TOKYO (AP) — Asian shares were trading mixed Wednesday as markets mulled the impact of tariffs being imposed by the United States and China.Japan’s benchmark Nikkei 225 recouped earlier losses and was little changed, up less than 0.1% in afternoon trading at 38,820.77. Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 rose 0.5% to 8,416.90. The Hang Seng dropped 1.2% to 20,543.93, while the Shanghai Composite lost 0.7% to 3,227.20. South Korea’s Kospi jumped 1.1% to 2,508.79, as investors found bargains after the recent price dips and found optimism from the overnight Wall Street rally.Some analysts see tariffs on China as separate from Trump’s moves against other trading partners. Trump may be more likely to keep tariffs on China longer, as he did in his first presidential term, to separate the United States more from its geopolitical rival.Trump is pressing ahead with a 10% tariff on U.S. companies importing things from China. And China retaliated on Tuesday by announcing its own tariffs on some U.S. products and an antitrust investigation into Google.China’s 15% tariff on U.S. coal and liquefied natural gas products, as well as a 10% tariff on crude oil, agricultural machinery and large-engine cars imported from the United States won’t take effect until Monday. That leaves time for negotiations between Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping.“Trade tensions haven’t exploded yet, but they’re simmering dangerously close to a full boil, and anyone brushing them off does so at their own risk,” said Stephen Innes, managing partner at SPI Asset Management.On Wall Street, calm returned, as tech stocks led U.S. indexes higher following a strong profit report from Palantir Technologies, a darling benefiting from the artificial-intelligence boom.The S&P 500 rose 0.7% a day after swinging sharply on worries that President Donald Trump’s tariffs could spark a trade war that would hurt economies around the world, including the United States.The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 134 points, or 0.3%, and the Nasdaq composite climbed 1.4%.Trump on Monday agreed to delay his taxes on U.S. imports of Canadian and Mexican products for a month. That bolstered Wall Street’s longstanding hopes that Trump’s tough talk on tariffs may be just that, talk. The hope is that Trump sees tariffs as a stick he can use in negotiations with trading partners rather than as a long-term policy.That hope is built in part on traders’ belief that Trump would likely be turned off by the damage Wall Street would take if a worst-case, long-term trade war were to occur. Trump has pointed in the past to the stock market as a real-time measure of his performance.But a trade war is still possible, and some analysts say more swings may be coming because Trump’s threats should be taken both seriously and literally.“Investors have suggested the equity market is the US administration’s scorecard and any policy changes that hurt risk assets will be quickly dialed back,” Bank of Am
Mer. Feb 5th, 2025
