Wall Street faces worst day of 2025 yet: US stocks had their worst day so far this year after US President Donald Trump confirmed that a 25% levy on Mexico and Canada would go into effect today. The S&P 500 fell nearly 2%, while a tech stock sell-off pushed the Nasdaq down 2.2%, with chipmaker Nvidia losing some 10%. The Dow Jones was not spared, losing 1.5%, not helped by data showing that manufacturing activity eased in the country in February.

What happened? Trump confirmed the levies would take place, along with an extra 10% duty on Chinese imports, despite expectations of another potential delay. Trump also confirmed wider “reciprocal” tariffs were coming in April.

BTC also had a bad day: Despite rising the previous day after Trump’s announcement of plans for a BTC strategic reserve, BTC took a plunge yesterday, reversing most of the gains it made and falling as much as 9% to around USD 85k.

Analysts and traders are not optimistic: Demand for US stocks is likely not high enough to sustain a rebound, a Goldman Sachs analyst said, while JP Morgan strategists also see US tech stocks continuing to face sell-offs amid uncertain economic growth and tariffs, Bloomberg reports. BCA Research downgraded BCA their recommendation for US equities to underweight from neutral, while upgrading European stocks to overweight.

Set to benefit are value-dominated stocks in international markets and tariff-safe emerging market assets. While Wall Street faced a rout, European stocks hit fresh highs yesterday, propped up by a rally in defense stocks after plans were revealed that the EU will be spending hundreds of bns of USD on defense financing for Ukraine.

MARKETS THIS MORNING-

Asian stocks were also impacted by Trump’s tariff announcement, with Japanese stocks falling more than 2%, led by declines in Japanese tech players amid a widening risk-off sentiment as trade war fears grow. South Korea’s Kospi was also down 0.13%, and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng started the day down 1.58%. Meanwhile, mainland China’s CSI 300 index dipped 0.59%.

Over on Wall Street, futures are up slightly as investors brace for the full impact of the implementation of the tariffs.

ADX

9,560

-0.1% (YTD: +1.5%)

DFM

5,328

+0.2% (YTD: +3.2%)

Nasdaq Dubai UAE20

4,382

+0.4% (YTD: +5.7%)

USD : AED CBUAE

Buy 3.67

Sell 3.67

EIBOR

4.3% o/n

4.3% 1 yr

TASI

12,124

+0.7% (YTD: +0.7%)

EGX30

30,989

+0.4% (YTD: +4.2%)

S&P 500

5,850

-1.8% (YTD: -0.5%)

FTSE 100

8,871

+0.7% (YTD: +8.5%)

Euro Stoxx 50

5,541

+1.4% (YTD: +13.2%)

Brent crude

USD 71.1

-0.7%

Natural gas (Nymex)

USD 4.12

+7.5%

Gold

USD 2,901

+1.9%

BTC

USD 86,297

-8.5% (YTD: -7.8%)

THE CLOSING BELL-

The DFM rose 0.2% yesterday on turnover of AED 706.2 mn. The index is up 3.2% YTD.

In the green: Dubai Refreshment (+15%), National General Ins. Company (+9%) and Air Arabia (+3.2%).

In the red: BHM Capital Financial Services (-9.7%), Dubai Taxi (-3.4%) and Spinneys (-2.4%).

Over on the ADX, the index fell 0.1% on turnover of AED 887.2 mn. Nasdaq Dubai was up 0.4%, and 5.7% YTD.

CORPORATE ACTIONS-

Al Khaleej Investment’s board will meet on 25 March to approve a capital increase of AED 400 mn, it said in a disclosure (pdf) to the ADX. The increase, through a rights issue by issuing new shares to existing shareholders on a subscribed pro-rata basis, will bring the firm’s capital to AED 505 mn, divided into 505 mn shares.

Emaar to consider AED 2.7 bn in dividends: Emaar Development ’s board will meet on 26 March to discuss distributing AED 2.7 bn in dividends, at a rate of 68 fils per share, the company said in a disclosure (pdf) to the DFM.

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