By Ankur Banerjee and Elizabeth Howcroft
SINGAPORE/PARIS (Reuters) – Global stock markets held near record highs on Friday and European indexes were set for their eighth weekly gain in a row, after U.S. President Donald Trump said reciprocal tariffs would not be immediately imposed, suggesting room for negotiations.
Trump’s plans to impose tariffs on every country taxing U.S. imports have stoked fears of a wide-ranging trade war, pushing gold prices to a record high earlier this week. Gold was set for a seventh straight week of gains. [GOL/]
But a directive from Trump on Thursday stopped short of imposing fresh tariffs, instead kicking off what could be weeks or months of investigation into the levies imposed on U.S. goods by other trading partners and then devising a response.
“While global financial markets may be inclined to take some relief from the delay in the immediate imposition of reciprocal tariffs, it is not clear to us whether the delay necessarily reflects a lower likelihood that they will eventually be imposed,” Barclays analysts said in a note.
Trump has kicked off a trade war, first by imposing tariffs on Mexico and Canada and then pausing them, but sticking with duties on Chinese goods.
“It seems that Trump’s bark has once again proved worse than his bite when it comes to the matter of trade,” said Michael Brown, senior research strategist at Pepperstone.
“That doesn’t, however, stop this now rather tiresome merry-go-round of headlines, nor the accompanying yo-yo price action, as participants grapple with whatever the latest story is, and try to discount it.”
European stocks were mixed, with the pan-European STOXX 600 index <.STOXX> up 0.1% on the day, having closed at a record high on Thursday. Futures for Nasdaq and S&P 500 were a touch higher.
European markets have outperformed in recent months due to hopes for a possible peace deal between Russia and Ukraine, as well as the prospect of interest rate cuts and U.S. tariffs being less severe than feared. Goldman Sachs raised its 12-month price forecast for Europe’s STOXX 600, citing the possibility of a Ukraine ceasefire.
In Asia, the spotlight has been on a rally in Chinese tech stocks, with the Hang Seng Tech Index hitting its highest level in three years on Thursday spurred by home-grown start-up DeepSeek’s breakthrough. [.HK]
On Friday, Hong Kong’s benchmark index rose over 2%, taking its weekly gains to 5%, its fifth straight week of gains and the strongest weekly performance in four months.
