US Tariffs Spike Asian Stocks

The yield on the two-year Treasury, which more closely tracks expectations for what the Federal Reserve will do with short-term interest rates, fell to 4.27 per cent from 4.29 per cent. The Fed cut its main interest rate several times through the end of last year

Hong Kong: Stocks in Asia were mostly down Tuesday, after US President Donald Trump imposed 25 per cent tariffs on all US imports of steel and aluminum.Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index declined 0.87 per cent to 21,335.38, while the Shanghai Composite dipped 0.12 per cent to 3,318.06. Japan markets were closed for a national holiday. Meanwhile, the S&P/ASX 200 in Australia remained largely unchanged and South Korea’s KOSPI was up 0.71 per cent to 2,539.05. Trump said over the weekend he would announce 25 per cent tariffs on all steel and aluminum imports, with more import duties to come later in the week. Fear around tariffs has been at the centre of Wall Street’s moves recently, and experts say the market likely has more swings ahead.

The price of gold, which often rises when investors are feeling nervous, climbed again Monday to top $2,930 per ounce and set another record. The Dow Jones Industrial Average futures slid 82 points, about 0.18 per cent. The S&P 500 futures and Nasdaq 100 futures respectively fell 0.28 per cent and 0.36 per cent. But Trump has shown he can be just as quick to pull back on threats, like he did with 25 per cent tariffs he had announced on Canada and Mexico, suggesting they may be merely a negotiating chip rather than a true long-term policy. Trump has pressed ahead with 10 per cent tariffs on Chinese goods, while China has retaliated by imposing tariffs on US coal and liquefied natural gas products as well as crude oil, agricultural machinery and large-engine cars.

“Beijing’s restraint in targeting only a small sliver of US goods is deemed to be a deliberately less than proportionate response to avert an escalatory tit-for-tat spiral,” said Vishnu Varathan, head of macro research at Mizuho. “Nonetheless, the reality is that US-China trade tensions are set to structurally ramp-up, even if a negotiated compromise is the endgame for Trump 2.0 tariffs,” Varathan added.

The S&P 500 rose 40.45 points to 6,066.44 on Monday. The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 167.01 to 44,4701.41, and the Nasdaq composite jumped 190.87 to 19,714.27. In the bond market, the yield on the 10-year Treasury held steady at 4.50 per cent. The yield on the two-year Treasury, which more closely tracks expectations for what the Federal Reserve will do with short-term interest rates, fell to 4.27 per cent from 4.29 per cent. The Fed cut its main interest rate several times through the end of last year, but traders have been sharply curtailing their expectations for more reductions in 2025, in part because of fears about potentially higher inflation from tariffs.

While lower rates can give a boost to the economy and investment prices, they can also give inflation more fuel. Fed Chair Jerome Powell will be offering testimony before Congress later this week, where he could offer more hints about what the Fed is thinking. In December, Fed officials sent financial markets sharply lower after indicating they may cut rates only twice this year. In energy trading, benchmark US crude added 51 cents to $72.83 a barrel. Brent crude, the international standard, rose 44 cents to $76.31 a barrel. In currency trading, the US dollar remained largely unchanged at about 151.95 Japanese yen. The euro cost $1.0305, also largely unchanged.