What Happened?
Shares of game engine maker Unity (NYSE: U) fell 6.3% in the morning session after anxiety and uncertainty rattled markets as the major stock indices pulled back in the morning session amid concerns about "reciprocal tariffs" to be announced later in the week. The planned tariffs, scheduled for April 2, 2025 (dubbed Liberation Day), were targeted at all countries where the United States had a trade deficit.
Simply put, if a US trading partner imposed higher tariffs on American goods than the US did on theirs, the "reciprocal tariffs" would apply.
The prospect of heightened trade tensions seemed to have stoked fears of stagflation (slower economic growth and elevated inflation) as the anticipated tariffs will likely raise input costs for businesses.
The stock market overreacts to news, and big price drops can present good opportunities to buy high-quality stocks. Is now the time to buy Unity? Access our full analysis report here, it’s free.
What The Market Is Telling Us
Unity’s shares are extremely volatile and have had 39 moves greater than 5% over the last year. In that context, today’s move indicates the market considers this news meaningful but not something that would fundamentally change its perception of the business.
The previous big move we wrote about was 7 days ago when the stock gained 5.7% on the news that stocks rebounded (Nasdaq +2.0%, S&P 500 +1.5%) following a report from The Wall Street Journal stating that the Trump administration's reciprocal tariffs, to be announced on April 2, 2025, would be more narrowly targeted. The market reaction indicated that investors took that as a sign the economic impact of the tariffs, particularly on inflation and growth, might not be as bad as they initially feared.
That's a bit of a relief, which likely gave businesses and analysts some space to rethink their outlooks. Earlier, the administration had hinted at much broader tariffs that could have hit any country placing duties on U.S. imports, so this shift was likely a welcome surprise for the market.
Unity is down 20% since the beginning of the year, and at $19.59 per share, it is trading 30.9% below its 52-week high of $28.34 from February 2025. Investors who bought $1,000 worth of Unity’s shares at the IPO in September 2020 would now be looking at an investment worth $286.79.
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