Markets rise as Trump chip exemptions boost tech giants
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Asian equities rose Thursday, with big-name chip firms making big gains after Donald Trump said those investing in the United States would be exempted from a threatened 100% tariff on semiconductors.The advances built on a strong lead from Wall Street and extended the previous day's rally fuelled by hopes the Federal Reserve will cut interest rates next month.A day before sweeping tariffs were due to come into effect on dozens of countries, the president said: "we're going to be putting a very large tariff on chips and semiconductors".He added that the level would be "100%" but did not offer a timetable.However, he said "the good news for companies like Apple is, if you're building in the United States, or have committed to build... in the United States, there will be no charge".Stock gains were led by Taiwan's giant TSMC, which surged almost five percent in early trade, with the island's National Development Council chief Liu Chin-ching saying the firm was in the clear."Because Taiwan's main exporter is TSMC, which has factories in the United States, TSMC is exempt," he told a briefing in parliament.TSMC, which is ramping up manufacturing in Arizona, has pledged to invest as much as $165 billion in the United States, which the firm said in March was the "largest single foreign direct investment in US history".Seoul-listed Samsung, which is also pumping billions into the world's number one economy, rose more than two% while South Korean rival SK hynix was also up.Apple-linked firms were also helped after the US giant said it will invest an additional $100 billion in the United States, taking its total pledge to $600 billion over the next four years.Foxconn and Pegatron both rose in Taipei.However, Tokyo Electron and Renesas both retreated in Japanese trade."To some degree this outcome would be something of a relief," said Morgan Stanley analysts."Yes, 100% tariffs are unpalatable but if companies are given time to restore them, the real tax is just the higher cost of building chips in the United States."Trump's remarks came hours before his wide-ranging "reciprocal" tariffs are set to kick in against trading partners, and after he doubled his levy on India to 50% over its purchase of Russian oil.Fifty% tolls on Brazilian goods came into place Wednesday, with significant exemptions, after Trump targeted Latin America's biggest economy over its prosecution of former president Jair Bolsonaro.Investors are keeping tabs on talks between the White House and New Delhi, as well as other countries including Switzerland, which was this week hammered with a 39% toll.Asian markets extended their recent run-up and have regained much of last week's losses sparked by the president's tariff announcements and weak US jobs data.Tokyo, Hong Kong, Shanghai, Singapore, Seoul and Wellington were all in the green, with Taipei leading the way thanks to the surge in TSMC.The gains followed a strong day on Wall Street, where Apple jumped more than five% and Amazon piled on four%.Traders had already been on a buying streak as they grew optimistic that the Fed will cut rates after data last week showing US jobs creation cratered in May, June and July, signalling the economy was weakening. US futures rose Thursday.Oil prices rose after Trump threatened penalties on other countries that "directly or indirectly" import Russian oil, after imposing his extra toll on India.Still, traders are keeping tabs on developments regarding Moscow and its war in Ukraine after the US president said he could meet with Vladimir Putin "very soon" following what he called highly productive talks between his special envoy and the Russian leader.
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Mint
18 minutes ago
- Mint
How Trump and Putin reached a new make-or-break moment on Ukraine
WASHINGTON—President Trump has long believed the crux of foreign policy is two leaders in a room making historic deals. Pulling off a cease-fire in Ukraine with Russian President Vladimir Putin would be the kind of diplomatic coup he has long craved. It remains a long shot. The leaders could meet as soon as next week to pursue a peace agreement following months of maneuvering. But their approaches remain at odds. Trump has urged Putin to stop the war but has shown little interest in the specifics of a deal. The Kremlin boss has rebuffed all appeals to halt the fighting, except on his terms. After months of failed efforts to forge a deal, first by coercing Kyiv and later by wooing Putin, Trump has come around to the belief that heightened economic pressure on Moscow might be the only way to get an agreement. To sway Putin, Trump has embarked on a more confrontational course, threatening sanctions on countries that purchase Russian energy. He targeted India, a major buyer of Russian oil, with 50% tariffs on its goods shipped to the U.S. Other nations that import Russian oil and gas, including China, could see their duties raised by Trump's Friday deadline for an agreement. But even Trump seemed less than optimistic Thursday following talks earlier in the week between his special envoy, Steve Witkoff, and Putin in Moscow. 'We're going to see what he has to say," Trump told reporters of Putin. 'That's going to be up to him." The White House is working on arranging a meeting with Putin but would like a three-way meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, said White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt. 'President Trump would like to meet with both President Putin and President Zelensky because he wants this brutal war to end," she said. The Russian leader said he is only open 'in principle" to talks with Zelensky. 'We are still far from creating such conditions," said Putin, who has frequently called into question Zelensky's legitimacy. Putin wouldn't have to agree to meet Zelensky for Trump to see him, the White House said. If the Trump-Putin summit happens, it could prove the biggest test of Trump's dealmaking skills this term. Trump returned to the White House vowing he could stop the war in Ukraine within 24 hours, later claiming he was merely joking. Privately, Trump is fuming at his failure to halt the war 200 days into his second presidency, according to aides. He has slowly come to recognize that a settlement must take account of Zelensky's bottom line and that of key European governments, who insist they won't recognize Russian control over any conquered territory—a key Kremlin demand—as part of an agreement. There is the added concern that Putin may not be serious about reaching a deal. 'Putin has made it clear that the Ukraine war is more important to him than the relationship with the U.S.," said Alina Polyakova, president and CEO of the Washington-based Center for European Policy Analysis. Another challenge for Trump will be navigating talks with a Russian leader who has a quarter-century of experience dealing with various U.S. presidents and has proved himself skilled in influencing them. If Trump meets with Putin and emerges empty-handed, he will have to decide whether to increase pressure on Russia, despite his skepticism that economic or military moves would alter the Kremlin's calculus, or follow through on a threat he had made repeatedly to abandon the peace process. Either way, Polyakova said, 'the war keeps dragging on." Russian President Vladimir Putin and Steve Witkoff, President Trump's envoy, in Moscow this week. Trump entered his second term confident his rapport with Putin would overcome the complexities of the war Russia launched in February 2022. The president's supporters say he has been wrongly caricatured as too cozy and deferential to the Russian leader. 'People have misunderstood Trump's approach," said Fred Fleitz, who was a senior National Security Council official during the first term. 'It isn't that Trump likes dictators. He believes America has to coexist with Russia. Since we're not going to war, how do we deal with them?" Trump and Putin have held multiple calls and passed numerous messages through intermediaries, U.S. officials and other people familiar with their communications said. Their conversations, according to a senior administration official, have been typically friendly. Trump often discusses his aim of a revived U.S.-Russian relationship propelled by growing economic cooperation. Putin lists his grievances and core desires, mainly international recognition of Russia's control over Crimea and the Donbas region, much of which it has seized from Ukraine. Their calls extend for hours sometimes due to lengthy Putin monologues and the need for translations, current and former U.S. officials said. Trump, usually impatient and anxious to chime in, listens attentively, aides said. 'Putin does this very methodically," John Bolton, Trump's third national security adviser during the first term, said of the former KGB officer. 'He's very knowledgeable, he knows what he's talking about. When he wants to try and influence somebody, he just talks and talks and talks." Putin has carefully studied the new Trump administration and understands where Russia's leverage with the president lies, said Fiona Hill, who was a top Russia aide in the White House during Trump's first term. 'Putin's done his homework. He's had years of figuring out who Trump is," she said. Part of that homework was determining how to prosecute his war while sending signals of openness to diplomacy. Russia still attacks Ukrainian cities and infrastructure with long-range missiles and drones, killing civilians with regularity. The conflict along the roughly 750-mile front line remains a grinding war of attrition, with Russia's summer offensive clawing gradual gains against a staunch and stretched Ukrainian defense. Moscow's lead in air power and troop numbers have given it the upper hand in the fight, U.S. and European officials quietly admit, though Russia's glaring weakness remains its heavily sanctioned economy. Trump's frustrations with Putin started to seep into the open at the North Atlantic Treaty Organization summit in June, when he called his Russian counterpart's refusal to end the war 'misguided." 'I'm very surprised. Actually, I thought we would have had that settled easy," Trump told reporters. A July 3 phone call lasted barely an hour—far shorter than their previous chats. The call lacked the warmth with which they normally spoke to each other, the senior administration official said. There wasn't a flashpoint, but Trump ended it feeling perplexed, adding to his gnawing sense of being dragged along. Trump later acknowledged that Putin would say one thing in their conversations about his interest in halting the war and yet do another thing. 'I go home, I tell the first lady, 'And I spoke with Vladimir today. We had a wonderful conversation.' She said, 'Oh, really? Another city was just hit.'" A frustrated Trump announced last month that he would give Putin 50 days to complete a cease-fire with Ukraine, later shortening the deadline to Friday. Failure to do so would lead the U.S. to sanction some of Russia's top energy customers, a strategy aimed at choking off Moscow's major remaining sources of revenue for its war effort. Administration officials and close presidential confidants said Trump and Putin didn't have a single, major blowup this year. Instead it was a 'series of moments," in the words of Sen. Lindsey Graham (R., S.C.), that ultimately convinced Trump that 'Putin was trying to play him." 'You see now a turning of the page, and Putin has nobody to blame but himself," Graham said. But there are concerns in the U.S. and Europe that Putin floated the idea of a meeting to continue stringing Trump along, not to settle for peace. Putin might propose that Russia officially control some of the Ukrainian territory it occupies in exchange for a withdrawal of his forces from other parts of Ukraine, said a senior European diplomat and a Ukrainian official. Trump, eager for a deal, might urge Ukraine and allies to accept the offer. Kyiv and other European governments would likely reject the plan, the official said, playing into Putin's hands because Trump, rarely concerned with the details of a peace settlement, might then blame Ukraine for continuing to fight. Trump could cut off intelligence and military support for Ukraine, as he did earlier this year, setting back Zelensky's efforts to align himself more closely with Trump following a combative Oval Office meeting in February. The U.S. could also remove itself from the diplomatic process entirely, leaving Moscow and Kyiv to continue what Trump has long labeled 'Biden's war." But those who know Trump suspect he will keep pursuing the most prized deal of his early presidency, where success or failure could define his legacy. 'He wants to be the guy who gets deals," said Marc Short, a first-term senior White House aide. 'That is his brand." Write to Alexander Ward at Alex Leary at and Matthew Luxmoore at
India Today
20 minutes ago
- India Today
US calls India strategic partner, vows full and frank talks despite trade, oil rift
The United States called India a "strategic partner" and said it will keep engaging New Delhi in a "full and frank dialogue," even as the two sides grapple with disputes over tariffs, trade imbalance and Russian oil US President Donald Trump ruling out further trade negotiations with India until issues over its Russian oil imports are resolved, the State Department struck a more measured Deputy Spokesperson Tommy Pigott said the president had been clear about his concerns about the trade imbalance and oil purchases but emphasised that India remains a strategic partner with whom the US maintains a "full and frank dialogue."WASHINGTON REAFFIRMS ENGAGEMENT WITH INDIA Speaking to reporters in Washington on Thursday, Pigott said the Trump administration was committed to addressing disagreements directly."The President has been very clear in terms of the concerns he has regarding the trade imbalance, regarding the concerns he has when it comes to the purchase of Russian oil. You have seen him take action directly on that. India is a strategic partner with whom we engage in a full and frank dialogue. That will continue," Pigott said. When asked whether Washington was concerned about worsening ties with India or the risk of New Delhi drawing closer to China, State Department spokesperson Tommy Pigott said the US remained committed to addressing differences through direct and ongoing engagement with its strategic pointed to two specific areas of friction -- the trade imbalance and India's purchase of Russian oil."Addressing those concerns is important. The President has been very clear," Pigott said. "Ultimately, this is about a frank and full dialogue. That's what it means to advance American interests."Pigott avoided addressing China and other Brics nations' role in mobilising opposition to US trade measures but reaffirmed that engagement with India will RULES OUT INDIA TRADE TALKSEarlier, speaking to reporters in the Oval Office, Trump was asked if he expected further talks following his announcement of steep tariffs, to which he replied, "Not until we get it resolved."Trump's remarks follow his earlier warning of new "secondary sanctions" on countries trading with Moscow, after being questioned on why India was being singled out for its ties with Russia while others continue to purchase Russian US president on Wednesday signed an executive order subjecting Indian imports to an additional 25 per cent trade tariff on India after warning the country over its oil purchases from Russia, taking the total levy to 50 per cent. The new tariffs will take effect on August 27.- EndsWith inputs from agencies Tune InMust Watch
India Today
20 minutes ago
- India Today
Billions of dollars flowing into US: Trump after sweeping new tariffs take effect
United States President Donald Trump on Thursday celebrated the official rollout of his wide-ranging new tariffs, targeting imports from more than 90 countries. In a late-night post on Truth Social, just as the higher tariff rates came into effect, Trump said: 'It's midnight!!! Billions of dollars in tariffs are now flowing into the United States of America!'The new tariffs, ranging from 10 per cent to 50 per cent, officially began at 12:01 am on August 7, when US Customs and Border Protection started collecting the revised Trump described the moment as a turning point in US trade policy, claiming that revenues were largely coming from nations that had 'taken advantage of the United States for many years, laughing all the way.''The only thing that can stop America's greatness would be a radical left court that wants to see our country fail!' he added in another rollout followed a week of uncertainty after Trump delayed implementation of most tariffs just hours before an earlier August 1 deadline. According to the New York Post, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent projected that annual tariff revenues could exceed USD 300 countries are seeing steep penalties, while Brazil and India face tariffs as high as 50 per cent. Trump framed Brazil's hike as retaliation for the prosecution of his political ally, former President Jair Bolsonaro. India was targeted over its continued purchase of Russian oil, with Trump initially threatening a 25 per cent tariff before increasing it to 50 per not all US trade partners faced equal treatment. Eight major countries, including Japan, South Korea, and the EU, secured negotiated reductions to 15 per cent. The UK received a 10 per cent rate, while Vietnam, Indonesia, Pakistan, and the Philippines saw duties adjusted to around 19–20 per has also hinted at using tariffs as leverage in future trade showdowns, particularly with China, where an August 12 deadline looms for a possible agreement. Without a deal, tariffs on Chinese goods could rise to a staggering 245 per the administration sees the tariffs as a tool to 'reset the global trading order,' economists warn of broader market disruptions and potential cost increases for American consumers.- EndsTune InMust Watch
