BOSTON/LONDON, April 16 — Global shares fell today, with gold trading at record highs and the dollar languishing, as United States restrictions on chip sales to China and continued tariff uncertainty battered tech stocks.
Washington issued new export licensing requirements for sales of Nvidia’s H20 and AMD’s MI308 artificial intelligence chips to China. Nvidia said the move would cost it US$5.5 billion (RM24.25 billion), and its shares slumped 5.5 per cent in morning trading.
“This disclosure is a clear sign that Nvidia now has massive restrictions and hurdles in selling to China,” said Daniel Ives, analyst at Wedbush Securities.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.3 per cent, the S&P 500 dropped 0.91 per cent, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite slumped 1.8 per cent.
Fresh data today showed that US retail sales surged in March as households boosted purchases of motor vehicles ahead of tariffs, though concerns about the economic outlook are hurting discretionary spending.
“It is very possible that consumers are front-loading their purchases, and we may be seeing an artificial bump in sales, which the market will likely look through,” Chris Zaccarelli, chief investment officer for Northlight Asset Management, said in an email.
Treasury yields ticked slightly higher ahead of a speech from Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell later in the day. Traders are wondering if he will echo the dovish tone set by his colleague Fed Governor Christopher Waller.
Separately, President Donald Trump ordered a probe into potential new tariffs on all US critical minerals imports, on top of reviews into pharmaceutical and chip imports. Beijing is continuing to play hardball, having reportedly ordered airlines to suspend deliveries of Boeing aircraft.
European stocks fell, with the STOXX 600 index down 0.8 per cent.
The selloff in Asian stocks gathered pace in the afternoon. MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan fell about 1 per cent, snapping a four-day winning streak.
Chinese blue chips rose 0.3 per cent, as investors also digested some solid GDP data that predated the tariff increases in April, but the Hong Kong Hang Seng index fell 1.9 per cent.
“The broader focus still remains on tariffs,” said Aneeka Gupta, economist and strategist at WisdomTree.
“In China, we’ve had the restrictions raise concerns that access to global tech hardware would be further choked off,” Gupta said. “That’s also resulting in a bit of a risk-off sentiment in the market.”
The White House said Trump is open to making a trade deal with China but Beijing should make the first move.
The World Trade Organisation sharply cut its forecast for global merchandise trade from solid growth to a decline today, saying further US tariffs and spillover effects could lead to the heaviest slump since the height of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Gold shines
All of the uncertainties left gold in an unstoppable position, with bullion hitting another record high of US$3,304 per ounce, last up 2.4 per cent.
Australian bank ANZ today updated its forecast for gold to hit US$3,600 an ounce by the year’s end, arguing that safe-haven demand for the asset would accelerate.
The US dollar index, which tracks the currency against six peers, slid 0.5 per cent to around its lowest since April 2022 in a sign investors remained cautious about US assets.
The Japanese yen and Swiss franc, seen as safe assets during market turbulence, rallied around 0.5 per cent and 1 per cent, respectively.
The yen is trading around its highest level since September while the franc is at its highest in 10 years.
Bank of Japan Governor Kazuo Ueda told Sankei newspaper that the central bank may need to take policy action if US tariffs hurt the Japanese economy, signalling the potential to pause the bank’s rate-hiking cycle.
Investors moved into European government bonds as stocks fell but steered clear of Treasuries.
The benchmark 10-year Treasury yield was virtually flat at 4.325 per cent, after yields surged last week on concerns about the stability of the US economy.
Germany’s 10-year bond yield was 4.7 bps lower at 2.498 per cent, near its lowest since early March. Yields move inversely to prices.
Oil prices rose more than 1 per cent today, reversing early losses as the market took a bullish view on China’s stance on potential trade talks with the US, though gains were capped by continuing fears that the trade war will curb energy demand.
In cryptocurrencies, bitcoin fell 0.38 per cent to US$83,676.95, down nearly 11 per cent for the year.
— Reuters
