RH and Williams-Sonoma Stocks Get Hit By Trump’s Tariffs on Furniture

Wayfair furniture on display at a pop-up in New York City. (Jason Mendez/Getty Images for Wayfair)

Key Points

About This Summary

• RH and Williams-Sonoma fell after new tariffs were announced on home furnishings.
• President Trump stated a 50% tariff on kitchen cabinets and a 30% levy on upholstered furniture will take effect Wednesday.
• RH’s CEO noted that manufacturing high-quality wood or metal furniture at scale does not exist in America.

Shares in Restoration Hardware parent RH and Williams-Sonoma were falling on Friday after President Donald Trump said his administration would impose fresh tariffs on kitchen cabinets, bathroom vanities, and upholstered furniture.

RH stock dropped 1.6%, and Williams-Sonoma fell 1.2% in early trading. Wayfair bucked the trend with a 1.1% gain. The S&P 500 was up 0.6% after personal consumption expenditures inflation data came in as expected, paving the way for an October interest-rate cut.

The moves came after Trump said he would impose a 50% tariff on kitchen cabinets, bathroom vanities, and other similar products, and a 30% levy on upholstered furniture.

“The reason for this is the large scale ‘FLOODING’ of these products into the United States by other outside Countries,” Trump wrote in a post on his social-media platform Truth Social. “It is a very unfair practice, but we must protect, for National Security and other reasons, our Manufacturing process.”

The new tariffs, which will take effect on Wednesday, are a blow for the furniture retailers, because the companies tend to rely on cheaper imports from China, as well as Vietnam and other countries in South East Asia.

RH CEO Gary Friedman warned about furniture tariffs earlier this month. Manufacturing of high-quality wood or metal furniture “does not exist at scale in America. It would require years of investments in building the facilities and workforce that most in this industry cannot afford to make,” he said in a letter to shareholders accompanying RH’s quarterly results.

Write to George Glover at george.glover@dowjones.com