London (AFP) – Global stock markets rose Monday, as traders appeared to shrug off US President Donald Trump’s latest tariffs announcement surrounding levies on steel and aluminium. This was in contrast to a week ago when tariff announcements from Trump sent global equities tumbling. The fact that stock markets are up this time around “could be a sign of tariff fatigue,” said Kathleen Brooks, research director at trading group XTB. Trump warned over the weekend that every country would face unspecified “reciprocal” levies. Regarding steel and aluminium, the United States will move to impose tariffs as early as this week, Trump said.
Canada is the largest source of steel and aluminium imports to the United States, according to US trade data. Brazil, Mexico, and South Korea are also major steel providers to the country. The dollar rose against the Canadian dollar, Mexican peso, and South Korean won on Monday. The European Union said it had not received any official notification of extra tariffs from the United States while Britain said it had not seen “any detailed proposals” but was “ready for all situations.”
In equities trading, London led gains in Europe in afternoon trading. Hong Kong and Shanghai stocks rose Monday even as hopes of a delay to Trump’s tariffs against China were dashed. Chinese tech firms extended gains, buoyed by the success of AI startup DeepSeek. Investor sentiment was boosted by a “mixture of trade restrictions not being as bad as they might have been and hope for further Chinese stimulus,” said Derren Nathan, senior equity analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown. Tokyo was flat, despite Trump’s threats to target Japanese goods should the US trade deficit with the country fail to equalise.
Wall Street’s main indices moved higher at the opening bell. Losses of more than one percent on Friday “presumably triggered the buy-the-dip crowd that is driving the action this morning,” said Briefing.com analyst Patrick O’Hare. “There seems to be a healthy allowance, too, for the expectation that the stock market will quickly bounce back from last week’s losses like it always has on its bull market jaunt to record highs,” he added. Wall Street dropped Friday after official data showed US consumers increasingly worried about inflation and in reaction to news that fewer American jobs than expected had been created last month. But the readings did little to alter traders’ view that the Federal Reserve will cut interest rates two times at best this year.
In company news Monday, BP shares surged more than seven percent in London, following reports that a prominent activist fund had built a significant stake, aiming to turnaround the struggling oil and gas major. In Tokyo, Nippon Steel briefly fell more than two percent, following a Trump announcement that the Japanese giant would make a major investment in US Steel, but will no longer attempt to take it over. US Steel shares dived 5.8 percent in New York on Friday, but rebounded four percent on Monday as trading got underway.
– Key figures around 1430 GMT –
New York – Dow: UP 0.6 percent at 44,564.77 points
New York – S&P 500: UP 0.5 percent at 6,057.55
New York – Nasdaq: UP 0.7 percent at 19,668.84
London – FTSE 100: UP 0.8 percent at 8,769.02
Paris – CAC 40: UP 0.1 percent at 7,984.29
Frankfurt – DAX: UP 0.5 percent at 21,889.34
Tokyo – Nikkei 225: FLAT at 38,801.17 (close)
Hong Kong – Hang Seng Index: UP 1.8 percent to 21,521.98 (close)
Shanghai – Composite: UP 0.6 percent to 3,322.17 (close)
Euro/dollar: DOWN at $1.0307 from $1.0328 on Friday
Pound/dollar: DOWN at $1.2372 from $1.2405
Dollar/yen: UP at 151.76 yen from 151.43 yen
Euro/pound: UP at 83.32 from 83.24 pence
Brent North Sea Crude: UP 1.2 percent at $75.52 per barrel
West Texas Intermediate: UP 1.3 percent at $71.89 per barrel
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© 2024 AFP
