LONDON :World shares gained on Tuesday as investors weighed up the latest tariff-related news, while long-dated U.S. Treasury yields were set for their biggest one-day fall since mid-April, mirroring a steep price rally in super-long Japanese debt.
After a weekend call with the European Commission’s president, U.S. President Donald Trump paused until July 9 his threatened tariff of 50 per cent on goods entering the United States from the European Union.
European shares added 0.5 per cent, supported by defence stocks, with UK shares climbing 0.8 per cent to their highest in three weeks, following a holiday at the start of the week.
Wall Street shares, which also saw no trade on Monday due to a U.S. holiday, were set for solid gains too. S&P futures were up 1.4 per cent.
“Markets are getting more accustomed to Trump’s threats and now partly assume the full threat won’t immediately materialise,” Deutsche Bank analysts wrote. “There is certainly fear fatigue.”
Meanwhile, the yield on 30-year U.S. Treasuries, which affects U.S. government borrowing costs to home mortgage rates, fell as much as 8 basis points to 4.9572 per cent, their lowest in a week.
The 30-year yields – at the epicentre of the market sell-off in April following Trump’s initial raft of tariffs – are still just below 5 per cent, near their highest since October 2023.
The move mirrored a near-20 basis point fall in yields for Japanese 30-year debt that came after a Reuters report on Tuesday that Tokyo will consider trimming issuance of the super-long bonds, after recent sharp rises in yields.
“Debt sustainability is again creeping into investors minds,” regarding heavily indebted Japan, said Carsten Brzeski, global head of macro for ING Research. “That is a spillover from the concerns about the U.S.”
A major focus for investors this week will be results from Nvidia on Wednesday, where the AI bellwether is expected to report a 66 per cent jump in first-quarter revenue.
Speeches from a slew of Federal Reserve policymakers and Friday’s U.S. core PCE price index are also due, which could provide clues on the outlook for U.S. rates.
In Asia, MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan fell 0.4 per cent, although Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index outperformed with a gain of 0.4 per cent.
LOSS OF CONFIDENCE
The dollar edged up 0.4 per cent against a basket of currencies as investors took comfort from Trump’s tariff delay. Still, it was still heading for a fifth straight month of declines, which would mark its longest such losing streak since 2017.
The euro fell 0.4 per cent, near a one-month high at $1.134725, while the yen weakened 0.6 per cent to 143.71 per dollar.
Trump’s flip-flops on tariffs and concerns over the worsening U.S. deficit outlook have undermined sentiment towards U.S. assets and in turn been a drag on the dollar.
“A U.S. dollar regime change could be in the making in the long term after it appears to have peaked recently,” said David Meier, an economist at Julius Baer.
“Erratic U.S. policymaking, the tense fiscal situation, and large external indebtedness, against the backdrop of the twin deficit, suggest that a weaker USD is the route of least resistance.”
And as the dollar loses some of its safe-haven appeal, investors have instead sought alternatives such as gold, sending prices to record highs this year.
Still, gold fell 1.4 per cent to $3,298 an ounce as the dollar strengthened.
Oil prices were little changed on increasing expectations that members of OPEC+ will decide to increase their output at a meeting later this week.
Brent crude futures clawed back losses and was last flat at $64.71 a barrel. U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude fell 0.1 per cent to $61.46 a barrel.
