’t nearly enough to offset domestic production costs.
The ripple effects, she added, would hit everyone from crew to catering.