Wall Street’s main indices recovered losses on Friday, as investors repositioned portfolios while digesting the ongoing trade tensions between the world’s two largest economies.
After a battering this week, the Nasdaq finished the day up 2.06 percent; the S&P 500 rose 1.81 percent; and the Dow Jones grew 1.56 percent.
Ten companies, on the other hand, defied a wider market optimism, recording modest losses during the day. In this article, we have listed Friday’s worst performers and detailed the reasons behind their declines.
To come up with the list, we considered only the stocks with a $2 billion market capitalization and $5 million trading volume.
Source: Pexels
10. RLX Technology Inc. (NYSE:RLX)
RLX Technology dropped its share prices for a third straight day on Friday, shedding 2.30 percent to finish at $1.7 apiece as investors resorted to profit-taking while repositioning portfolios to mitigate the risks of the ongoing market uncertainties.
RLX, an electronic cigarette maker, is underway with its global expansion. Late last year, the company said it would continue to focus on strategic global expansion and innovation to enhance shareholder value. However, with the escalating trade war globally, concerns were raised over whether the company’s expansion program remains on track.
In the fourth quarter of 2024, RLX saw net revenues surge by 56 percent to RMB813.5 million from RMB520.5 million in the same period a year earlier. However, net income dropped by 41 percent to RMB127.4 million from RMB216 million year-on-year.
Revenues for the full-year 2024 period jumped by 73 percent to RMB2.75 billion from RMB1.59 billion year-on-year, while net income rose by 4 percent to RMB564.3 million from RMB541 million.
9. GitLab Inc. (NASDAQ:GTLB)
GitLab extended losses for a second day on Friday, shedding 2.47 percent to end at $41.92 apiece as investors sold off positions following news that a hacking incident exposed personal information of some 200,000 Europcar customers.
In late March, hackers claimed that they had gained access to the GitLab repositories of Europcar.
Reports also said that the hackers tried to extort the company by threatening to publish 37GB of data, including the company’s backups and details about its cloud infrastructure and internal applications.
Last month, the company said it swung to a net income of $10.8 million for the fourth-quarter period of fiscal year 2025, reversing the $36.9 million net loss in the same period a year earlier.
Revenues, on the other hand, rose 29 percent to $211.4 million from $163.8 million year-on-year.
For the full-year period, GTLB remained at a net loss of $2.4 million, albeit 423.3 percent narrower than the $ 425.7 million in 2023.
Revenues increased by 31 percent to $759.2 million from $579.9 million.
8. VF Corporation (NYSE:VFC)
VF Corporation declined for a second day on Friday, losing 2.88 percent to end at $11.11 apiece as investors continued to sell off positions in the company to minimize risks from the heightening US-China trade war.
VFC designs, manufactures, and markets branded apparel such as The North Face, Timberland, Vans, Dickies, Jansport, and Kipling and has one of the largest international exposures with various facilities across the world, including China.
With the ongoing trade war, VFC faces the risks of higher prices and, potentially, lower demand for its products after the US and China slapped more-than-double tax rates on each other’s goods.
In recent news, VFC said that it would continue to install new concept stores for its Kipling brand this year, which has been adapted for travel-retail gondolas.
“With Kipling, we are continuously expanding our international presence, with a steadily growing business in the Americas,” said VFC Director Thomas Falcy.
“Our presence in South American airports has been expanding significantly, and we will continue to fuel and strengthen this growth. We are also looking to enhance our presence in North American airports, as we see a major development opportunity there, driven by Kipling’s domestic success and international appeal,” he added.
7. Aurora Innovation Inc. (NASDAQ:AUR)
Aurora Innovation dropped its share prices by 3.13 percent on Friday to close at $6.19 apiece as investors repositioned portfolios ahead of the looming launch of its autonomous driving trucks and an investment firm’s conservative rating for the company.
On Thursday, Goldman Sachs gave AUR a price target of $6, lower than Thursday and Friday’s closing prices of $6.39 and $6.19, respectively.
The investment firm also assigned a Neutral rating for the stock, albeit a slight improvement from the Sell rating previously.
According to Goldman Sachs, the new rating reflected a shift in market focus from the ramp-up and economics of AV trucking to the feasibility of the technology itself, which Goldman Sachs believed was achievable.
Meanwhile, AUR recently received an “outperform” rating and a price target of $15 from Oppenheimer. The rating was based on AUR’s methodical and sustainable progress in the industry which it will face limited competition, further supported by its expected launch of driverless trucks this year.
6. Rigetti Computing Inc. (NASDAQ:RGTI)
Rigetti Computing dropped its share prices by 3.4 percent on Friday to finish at $9.10 apiece as investors repositioned portfolios following news that China is now setting its sights on quantum computing advancements after DeepSeek’s boom.
Earlier this week, Chinese researchers in Hefei announced a huge breakthrough by using a real quantum computer, called Origin Wukong, to improve a huge artificial intelligence model with 1 billion parameters.
The project was said to be the first in the world that had done such with a real quantum machine.
Origin Wukong is a powerful computer with 72 qubits and is used to improve AI performance by 8.4 percent.
Meanwhile, RGTI is expected to release a 36-qubit system based on four 9-qubit chips by mid-2025.
By the end of the year, it expects to release a system with over 100 qubits with a targeted 2x reduction in error rates from the current level.
5. Bath & Body Works, Inc. (NYSE:BBWI)
Bath and Body Works saw its share prices tumble by 3.55 percent on Friday to end at $26.64 each as investors repositioned portfolios amid the company’s risks from the ongoing global trade tensions.
Earlier this year, BBWI forecast annual sales largely below expectations as it grapples with uncertainties in consumer spending due to the US-China trade war.
In the latest update, Beijing retaliated with a 125-percent tariff on US goods but signaled that if the US continues to raise tariffs, it would not respond.
“Given the current level of tariffs, U.S. goods exported to China are no longer market-viable,” the Chinese Ministry of Finance said in a statement announcing the new levies.
Meanwhile, BBWI still earned an upgraded rating of Overweight from investment firm Piper Sandler, saying that, along with Inter Parfums, it was well-positioned to benefit from the increasing demand in the fragrance category.
4. TAL Education Group (NYSE:TAL)
TAL Education declined by 3.61 percent on Friday to end at $9.60 each as investors resumed disposing of shares in the company amid the ongoing trade war and ahead of its earnings results for the fourth quarter and fiscal year of 2025.
According to TAL, it would release its financial performance for the fourth quarter and fiscal year ended February 28, 2025, before the market opens on April 24, 2025.
Earlier this month, TAL officially entered the oversold territory, hitting a relative strength index reading of 29.1.
TAL is investing heavily in Artificial Intelligence in a bid to bolster its modern learning products and services.
Just recently, it launched what it called the “Genius Tutor,” an AI-powered system that transforms learning into an interactive and engaging experience.
The GeniusTutor was built on the Microsoft Azure OpenAI GPT-4o model, which provides real-time guidance and feedback.
3. AppLovin Corp. (NASDAQ:APP)
AppLovin dropped for a second day on Friday, shedding 5.26 percent to end at $249.95 apiece as investors sold off following a shareholder law firm’s announcement urging shareholders to join a class action lawsuit against the company.
On Thursday, law firm Levi & Korsinsky urged shareholders who lost money between May 10, 2023, and February 25, 2025, from their investments in APP to join the lawsuit alleging APP of reporting dishonest advertising practices.
“According to the complaint, defendants provided investors with material information concerning AppLovin’s financial growth and stability…Moreover, defendants publicly reported impressive financial results, outlooks, and guidance to investors, all while using dishonest advertising practices,” the law firm said.
“The truth emerged on February 26, 2025, when analyst research reports emerged stating that AppLovin was reverse engineering and exploiting advertising data from Meta Platforms. The reports further alleged AppLovin was utilizing manipulative practices to artificially inflate their own ad click-through and app download rates, such as by having ads click on themselves or utilizing design gimmicks to trigger forced shadow downloads, erroneously inflating installation numbers and, in turn, its profit figures,” it claimed.
APP, however, reassured investors of best practices, adding that it hired a law firm to investigate the allegations.
2. Full Truck Alliance Co. Ltd. (NYSE:YMM)
Full Truck Alliance dropped for a second day on Friday as investors sold off positions amid the lack of fresh catalysts to spark buying appetite.
While YMM—a digital freight platform connecting shippers with truckers in China—is not directly impacted by the ongoing trade tensions between the two of the world’s largest economies, it remains vulnerable to risks of reduced freight demand and domestic supply disruptions.
Last month, the company said that it was considering its public listing in Hong Kong to mitigate risks from the US-China trade tensions.
The company had initially planned a dual primary listing in Hong Kong in 2022 due to stricter audit requirements for US-listed Chinese firms but later axed the plan after the US audit said it gained full access to inspect and investigate firms in China for the first time ever.
1. Texas Instruments Incorporated (NASDAQ:TXN)
Texas Instruments touched a new all-time low at intra-day trading on Friday at $139.95, before slight buying persisted to close the day just down by 5.75 percent at $147.60 apiece.
TXN, a global semiconductor company based in the US, fell after China on Friday announced new tariffs targeting semiconductor imports.
According to the China Semiconductor Industry Association, customs determines the origin of imports by where chips are manufactured, not the home country of origin, putting further pressure on TXN which has manufacturing plants in the US and in the Chengdu High-Tech Zone in Chengdu.
The Chinese government has been targeting US chipmakers since early this year, particularly to look into chip grants and alleged dumping, to ensure that the US was not unlawfully subsidizing chipmakers and undercutting Chinese products.
The investigation followed complaints from Chinese semiconductor companies about the US Chips Act which allocates some $39 billion to encourage Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. and Samsung Electronics Co. to develop high-end chipmaking facilities in the US.
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