Global shares mostly gain as uncertainty over US tariffs persists
By JIANG JUNZHE Associated Press HONG KONG AP Global markets were mostly higher on Monday as investors watched to see what may come of negotiations over U S President Donald Trump s tariffs The future for the S P dropped while that for the Dow Jones Industrial Average slid Germany s DAX added to and the CAC in Paris gained to Britain s FTSE advanced to Shares in China slipped despite more efforts by Beijing to boost the financial market as the status of talks between Washington and Beijing remained unclear Trump has declared he s actively negotiating with the Chinese authorities on tariffs while the Chinese and U S Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent stated that talks have yet to start Hong Kong s Hang Seng was nearly unchanged at while the Shanghai Composite Index fell to Tokyo s Nikkei picked up to and the Kospi in South Korea was nearly unchanged at Australia s S P ASX advanced closing at Taiwan s Taiex gained On Friday Big Tech stocks helped Wall Street close a winning roller-coaster week one that saw markets swing from fear to relief and back to caution because of Trump s commerce war The S P rose capping a big three-day rally It s within of its record set earlier this year Spurts for Nvidia and other influential tech stocks sent the Nasdaq composite up a market-leading while the Dow Jones Industrial Average added only a modest Alphabet climbed in its first trading after Google s parent company stated late Thursday that its profit soared in the beginning of from a year earlier more than analysts expected Another industry heavyweight Nvidia was also a major force pushing the S P index upward after the chip company rose They helped offset a drop for Intel which fell even though its results for the beginning of the year also topped expectations Despite last week s rally as talk of Trump firing Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell receded and hints emerged of a selective softening of his stance on tariffs not much has changed Stephen Innes of SPI Asset Management announced in a commentary But let s not kid ourselves this isn t a clean pivot It s hope and narrative management plain and simple What s really driving the bounce isn t hard protocol action it s the perception of de-escalation Innes reported Trump says he s on a path to cut several new transaction deals in a meager weeks but has also suggested it s physically impossible to hold all the needed meetings Companies across industries have increasingly been saying the uncertainty created by Trump s tariffs is making it complicated to give financial forecasts for the upcoming year The hope is that if Trump rolls back various of his stiff tariffs he could avert a recession that several investors see as otherwise likely because of his contract war But the on-again-off-again tariffs may be pushing households and businesses to alter their spending and freeze plans for long-term assets because of how speedily conditions can change sometimes seemingly by the hour A record Friday reported sentiment among U S consumers sank in April though not by as much as economists expected The survey from the University of Michigan disclosed its measure of expectations for coming conditions has dropped since January for the steepest three-month percentage decline seen since the recession In other dealings early Monday U S benchmark crude oil lost cents to per barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange Brent crude the international standard inched cents lower to per barrel The U S dollar declined to Japanese yen from yen The euro fell to from
