The city skyline of Lujiazui Shanghai Center in China, on March 13, 2024.
Cfoto | Future Publishing | Getty Images
Asia-Pacific markets were set to open mixed as U.S. President Donald Trump’s fresh tariff threats weigh on investor sentiment.
Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 traded 0.37% higher at the open.
Japan’s Nikkei 225 futures pointed to a higher open for the market, with the futures contract in Chicago at 38,150 compared to the index’s previous close of 38,142.37.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index futures were at 23,625, weaker than the HSI’s last close of 23,787.93.
Trump on Wednesday threatened to impose 25% tariffs on imports from the European Union. This comes on the back of the president’s declaration to go forward with tariffs on Mexico and Canada after a monthlong postponement.
Investors will be keeping an eye on Asian chip stocks after technology darling Nvidia’s fourth-quarter earnings beat Wall Street expectations. The chipmaker also provided strong guidance for the current quarter and indicated its confidence in continuing its historic run of growth fueled by artificial intelligence.
“While markets have begun to react to these developments, deep tariff risks are still being underpriced,” Goldman Sachs wrote in a note released Wednesday.
Kamakshya Trivedi, the investment bank’s head of global FX, rates and EM strategy, said that the scope for U.S. equities to fall further and a stronger move in the dollar still exists if Trump “walks the walk” on broader and bigger tariffs.
Overnight in the U.S., the S&P 500 eked out gains, snapping a four-day run of losses to close at 5,956.06 The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 188.04 points, or 0.43%, to end at 43,433.12. The 30-stock average was earlier up as much as 245.34 points, or about 0.6%. Meanwhile, the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite rose 0.26% and ended at 19,075.26.
—CNBC’s Hakyung Kim and Brian Evans contributed to this report.
