On Tuesday, before President Trump announced the possibility of new tariffs against China in his ongoing trade war with the country, Las Vegas Sands was trading at $55.01. As of yesterday afternoon, the price was down to $51.38. MGM Resorts has also suffered, sinking from $29.33 to a low of $27.63 on Wednesday. It has since recovered somewhat, though, and ended Thursday at $27.94.
Boyd Gaming has suffered one of the largest gut punches. The company wasn’t on solid footing prior to Trump’s announcement, but started Tuesday at around $24.38. It has been steadily declining since, and was down to $21.78 yesterday afternoon. Penn National is in the same boat, falling from $18.77 to $16.78 over the two-day period.
No one else was spared, either – Wynn Resorts, Caesars Entertainment, Eldorado Resorts and other U.S.-based casino operators have all had to batten down the hatches to weather the storm. Fortunately, many analysts aren’t convinced that a recession is on its way. The former chief of the Federal Reserve, Janet Yellen, said in an interview with Fox Business on Wednesday, “Historically, [the Treasury bond curve] been a pretty good signal of recession, and I think that’s why the markets pay attention to it, but I would really urge on this occasion it may be a less good signal. And the reason for that is that there are a number of factors other than market’s expectations about the future path of interest rates that are pushing down long-term yields.”
Even the cryptocurrency market seemed to react negatively to the latest in the trade war. Most higher-placed digital currencies saw their prices plummet but, unlike traditional markets, they have since recovered some of their losses.