European and Asian stock markets rose Monday as traders appeared to shrug off US President Donald Trump’s latest tariff announcement surrounding levies on steel and aluminium.
This was in contrast to a week ago when tariff announcements from Trump sent global equities tumbling.
“The fact that global equity indices are higher at the start of the week could be a sign of tariff fatigue,” said Kathleen Brooks, research director at trading group XTB.
Trump warned over the weekend that every country would face unspecified “reciprocal” levies.
Regarding steel and aluminium, the United States will move to impose tariffs as early as this week, Trump said.
Canada is the largest source of steel and aluminium imports to the United States, according to US trade data.
Brazil, Mexico and South Korea are also major steel providers to the country.
The dollar rose against the Canadian dollar, Mexican peso and South Korean won on Monday.
In equities trading, London led gains in Europe approaching the half-way stage.
It came as the European Union said it had not received any official notification of extra duties from the United States.
Hong Kong and Shanghai stocks rose Monday even as hopes of a delay to Trump’s tariffs against China were dashed.
Chinese tech firms extended gains, buoyed by the success of AI startup DeepSeek.
Investor sentiment was boosted by a “mixture of trade restrictions not being as bad as they might have been and hope for further Chinese stimulus,” said Derren Nathan, senior equity analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown.
Tokyo was flat, despite Trump’s threats to target Japanese goods should the US trade deficit with the country fail to equalise.
Wall Street dropped Friday after official data showed US consumers increasingly worried about inflation and in reaction to news that fewer American jobs than expected had been created last month.
Be the first to comment