Shares in Uber slumped for a second day as investors continued to punish the ride-hailing giant after a lackluster float last week. Uber’s shares fell more than 8pc on Monday morning, shedding $20bn in value from its listing pricing ahead of an initial public offering (IPO) on Friday that valued it at $82bn.
The falls were amplified by a broad-based sell-off in big US technology stocks, which have been hammered by the threat of fresh tariffs in an increasingly bitter US-China trade war.
Shares in other technology companies were hit as China announced it would hit the US with tariffs of $60bn on $200bn worth of goods starting next month. The new tariffs, which will come into force on June 1, follow the announcement by US President Donald Trump on Friday of a doubling of tariffs on $200bn worth of goods.
Apple, which is viewed as highly exposed due to its big Chinese supply chain and assembly lines in the country, suffered a fall of more than 5pc in early trading, wiping tens of billions of dollars from the company’s value.
While the current set of tariffs do not affect Apple products like iPads or iPhones, US President Trump has also threatened a further 25pc tariff on “additional goods sent to us by China”.
Shares in Tesla, which has secured deals to build a new factory in China, also fell by 5pc.
Wedbush Securities analyst Ygal Arounian said investors were continuing to “grapple with the valuation” of Uber amid “trade tensions and market choppiness”.
Uber’s share price remained in focus after the company’s $82bn float on Friday underwhelmed investors. Having priced its share as $45, they quickly fell below $42 in one of the worst big technology floats in recent years.
Bankers often engineer a stock market listing so that company shares will receive an opening day boost. On Friday, Uber shares fell as low as $37, down more than 17pc on their original pricing.
Meanwhile, Lyft, Uber’s biggest rival, was similarly bruised, suffering a 5pc fall and cutting its market cap to around $14bn. Lyft’s opening day price at one stage touched as high as $30bn.
On Monday, President Trump said on Twitter that China would be “hurt very badly if you don’t make a deal”. The Dow Jones Industrial fell 470 points, or around 4pc, in early trading and the Nasdaq fell 3pc.
