The Hang Seng Index reversed its downward trend in Hong Kong on Thursday (February 12th), weakening by around 0.9% to around 27,000 after a strong session earlier. This decline halted the momentum of the short term rally, as investors began to reduce risk in large cap stocks. Among the index's contributors, Tencent was a major drag, with its shares falling by around 2.3%, putting pressure on the technology sector, which has recently been a driving force behind market gains. Weakness in large cap companies like this typically quickly impacts sentiment due to their significant weighting in...
A group of small businesses that won a ruling that most of President Donald Trump's global tariffs are illegal wants the tariffs blocked during the government's appeal, saying they are suffering direct harm from economic uncertainty. In a filing Monday with the U.S. Court of International Trade, which last week ruled that Trump exceeded his authority in imposing broad trade levies, the groups opposed the administration's request to keep the tariffs in place during its appeal. The appeals process is likely to drag on for months, so a pause would be a win for the White House. It's unclear...
The ISM Manufacturing PMI in the US fell to 48.5 in May 2025 from 48.7 in April, below market expectations of 49.5. The reading marked the third consecutive month of contraction in the manufacturing sector and the sharpest decline since November 2024, highlighting mounting economic uncertainty and sustained cost pressures, partly driven by volatile trade policies under the Trump administration. Output, new orders, employment, and backlog of orders all declined but at a slower pace, while new export sales dropped more sharply. Meanwhile, the Inventories Index slipped into contraction...
Trump said he would increase tariffs on Steel and Aluminium to 50% from 25%, effective 4 June. He made the announcement as he visited a US Steel Corp. plant on Friday. Later on, Trump said he would raise Aluminium rates in a Truth Social post, ING's commodity experts Ewa Manthey and Warren Patterson note. Trump says the tariffs are aimed at bolstering domestic production "The US imports significant volumes of Aluminium and Steel from Canada. It imports roughly half of its Aluminium needs from abroad, with Canada the biggest supplier, accounting for 58% of imports, followed by 6% from the...
China on Monday refuted Washington's claims that it had broken the Geneva trade agreement, instead accusing the U.S. for breaching deal terms, signaling talks between the worlds top two economies have taken a turn for the worse. Trade frictions between Washington and Beijing have flared up after a hiatus following a meeting between U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and his Chinese counterpart He Lifeng in Geneva, Switzerland, that had led them to suspend most tariffs for 90 days. The Trump administration has ratcheted up export restrictions on semiconductor design software and...
China's Commerce Ministry on Monday rejected accusations from U.S. President Donald Trump that the country had violated a recent trade agreement signed in Geneva, Switzerland. China claimed it had "taken seriously, strictly implemented, and actively upheld the consensus reached at the talks with U.S. in Geneva," the Ministry of Commerce said in a statement. The statement said Washington had "made bogus charges and unreasonably accused China of violating the consensus, which is seriously contrary to the facts". "China firmly rejects these unreasonable accusations," the commerce ministry...