The company doesn’t directly benefit from tariffs. Instead, the stock benefits from the disruptions tariffs are going to cause. Recent fears have caused AWK to deliver gains and it is up 9.25% in the past month as many are rotating their gains into stocks resistant to tariffs. The longer these tariffs stick around, the more AWK is going to benefit.

In general, the average tax on U.S. imports has declined in the past century as the nation has embraced free trade and globalization. Below, I'll examine instances when import taxes increased in order to make an educated guess about how President Trump's tariffs might impact the S&P 500, the best benchmark for the U.S. stock market.

President Donald Trump announced the largest increase in tariffs in U.S. history on April 2, unveiling new import duties that he said would revive domestic manufacturing and amount to a national “Declaration of Economic Independence.