By Mia MacGregor, Chris Munro

April 9 - (The Insurer) - U.S.-listed P&C (re)insurance stocks broadly surged on Wednesday, with President Trump’s afternoon announcement that he has pressed pause on tariffs for most countries prompting a jump late in the day’s trading.

The stocks of P&C (re)insurance industry players had already clawed back some of the losses suffered after Trump had last week announced the wide-reaching tariffs.

Those gains were further bolstered on Wednesday afternoon after the U.S. president revealed he was halting the tariffs for 90 days, with a baseline 10% imposed on most countries.

China is a notable exception, with Trump escalating the U.S. trade war with its Far East rival by raising tariffs on the country to 125%.

Among U.S.-listed P&C (re)insurers, insurtechs Root and Lemonade recorded the biggest gains, with their stocks rising 19.2% and 18.9%, respectively, during Wednesday’s trading.

Other notable increases were booked by Baldwin Group – up 10.5%, Palomar (9.2%), Kingstone (8.5%), Kinsale (7.7%), Assurant (7.5%), Mercury General (7.0%), American Financial Group (7.0%), Kemper (6.6%) and AIG (6.5%).

Among reinsurers, Arch Capital Group’s share price increased 5.9%, Axis Capital 5.7%, RenaissanceRe 5.6% and Everest Group 4.9%.

On the broking side of the business, Ryan Specialty recorded the largest gain at 5.4%, while WTW was in second place with 4.2%, and Marsh McLennan in third with 4.0%.

Arthur J Gallagher also made a 3.9% gain during Wednesday’s trading, with Brown & Brown seeing a 3.7% rise and Aon also up 3.7%.

Trump first unveiled a slew of tariffs measures on April 2. The U.S. president rattled global markets with his plans to implement a 10% base global tariff on April 5, along with higher reciprocal tariffs on roughly 60 countries starting April 9.

During a webinar hosted by The Insurer’s sister title Program Manager on Wednesday, panelists said the impact of those tariffs on the programs and MGA sector would depend heavily on how long the measures were in force.

If the tariffs are short-term negotiating tools, then the impact may be minimal, the panel suggested.

Bob Kimmel, co-founder and CEO of K2 Insurance Services, likened the current environment to the fallout from the 2008 financial crisis.

“This is more akin to the economic meltdown of ’08, where this could lead to cuts in jobs, less purchasing – certainly of cars and other big-ticket items,” Kimmel said.

“I think this is a tactic for negotiation, and hopefully it will be resolved within four weeks. But if it drags on long term, I think you could see a mild recession - and I think it would be more akin to the mortgage crisis than Covid.”

Jerome Breslin, founder and CEO of Clear Blue Financial Holdings, echoed that sentiment, and emphasized that the consequences depend on duration.

“This is a function of time,” Breslin said. “If this is a short-lived negotiating tactic – which it appears to be – it’s not going to have an impact.”

Tracey Sharis, CEO of Emerald Bay Risk Solutions, warned that a prolonged tariff environment could lead to broader economic instability.

“It’s a two-pronged issue: how it hits at home and how it hits the global and U.S. macroeconomy,” Sharis said. “If it goes on terribly long and impacts both, it could be quite disastrous.”