Market Highlights 💡 - 16 April 2025

Wall Street closed slightly lower, Asian markets rose modestly as investors focused on tariff developments and Chinese economic data.

🇺🇸 S&P 500 Index: -0.16%

🇺🇸 Nasdaq Index: -0.05%

🇪🇺 Stoxx 600 Index: 1.68%

🇯🇵 Nikkei 225 Index: 0.84%

🇭🇰 Hang Seng Index: 0.23%

🇨🇳 CSI 300 Index: 0.06%

🇸🇬 Straits Times Index: 2.14%

U.S. markets were weak, with the S&P 500 and Nasdaq down 0.2% and 0.1%, respectively. Although the banking sector found some support from strong earnings, weakness in the consumer and healthcare sectors, along with ongoing tariff uncertainty, kept investor sentiment cautious. President Trump hinted at a possible exemption for auto-related tariffs.

Asian markets mostly ended higher. The Hang Seng and CSI 300 indexes rose slightly by 0.2% and 0.1%, respectively, but gains were limited as investors weighed U.S. tariff developments, including intensified scrutiny on semiconductor imports, while awaiting China's Q1 GDP data for further market guidance.

Upcoming Events:

Wednesday: The U.S. and China will release core retail sales (MoM), Chinese retail sales (YoY), industrial production (YoY), and GDP (YoY).

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

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

Things to Know Today:

1. Johnson & Johnson's $Johnson & Johnson(JNJ)$  Q1 earnings beat market expectations, mainly driven by a 20% increase in sales of its cancer drug Darzalex. The company raised its 2025 revenue forecast by $700 million, while maintaining its earnings guidance despite a $400 million tariff cost and dilution impact from the $14.6 billion Intra-Cellular acquisition.

2. As the U.S. escalates its tariff actions, China is strengthening regional trade ties, promoting a "handshake rather than a fist" strategy, and deepening supply chain cooperation during President Xi's visit to Southeast Asia.

3. UBS $UBS Group AG(UBS)$  has cut China's 2025 GDP growth forecast to 3.4% — the lowest among major banks — citing escalating U.S. tariffs that could reduce exports to the U.S. by two-thirds and overall exports by 10%. This may prompt China to roll out fiscal stimulus and possible interest rate cuts by the central bank.

4. Huawei officially launched its CloudMatrix 384 super node, a next-gen AI infrastructure designed to compete with Nvidia's $NVIDIA Corp(NVDA)$   NVL72 system. The node reportedly delivers 300 petaflops of computing power, surpassing the NVL72's 180 petaflops, and has already been deployed in Huawei's data center in Wuhu, China.

5. South Korea has raised its chip industry support package to $23.25 billion, aiming to back companies like Samsung  and SK Hynix, responding to industry calls for greater government aid amid potential U.S. semiconductor tariffs and intensifying competition from China.

Key Takeaway:

“No news is good news.”After weeks of market volatility, investors finally had a rare day of relief. With trade tensions easing and no surprise policies from the White House, bond yields and market volatility pulled back, even as Wall Street ended the day slightly lower.

@Daily_Discussion  @Tiger_comments  @TigerStars