Alcoa's stock rocked after Trump's threat of high tariffs on Chinese imports

By Tomi Kilgore

Aluminum producer's stock plunged 51% in 2018 after the Trump administration placed a 10% tariff on imports of the metal

Shares of Alcoa Corp. were suffering their worst day in 10 months amid growing concerns about Donald Trump's plans to start a trade war with China if he is elected president in November.

The aluminum producer's stock (AA) sank 8.7% in afternoon trading to lead a broad selloff in the metals and mining sector. It was headed for the biggest one-day selloff since it fell 10.8% on March 15, 2023.

It has declined 12.4% amid a five-day losing streak.

Meanwhile, the SPDR S&P Metals & Mining exchange-traded fund XME slumped 2.6%, with 31 of its 33 equity components losing ground.

The selloff comes after Trump said on Fox News' "Sunday Morning Futures" program that tariffs on goods from China could be even higher than the 60% that the Washington Post reported he was considering.

After the Trump administration announced in March 2018 that it was placing tariffs of 10% on imported aluminum and of 25% on imported steel, Alcoa's stock plunged.

From the archives (July 2018): Alcoa CEO explains why aluminum tariffs are hurting, not helping

The stock lost 50.7% in 2018 for the second-worst yearly performance in its history, behind only the 69.2% drop in 2008 during the financial crisis, based on FactSet data going back to 1972.

The metals and mining ETF tumbled 28% in 2018, compared with the S&P 500's SPX 6.2% decline that year.

Among other more-active XME components on Monday, Freeport-McMoRan Inc. shares (FCX) shed 3.7%, Newmont Corp. shares (NEM) gave up 2.4%, Hecla Mining Co. shares (HL) slid 4.4%, Cleveland-Cliffs Inc. shares (CLF) slumped 2.6% and Uranium Energy Corp. shares (UEC) were down 1.5%.

Newmont's stock was headed for its lowest close since May 2019, and Hecla Mining shares were set to close at a four-month low, while Uranium Energy's stock was just two days removed from a 17-year closing high of $8.20 on Feb. 1.

-Tomi Kilgore

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02-05-24 1412ET

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