Global stock markets surge as U.S. and China reach 90-day trade truce

Global News

12-05-2025

Stocks are surging on Wall Street after China and the United States announced a 90-day truce in their trade war.
They agreed to take down most of their tariffs that economists warned could start a recession and create shortages on U.S. store shelves.
The S&P 500 was 2.7 per cent higher in early trading Monday. The Dow Jones Industrial Average jumped 981 points, or 2.4 per cent, and the Nasdaq composite was 3.7 per cent higher.
Crude oil prices jumped because a global economy less weakened by tariffs would be hungrier for fuel. The value of the dollar climbed against other currencies and Treasury yields rose.
The Toronto Stock Exchange also started the Monday trading day on positive ground gaining almost one per cent at the open, while the loonie dipped about a quarter of a cent compared to the stronger U.S. dollar.
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A joint statement on Monday said that for a 90-day period, the U.S. will cut tariffs on Chinese goods to 30 per cent from as high as 145 per cent. China said its tariffs on U.S. goods will fall to 10 per cent from 125 per cent.
The agreement to allow time for more talks followed weekend negotiations in Geneva, Switzerland, that the U.S. side said had made ' substantial progress.'
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Wall Street cheered the development with futures for the S&P 500 jumping 3.1 per cent, while futures for the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 2.5 per cent. Futures for the Nasdaq, home to the biggest U.S. technology companies, soared 3.9 per cent.
American microchip companies, which source much of the material needed for their semiconductors from China, were among the biggest gainers early Monday. ON Semiconductor, Micron and Broadcom all soared between six per cent and eight per cent. Nvidia rose 4.8 per cent.
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Travel companies also enjoyed big gains, with American, Delta and United Airlines all up around seven per cent. Major cruise lines rose similarly.
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Retailers, who get much of their inventory from China, also benefited from the announced tariff pause. Amazon was up 7.8 per cent and Best Buy jumped 10.4 per cent early.
Pharmaceutical companies were among the few losers Monday after Trump said he planned to signed an executive order Monday that if implemented, could bring down the costs of some medications. The order Trump is promising will direct the Department of Health and Human Services to tie what Medicare pays for medications administered in a doctor's office to the lowest price paid by other countries.
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A big pharma trade group criticized the plan and Johnson & Johnson, Merck and Pfizer all tumbled around three per cent.
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Can the trade truce last?
The full impact on the complicated tariffs and other trade penalties enacted by Washington and Beijing remains unclear.
Much depends on whether they will find ways to bridge long-standing differences during the 90-day suspension.
But as trade envoys from the world's two biggest economies blinked, finding ways to pull back from potentially massive disruptions to world trade and their own markets, investors rejoiced.
Oil prices also rallied, with U.S. benchmark crude oil gaining $2.48, more than four per cent to $63.50 per barrel. Brent crude, the international standard, added $2.39 to $66.30 per barrel.
The U.S. dollar surged against the Japanese yen, trading at 148.06 Japanese yen, up from 146.17 yen. The euro fell to $1.1103 from $1.1209.
In other stock trading, Tokyo's market closed before the joint statement was issued, gaining less than 0.1 per cent to 37,644.26. But Hong Kong's, which closes later, jumped three per cent to 23,558.11.
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In Europe at midday, Germany's DAX gained 0.3 per cent and the CAC 40 in Paris added 1.3 per cent. Britain's FTSE 100 was 0.5 per cent higher.
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What else is fuelling the rally?
Investors were also watching for developments in other flashpoints including clashes between India and Pakistan, the war in Ukraine and conflict in the Middle East.
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The Sensex in Mumbai shot up 3.2 per cent after India and Pakistan agreed to a truce after talks to defuse their most serious military confrontation in decades. The two armies have exchanged gunfire, artillery strikes, missiles and drones that killed dozens of people.
Pakistan's KSE 100 surged more than nine per cent and trading was halted for one hour following a spike driven by the ceasefire and an International Monetary Fund decision Friday to disburse about $1 billion of a bailout package for its battered economy.
The Shanghai Composite Index picked up 0.8 per cent to 3,369.24.
Chinese EV battery maker CATL, or Contemporary Amperex Technology Co., Ltd., said in a prospectus filed with the Hong Kong Stock Exchange that it plans to raise nearly $4 billion in a share listing.
Elsewhere in Asia, the Kospi in Seoul gained 1.2 per cent to 2,607.33, Australia's S&P/ASX 200 climbed less than 0.1 per cent to 8,233.50, and Taiwan's Taiex gained one per cent.
– With copy from Global News' Ari Rabinovitch