- Stocks Trade in Tight Range, US Copper Hits Record: Markets Wrap
Asian stocks traded in a tight range Wednesday as investors searched for a clear direction amid weaker US
consumer confidence and uncertainty about President Donald Trump’s upcoming tariffs. The MSCI Asia
Pacific Index snapped a three-day decline, eking out a 0.3% gain after it lost early momentum. US copper
surged to a record high as traders price in the possibility of hefty import tariffs. US and European equity
index futures were steady while the 10-year US Treasury yield edged up. The dollar was little changed after
ending a four-day rally Tuesday. The Trump administration indicated earlier this month that the coming wave
of US tariffs may be less expansive and more targeted than originally feared, as countries raced to secure
reprieves from the coming levies. On Tuesday, Trump said he didn’t want have too many exceptions but he
will “probably be more lenient than reciprocal, because if I was reciprocal, that would be that would be very
tough for people.” - S&P 500 ekes out a gain Tuesday to post third winning session
The S&P 500 posted a slim gain on Tuesday as investors built on the previous session’s gains, which were
largely sparked by hopes of U.S. tariffs being narrower in scope. The broad market index added 0.16% to
close at 5,776.65, while the Nasdaq Composite gained 0.46% and ended at 18,271.86. The Dow Jones
Industrial Average crept higher by 4.18 points, or 0.01%, to settle at 42,587.50. Investors largely looked past
the March consumer confidence data released Tuesday, which reflected a significant drop in U.S. consumers’
near-term outlook on income, business and job conditions. The Conference Board’s monthly confidence
index fell to 92.9, below a Dow Jones forecast of 93.5. The measure for future expectations dropped to 65.2,
the lowest reading in 12 years and well below the 80 level considered to be a signal for a recession ahead. - Oil prices steady after Russia, Ukraine agree to Black Sea truce
Oil prices were little changed on Tuesday after Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskiy agreed to a truce
with Russia covering the Black Sea and energy infrastructure, though crude prices drew support from the
prospect of tighter global supply due to threatened U.S. tariffs on countries buying Venezuelan production.
Brent crude futures rose 3 cents to close at $73.02 a barrel. U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude fell 16 cents
to settle at $69 per barrel. Zelenskiy said the truce was effective immediately on Tuesday but added he would
seek more weapons from U.S. President Donald Trump and sanctions against Russia if Moscow broke the
deals. “If there’s a ceasefire between Russia and Ukraine, it might open the door for the reduction of
sanctions on Russian oil,” said Phil Flynn, senior analyst with Price Futures Group. The U.S. reached separate
agreements on Tuesday with Ukraine and Russia to ensure safe navigation in the Black Sea and to implement
a ban on attacks by the two countries on each other’s energy facilities, Reuters reported. Trump’s threat of
tariffs against countries importing oil and gas from Venezuela has raised supply concerns, and both
benchmarks rose more than 1% on Monday following the announcement. “These secondary tariffs are an
indirect sanction to degrade Venezuela’s oil supply capability and hurt China’s teapot refining system,” said
Mukesh Sahdev, Rystad Energy’s global head of commodity markets. Oil is Venezuela’s main export. China,
already a target of U.S. import tariffs, is its largest buyer. - Gold rises on safe-haven demand amid Trump tariff worries
Gold prices rose on Tuesday, supported by safe-haven demand amid uncertainty over U.S. President Donald
Trump’s tariff plans for next week that could potentially boost inflation. Spot gold was up 0.3% at $3,020.06
ounce. U.S. gold futures settled 0.3% higher at $3,025.90. “Investors are concerned about the state of the
world, especially with U.S. policies being what they are, and so they’re buying gold as an alternative asset
because they’re concerned that the U.S. government may throw the world into a global recession,” said
Jeffrey Christian, managing partner of CPM Group. Gold, traditionally seen as a hedge against geopolitical and
economic uncertainties, has risen more than 15% this year and reached an all-time peak of $3,057.21 on
March 20. Trump has said not all of his threatened levies would be imposed on April 2 and some countries
may get breaks. The Financial Times said the president is considering a two-step tariff regime next week.
Trump’s tariff policies are widely expected to weigh on economic growth, trigger further trade tensions, and
drive up inflation. - U.S. blacklists over 50 Chinese companies in bid to curb Beijing’s AI, chip capabilities
The U.S. on Tuesday added dozens of Chinese tech companies to its export blacklist in its first such effort
under the Donald Trump administration, as it doubles down on curtailing Beijing’s artificial intelligence and
advanced computing capabilities. The U.S. Department of Commerce’s Bureau of Industry and Security added
80 organizations to an “entity list,” with more than 50 from China, barring American companies from
supplying to those on the list without government permits. The companies were blacklisted for allegedly
acting contrary to U.S. national security and foreign policy interests, the agency said, as part of its efforts to
further restrict Beijing’s access to exascale computing tech, which can process vast amounts of data at very
high speeds, as well as quantum technologies. Dozens of Chinese entities were targeted for their alleged
involvement in developing advanced AI, supercomputers and high-performance AI chips for military
purposes, the Commerce Department said, adding that two firms were supplying to sanctioned entities such
as Huawei and its affiliated chipmaker HiSilicon. It blacklisted 27 Chinese entities for acquiring U.S.-origin
items to support China’s military modernization and seven firms for helping advance China’s quantum
technology capabilities. Among the organizations in the “entity list” were also six subsidiaries of Chinese
cloud-computing firm Inspur Group, which had been blacklisted by the Joe Biden administration in 2023. - U.S. judge sets Boeing 737 MAX fraud trial for June 23
A U.S. judge on Tuesday abruptly set a June 23 trial date in the Justice Department’s criminal fraud case
against Boeing stemming from the planemaker’s alleged misrepresentations to U.S. regulators about a key
system on the 737 MAX. In July, Boeing agreed to plead guilty to a criminal fraud conspiracy charge after two
fatal 737 MAX crashes and to pay a fine of up to $487.2 million. U.S. District Judge Reed O’Connor had
previously given Boeing and DOJ until April 11 to come to an agreement on a new plea deal after he rejected
the prior deal, faulting a diversity and inclusion provision. In 2023, O’Connor said in Fort Worth, Texas,
“Boeing’s crime may properly be considered the deadliest corporate crime in U.S. history.” The Wall Street
Journal reported on Monday that Boeing is seeking to withdraw the existing plea deal. O’Connor did not
indicate why he was setting a trial date or withdrawing the prior April 11 deadline for the sides to reach a
new deal. Boeing said on Tuesday that the company and the Justice Department “continue to be engaged in
good faith discussions regarding an appropriate resolution of this matter.” The Justice Department did not
immediately comment. - Moscow blames Ukraine for deadlock over ceasefire deal talks
Russia on Tuesday blamed Ukraine for the deadlock in ceasefire deal talks in the last 24 hours, with the
defense ministry accusing Kyiv of carrying out attacks on its energy infrastructure. Russia’s defense ministry
accused Ukraine of attacking a power grid on Russian territory on Monday, as well as gas facilities in Russian
occupied Luhansk and Crimea in Ukraine. Ukraine has not responded to the accusations, and has accused
Russia of dragging its feet over a ceasefire deal. - Oil major Shell vows to boost shareholder returns, doubles down on LNG push
British oil major Shell on Tuesday announced plans to increase shareholder returns and cut spend, as it
doubles down on its liquified natural gas (LNG) push. In an announcement ahead of its Capital Markets Day
2025 event, the company said it would bolster shareholder distributions to 40-50% of cash flow from
operations, up from a 30-40% range previously. It intends to stick to progressive dividends of 4% per year and
to grow free cash flow per share by more than a yearly 10% through to 2030. The oil major also said it will
lower its spending to $20-22 billion per year through to 2028, after targeting such costs in a $22-25 billion
range for 2024 and 2025 back in 2023. The oil company separately said it aims to grow its structural cost
reduction target from $2-3 billion by the end of this year to a cumulative $5-7 billion by the end of the three
year stretch to the end of 2028, compared with 2022 plans. Shell — the world’s largest liquified natural gas
trader — guided it will grow output across its combined upstream and integrated gas businesses by 1% per
year through to 2030, as well as increase LNG sales by 4-5% every year through that period. It will separately
keep its oil production steady at 1.4 million barrels per day until the end of the decade. The company intends
to expend 10% of its capital employed in low-carbon businesses by 2030. ″We want to become the world’s
leading integrated gas and LNG business and the most customer-focused energy marketer and trader, while
sustaining a material level of liquids production. Today we are raising the bar across our key financial targets,
investing where we have competitive strengths and delivering more for our shareholders,” CEO Wael Sawan
said in a Tuesday statement. European oil companies have increasingly battled pressure to review their
portfolio strategy in a bid to lock step with shareholder returns offered by majors in the U.S., where White
House leader Donald Trump’s administration champions the resurging output of fossil fuels. - Crowdstrike shares gained 3.3% after BTIG upgraded the stock to buy from neutral citing the growth
potential of the security-software company
With the July IT outage now “in the rearview mirror, we think CRWD has much better visibility on forecasts,”
analyst Gray Powell writes in a note. “As we run through ARR recapture scenarios, we see potential for
growth to reaccelerate in 2H’26 and anywhere from 2.5% to 8% upside to street forecasts in FY2027”. Sees
CRWD emerging as the cleanest platform play across the security software space and “our fieldwork leads us
to believe that CRWD is best positioned of any vendor to win the Security Information and Event
Management (SIEM) market, a $6B+ opportunity”. Says CRWD can grow total revenue to $9.5 billion+ in
CY2028/FY2029, representing a 25%+ CAGR over the next four years, which “is well above street
expectations”. Sets price target at $431, which implies a 16% increase from last closing price. - GameStop (NYSE:GME) Reports Sales Below Analyst Estimates In Q4 Earnings, But Stock Soars 6.1%
Video game retailer GameStop (NYSE:GME) fell short of the market’s revenue expectations in Q4 CY2024,
with sales falling 28.5% year on year to $1.28 billion. Its non-GAAP profit of $0.30 per share was significantly
above analysts’ consensus estimates. GameStop (GME) Q4 CY2024 Highlights: Revenue: $1.28 billion vs
analyst estimates of $1.48 billion (28.5% year-on-year decline, 13.2% miss); Adjusted EPS: $0.30 vs analyst
estimates of $0.08 (significant beat); Operating Margin: 6.2%, in line with the same quarter last year; Free
Cash Flow was $158.8 million, up from -$18.7 million in the same quarter last year; Market
Capitalization: $11.44 billion. - Cloudflare Stock Jumps as BofA Gives Rare Double Upgrade to ‘True AI Winner’
Cloudflare (NET) shares jumped Tuesday after Bank of America analysts gave the stock a double upgrade,
citing strong growth potential in artificial intelligence and security. The cybersecurity firm is “poised to be one
of the true ‘AI winners’ in software,” BofA said, projecting 30% growth by 2028 driven by “AI and security
momentum.” The bank upgraded the company to “buy” from “underperform” and raised its price target to
$160 from $60. That implies roughly 23% upsides after shares of Cloudflare climbed more than 4% intraday
to $129.60. Cloudflare’s AI-as-a-Service represents a differentiated approach to artificial intelligence, BofA
said, and one that customers are “increasingly choosing” over hyperscalers like Amazon (AMZN) Web
Services, Oracle (ORCL) and Microsoft (MSFT) Azure. According to a BofA survey, Cloudflare customers are
expected to increase their AI spending by an average of 8% over the next 12 months to about $100,000 per
client. Last month, Cloudflare reported fourth-quarter results that beat analysts’ expectations, driven in part
by adding a record number of large customers in the period. - BYD megawatt fast charging to be operational from early-April, exec says
BYD Co (HK:1211) will roll out its recently unveiled megawatt fast charging technology by early April, the
company’s executives said in a Weibo (NASDAQ:WB) post on Wednesday, as the Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) rival
races to further its lead in the Chinese electric car market. BYD (SZ:002594) executives said 4,000 megawatt
fast charging stations were being planned, with the first batch of about 500 to be launched in early April,
according to a Weibo statement carried by Chinese media. BYD could not be immediately reached for
comment. The company had last week unveiled a new platform for EVs that it said could charge them almost
as quickly as it takes to pump gas. The company had also announced for the first time that it would build a
charging network in China. BYD’s so-called “super e-platform” will be capable of peak charging speeds of
1,000 kilowatts, and vehicles using it will be able to travel 400 km (249 miles) after a 5-minute charge, the
company said. The touted speeds are about twice as fast as rival Tesla’s superchargers, which offer up to 500
kw charging. Fast charging has been a key focus point for EV makers, given that consumers harbor anxiety
over being able to charge their cars quickly, especially in emergencies. Wednesday’s comments did not
specify where BYD will launch its charging stations. Tesla offers superchargers in China, while smaller
Chinese EV firms such as Nio (NYSE:NIO), Li Auto (NASDAQ:LI), and Xpeng (NYSE:XPEV) have also been
building out charging networks. While BYD relies mostly on plug-in hybrids for sales, it has ramped up its EV
efforts in recent years, especially as it competes with Elon Musk’s Tesla for dominance in the resilient
Chinese EV market. The company recently also unveiled its “gods eye” self-driving technology, which will be
featured in almost all of its vehicles.
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