Furniture Brands Brace for Tariffs as Trump Teases New Trade Penalties

Couches and coffee tables just became the latest casualties in America’s trade war theater. President Trump’s recent announcement about investigating furniture imports sent home furnishing stocks tumbling on Monday, with major retailers bracing for potential new tariffs within 50 days. The threat hit hardest on companies heavily reliant on overseas manufacturing, creating a clear divide between import-dependent giants and domestic producers.

• In the past five days, WayfairW
  is down 9.9%, while RHRH
  and Williams-SonomaWSM
  dropped 3.2% and 1.8% respectively, as investors fled import-dependent businesses.
• Meanwhile, US-focused manufacturers like La-Z-BoyLZB
  and Ethan AllenETD
  nudged higher by 10% and 0.1% during the same period, thanks to their domestic production advantages.

Trading places: The White House later clarified that furniture investigations have been ongoing since March as part of a broader timber and lumber probe, with industry groups expecting results this week. Companies have already begun reshuffling their supply chains — RH plans to source just 2% from China by year-end, down from 16% at the start of 2024, while boosting US upholstered furniture production to over half by 2025. With ~70% of US household furniture coming from imports and buyers quick to hold off on non-essential upgrades, the sector could end up suffering a tariff-fueled demand slump.