Following the Trump administration’s eleventh-hour decision to exempt a wide range of tech products from new reciprocal tariffs, the major gains among the so-called Magnificent Seven stocks were triggered by Apple and Nvidia on Monday. The exemptions were issued late Friday by Customs and Border Protection, encompassing a broad category of consumer electronics, computing hardware and networking equipment, including the GPU and servers, without which Apple and Nvidia cannot function. According to the analysis of Bernstein analyst Stacy Rasgon, the excluded items themselves account for about $340 billion worth of global imports, of which $100 billion is directly tied to China.

Apple & Nvidia Leading the Way

The shares of Apple went up by 6.3% in premarket trading, sustained by news that almost every flagship product of Apple’s, namely iPhones, MacBooks, and Apple Watches, avoided immediate tariff risk. Citi analyst Atif Malik commented that the exemptions were broad enough to cover Apple’s core revenue-generating devices. At the time of mid-morning, Apple slightly reduced its gains to only about 3.5%.

Nvidia shares surged by more than 3%, mostly due to new exemptions that cover servers with the GPUs imported from Taiwan and China. Although most of Nvidia’s U.S related products are already shipped through Mexico under the USMCA trade agreement, this news brings an additional layer of supply-chain security. Reciprocal tariffs applicable to Taiwanese imports, a potential downside for Nvidia, have not come into force yet. Other leading names in big tech also saw a rise. On Monday, Google rose by 1.5%, Microsoft scaled 1%, AMD climbed by 2.7% and Qualcomm surged as much as 2%.

Relief for the Market

After weeks of disturbing events for tech investors, the tech rally arrives. On April 2, when Trump announced the global reciprocal tariffs, with some hefty duties of 34% and 46% to be applied on products imported from Taiwan and Vietnam, is set to take effect on April 9. The total initial announcement wiped out close to  $2 trillion in combined market caps of the ‘Magnificent Seven’.

However, last Wednesday, Trump announced that the rollout of most tariffs would be delayed for 90-days, leaving a 10% global baseline tariff that went into effect on April 5. The temporary pity on semiconductors, electronics, and other key goods now adds a new twist or a lifeline, depending on one’s view.

Trump, on telling reporters from Air Force One Sunday, emphasized that the tech exemptions were a temporary measure. He said,

“The tariffs will be in place in the not distant future because as with steel, like we did with automobiles, like we did with aluminum — which are now fully on — we’ll be doing that with semiconductors, with chips, and numerous other things. That’ll take place in the very near future. Adding that semiconductor tariffs will be announced over the next week.”

Optimistic Analysts

Dan Ives of Wedbush, pointing to the opportunity for renewed China trade negotiations and breathing room for tech giants caught in the policy crossfire said,

“Overall, we view the dizzying weekend tariff news as a step forward net positive for Apple as well as other tech names at it gives some flexibility and allows for China negotiations to hopefully take place in the coming months which could deescalate some tariff/trade war issues with Big Tech caught in the middle.”

At this time, the market appears to be in agreement. The rebound on Monday was a reflection of the cautious optimism that the tech trade war would either be avoided entirely or postponed. At the same time, because the tariff policy continues to be very much in flux, investors will remain on edge waiting for some clarity in the coming days.

There might be a brief interval from the government disciplinary actions, but the threat of tariffs looms large over an industry already suffering from geopolitical tension and AI arms races. If anything is learned from this, it is that policy impact is the new normal, and in this market, any pause is a victory. For now, the Magnificent Seven live to rally another day, but it will never be the same.