The drama of increased tariff continued to unfold as the retaliation from other nations weighed on the performance of major markets. The auto tariffs and the tariffs policy announcement scheduled for April 2nd dominated the financial markets’ headlines this week. Asian and European markets were affected the most by the news. Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney has called for a federal election on April 28. The U.S. bombed Yemen Airport and other strategic targets after Houthi rebels claimed responsibility for a ballistic missile launched on Israel. Israel’s attack on Hamas leadership continued this week. A high-profile U.S. delegation will be visiting Greenland. Ukraine and Russia agreed to a truce on attacks in the Black Sea and on Energy targets. Ukrainian officials have signaled that the mineral deal with the U.S. is yet to be finalized.

Global Updates
  • The MSCI All Country World Index was slightly lower this week. Europe and Asian markets shed initial gains in the week, following the announcement of auto tariffs on Thursday starting next week. Any optimism from the assurances of tariff flexibility by Trump on Friday was given up, after the news of 25% tariffs on all foreign made vehicles from April 2. 
  • German unemployment rose to 6.3% for march due to economic slowdown. 
  • Abott Laboratories was granted the approval for commercial application of its Volt Pulse Field Ablation (PFA) system for heart patients in the European Union. 
  • Asian equity markets declined on the news of tariffs on auto imports starting next week. Japanese and South Korean automakers Toyota, Honda, Subaru, Hyundai, and Kia were impacted the most. Technology stocks also faced selling pressure, tracking an overnight decline in US tech giants. 
  • UBS has received approval from Chinese authorities to fully own its Beijing based joint venture UBS Securities.
  • Ubisoft stock gained after Tencent invested $1.25 billion in the company’s new subsidiary.
  • Hong Kong based CK Hutchison Holdings Ltd. is seeking to spin off a global telecommunications business listed on the London Stock Exchange.  
  • Copper Futures have risen this week due to supply concerns and possible U.S. tariffs on copper imports.
  • A high-powered U.S. delegation including vice-president J.D. Vance, Usha Vance, N.S.A. Michael Waltz and Secretary of Energy Chris Wright will be visiting a military base in Greenland on Friday. The planned visit had to be scaled back following and uproar by politicians from Greenland and Denmark.
U.S. Equity
  • The S&P 500 index, Dow Jones and Nasdaq indices ended the week marginally higher due to a jump in investor sentiments early in the week after President Trump signaled that the reciprocals tariffs scheduled to go into effect on April 2nd could be industry and country specific. 
  • The market slump following the announcement of tariffs on imported automobiles could not offset the gains early in the week. President Trump has warned U.S automakers not to inflate prices following the imposition of auto tariffs on their imported competitors. 
  • Unemployment claims edged lower to 224,000 by 1,000 claims for the week ending March 22.
  • Barclays analysts have lowered their projections for the S&P to 5,900 by the year end, due to tariff uncertainty. 
  • Goldman Sachs analysts have downgraded Supermicro stock from sell to neutral while citing the impact of strong competition in the AI server segment on profitability.
  • Stock Price of Vaccine manufacturers, including Moderna, fell after the U.S governments plans to discontinue funding for the global vaccine partnership ‘Gavi’ were made public. 
  • Discount Retailer Dollar Tree has agreed to a $ 1 billion deal with private equity firms Brigade Capital Management and Macellum Capital Management for the Family Dollar brand. 
  • Stock price of car part providers AutoZone and O’Reilly Automotive have gone up due to the possibility of increased sales of parts for older cars following the sticker price shock of new cars due to tariffs.
  • United Airlines’ Teamsters’ Union has rejected the contract offer from the carrier  for its technicians.
Fixed Income
  • The Bloomberg U.S. Aggregate Bond Index was lower this week.
  • The U.S. 10-year Treasury yield rose to 4.369% and the yield on the 2-year note rose slightly to 3.998% over the week. 
  • The U.S. Dollar Index edged up to 104.42 this week.

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