Tommy Hilfiger and Calvin Klein owner PVH (PVH) and biotechnology company Illumina (ILMN) were among the first casualties on the American side as China fired its opening shots in a nascent trade war between the two superpowers.
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Shares in both companies fell sharply in pre-market trading in New York on Tuesday, February 4th, after they were singled out by China as part of Beijing’s retaliatory blast against the U.S., after the White House slapped a 10% tariff on Chinese goods.
This “opening salvo” in the trade war, as President Trump described it, prompted China to levy tariffs of 10-15% taxes on LNG, crude oil, coal and farm equipment exports from the U.S. There will be some additional tariffs on some US car exports and controls on rare earth metals including tungsten.
PVH, ILMN Blacklisted by China
Singling out a handful of American companies, China’s commerce ministry placed clothing brand PVH Group on the country’s “unreliable entity list”, a national security blacklist. It follows an investigation by China into the company’s alleged discrimination against cotton from the Xinjiang region, where China is accused of human rights abuses.
Shares of PVH, formerly known as the Phillips-Van Heusen Corporation, declined 4% in pre-market trading, after falling 7% on Monday and are now down 20% YTD.
Gene sequencing firm Illumina was also put on the list for national security reasons, the ministry said. ILMN stock fell 4.64% in pre-market trading, having dipped 1.24% on Monday.
At the same time, China’s antitrust regulator opened an investigation into Alphabet (GOOGL), though any potential impact ought to be contained as the firm’s Google search engine is already banned in China.
ILMN is scheduled to report Fiscal fourth quarter earnings on 02/06/2025, after the market closes. Wall Street analysts expect the company to post earnings of $0.92 per share on revenues of $1.08 billion.
Is ILMN a Good Stock to Buy?
Overall, Wall Street has a Moderate Buy on ILMN stock, based on eight Buys, seven Holds and one Sell. The average ILMN price target of $164 implies 25% upside from current levels, with the stock having seen a 5% decline in the last 12 months.
