Global stocks had a mixed session Thursday as US President Donald Trump's new tariffs on dozens of countries took effect, with investors eyeing exemptions from his threatened 100-percent levy on semiconductors.
After a positive start, momentum on Wall Street faded, with both the Dow and S&P 500 finishing lower.
“This tariff issue is still an overhang for the market as it kind of contemplates what that might mean in terms of inflation, and what it might mean in terms of earnings,” said Briefing.com analyst Patrick O'Hare.
“There's concerns about the market acting a little bit too complacent around these tariffs.”
But tech stocks were lifted by Trump's pledge of chip-tariff exemptions for companies that invest heavily in the United States or commit to do so. The Nasdaq rose 0.4 percent to 21,242.70, a new all-time high.
Shares in Apple climbed 3.2 percent, adding to a gain of more than five percent on Wednesday when Apple CEO Tim Cook appeared at the White House to pledge new investments in the United States.
Shares in AI chipmaker Nvidia rose 0.8 percent, while several Asian chipmakers also moved higher.
Taiwanese chip-making giant TSMC climbed five percent as Taipei said it would be exempt from Trump's threatened levies on the sector.
Seoul-listed Samsung, which is also pumping billions into the world's number one economy, rose more than two percent while South Korean rival SK Hynix was up more than one percent.
“The chip tariffs certainly sound terrible on the headline,” said Steve Sosnick of Interactive Brokers. “But there's so many exemptions … so it's perceived to be having so many loopholes that it's not bad news.”
Among individual companies, Intel dropped 3.1 percent as Trump called on the chipmaker's CEO, Lip-Bu Tan, to resign after a Republican senator raised national security concerns over his links to firms in China.
Airbnb dropped 8.0 percent on disappointment over the company's outlook. The vacation rental company described demand as encouraging but warned of weak growth figures later in the year.
In Europe, London was a rare faller despite a divided Bank of England cutting interest rates as expected and raising its growth forecast for the British economy.
The BoE made clear that bringing down inflation is its main concern, putting in doubt further rate cuts in the immediate future and sending the pound higher.
The rally in the British currency reflects the importance of “positioning, sentiment and expectations” among foreign exchange traders, said a note from Forex.com strategist James Stanley.
