Chipmakers were among the gainers pacing Wall Street higher today with heavyweight Nvidia on the rise, while Broadcom advanced as it started shipping its latest networking chip and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co played down the impact of tariffs on its business.
Meanwhile, investors have a sense of optimism about an upcoming call between presidents Donald Trump and Xi Jinping to get trade talks moving between the US and China, while the White House expects trading partners to lob in their best offers on Wednesday.
New Zealand firms aren’t too happy about Trump 2.0’s tariff regime, with ASB research showing local business leaders reckon the re-ordering of the global trade regime are having a bigger impact than the covid-19 pandemic that shut down the world or the global financial crisis.
And with food products seen as being in the firing line over tariffs, the latest Global Dairy Trade auction won’t provide much relief, with prices falling 1.6% at the event.
Make a call
Stock markets on both sides of the Atlantic were stronger ahead of the Wednesday deadline looming for countries to make their best offers to the US in their wide-ranging trade negotiations, while presidents Donald Trump and Xi Jinping are expected to speak this week after tensions flared up over whether either of the world’s two biggest economies were breaching their commitments.
“Trade wars and tariffs are off the front pages, but the White House confirmed that the US Trade Representative has sent letters to trading partners to remind them of an upcoming deadline in tariff negotiations,” Bank of New Zealand senior market strategist Jason Wong said in a note. “The US will evaluate the responses within days and offer a possible counterproposal that could include a reciprocal tariff rate.”
The Nasdaq Composite rose 0.9% in late trading with heavyweight chipmaker Nvidia advancing 2.9%. Chipmaker Broadcom hit a record after saying it’s launched its latest networking chip to accelerate artificial intelligence, while TSMC gained on guidance for record revenue and earnings as it shrugs of the impact of tariffs.
The threat of tariffs is weighing on the minds of New Zealand businesses, with ASB-commissioned research showing two-thirds of the 300-plus respondents are concerned about the import levies, with meat, dairy and wine seen as the most vulnerable sectors.
And in the latest GDT auction, the GDT price index fell 1.6% with an average selling price of US$4,332 a tonne, while whole milk powder prices dropped 3.7% to US$4,173 a tonne.
“Weaker prices over the past couple of auctions don’t change the bigger picture of dairy prices being elevated, after the strong run over the past 18 months,” BNZ’s Wong said.
Running defence
Stock markets in Europe were broadly stronger with the UK’s FTSE 100 up 0.2% with defence companies stronger as the government pledged increased military spending, while Germany’s DAX 30 gained 0.7%.
Meanwhile, the Netherlands is poised to hold a snap election after Freedom Party leader Geert Wilders collapsed the coalition government, accusing his partners of not doing enough on immigration, and South Korea’s former Democratic Party head Lee Jae-myung won the snap presidential election in the Asian nation.
Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 index is heading for a gain today with futures pointing to a 0.4% gain, while the kiwi dollar traded at 60.05 US cents at 7am in Auckland from 60.14 cents yesterday.
No local data is scheduled for today, while Australia’s March quarter gross domestic product is expected to show a 0.4% expansion across the Tasman.
Reporting by Paul McBeth. Image from Adi Goldstein on Unsplash.
