Market Highlights 💡 - 14 April 2025

Wall Street Closes Higher on Easing Inflation and Strong Bank Earnings; Asian Markets Rise on Trade Optimism

🇺🇸 S&P 500 Index: 1.81% 📈

🇺🇸 Nasdaq Index: 2.06% 📈

🇪🇺 Stoxx 600 Index: -0.04% 📉

🇯🇵 Nikkei 225 Index: -2.96% 📉

🇭🇰 Hang Seng Index: 1.13% 📈

🇨🇳 CSI 300 Index: 0.41% 📈

🇸🇬 Straits Times Index: -1.83% 📉

U.S. stocks rose, with the S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite up 1.8% and 2.1% respectively, driven by easing inflation pressures, better-than-expected bank earnings, and the Trump administration's temporary halt on new tariffs.

U.S. consumer confidence in April sharply declined, with the University of Michigan's index falling from 57.0 in March to 50.8, far below the market forecast of 54, due to escalating trade tensions and growing recession fears.

In March 2025, the U.S. Producer Price Index (PPI) fell by -0.4% month-over-month, marking the first decline in 18 months, mainly due to an 11.1% drop in gasoline prices and a 2.1% fall in wholesale food prices.

Asia-Pacific markets closed broadly higher. The Hang Seng and CSI 300 indices rose 1.1% and 0.4% respectively, supported by strong performances from BYD, Li Auto, and SMIC. Trump's remarks that a“preliminary trade agreement is very close”and optimism about future talks with Beijing further lifted market sentiment.

Upcoming Events:

Monday: Markets will watch for the release of China's new RMB loan data.

Wednesday: The U.S. and China will release data on core retail sales (MoM), China's retail sales (YoY), industrial output (YoY), and GDP (YoY).

Thursday: The U.S. will release the latest initial jobless claims.

Friday: Japan will publish its core Consumer Price Index (CPI).

Key Things to Know Today:

1. Trump plans to impose a new round of tariffs on previously exempt electronics such as smartphones and computers, and has launched a national security investigation targeting the semiconductor and pharmaceutical industries. This raises new uncertainties for tech firms like Apple $Apple(AAPL)$  and Dell $Dell Technologies Inc.(DELL)$  . 

Trump semiconductor tariff

2. Major U.S. banks posted strong Q1 2025 earnings. JPMorgan Chase, Morgan Stanley, and Wells Fargo all exceeded profit expectations, driven by record stock trading volumes and higher client fee income.

Major US banks

3. Alphabet $Alphabet(GOOGL)$   and Nvidia $NVIDIA Corp(NVDA)$   invested in Safe Superintelligence (SSI), an AI startup founded by OpenAI co-founder Ilya Sutskever. Valued at $32 billion, SSI uses Google's TPUs for AI research, gaining attention amid surging demand for advanced computing power.

Safe Superintelligence

4. In response to growing U.S.-China trade tensions, JD.com announced a 200 billion RMB initiative to help Chinese exporters pivot to the domestic market, including direct procurement, platform sections, and marketing support.

JD.com

5. Country Garden has reached a debt restructuring deal with creditors holding 30% of its $10.3 billion debt. The plan includes up to a 78% debt reduction and extended repayment terms. Chairwoman Yang Huiyan will convert her $1.15 billion loan into equity and inject $50 million into the company's Malaysian subsidiary, raising her stake to 60%.

Country Garden

Key Point:

Volatile tariff policies are intensifying market chaos and rent-seeking behavior, making it difficult for U.S. businesses to make sound investment and planning decisions amid ever-changing policy directions.

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