The S&P 500 briefly entered bear market territory today as it swung wildly in response to chaotic news reports about what the administration and other countries might do next regarding tariffs, which are taxes on imported goods. Overall, the S&P 500 is down 12% over the past month, declining 9% over the last five days.
Medtech stocks already declined in March from Trump’s tariff policies. Trump’s rollout of new taxes on imports from nearly all countries last week set off the latest plunge. Here’s how stocks of 10 of the largest medtech companies performed over the past month (percentages are rounded):
| Company | Stock Performance (1 Month) |
| Medtronic (NYSE: MDT) | –12% |
| Johnson & Johnson (NYSE: JNJ) | –10% |
| Stryker (NYSE: SYK) | –9% |
| GE HealthCare (Nasdaq: GEHC) | –30% |
| Abbott (NYSE: ABT) | –9% |
| Baxter (NYSE: BAX) | –22% |
| Boston Scientific (NYSE: BSX) | –8% |
| BD (NYSE: BDX) | –10% |
| Zimmer Biomet (NYSE: ZBH) | –2% |
| Intuitive Surgical (Nasdaq: ISRG) | –11% |
Investopedia reports that BTIG analysts said that GE HealthCare was especially hard hit because it faces both retaliatory tariffs from China and a newly launched anti-dumping probe by the East Asian giant.
Intuitive — the leading soft-tissue surgical robotics company — has seen its stock become especially sensitive to investor worries over a trade war with Mexico. Many of its surgical robotics instruments are made at its manufacturing plant in Mexicali, Mexico, and China is a fast-growing market for the company.
Medtech trade group AdvaMed said today that it continues to seek a medical device exemption from the Trump administration’s tariffs. The medical device industry association is warning of supply chain disruptions that will increase prices, reduce access to treatment, and force patients to wait longer for care.
AdvaMed and nine other healthcare groups wrote a letter to U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer “in support of the administration’s focus to make America healthy again and to express our concern about the impact of tariffs on medical and dental supplies, equipment, and devices.”
A new report out of William Blair mentioned a number of medtech stocks that could outperform in the present environment, including:
- Abbott, which the report said has the top three positions in the majority of its end-markets;
- Dexcom, described as the CGM market leader;
- iRythm, a market leader in continuous heart monitoring;
- Procept Biorobotics, a surgical robotics company with 10% penetration in a large benign prostatic hyperplasia market, with the potential to expand to treat prostate cancer tumor-associated macrophages.
Tariffs aren’t the only major challenge that the medtech industry faces under the Trump administration; the industry is also seeking to manage disruptions around the mass layoffs taking place at HHS, including at the FDA.
