Shares of South Korean autos pared losses Tuesday after U.S. President Donald Trump took aim at the country overnight, saying he would increase tariffs on Asia’s fourth-largest economy. Trump said on Truth Social that the country’s legislature has not approved Seoul’s trade deal with Washington, and that tariffs on the South Korea will climb to 25%, from 15%. Auto heavyweights Hyundai and Kia plunged as much as 4% and 5%, respectively, at the open. Both pared losses with Hyundai last trading 1.12% higher, while Kia was still down 1.1%.
The S&P 500 rose on Monday as traders monitored political developments and braced for a big week of key earnings reports as well as the latest Federal Reserve interest rate decision. The broad market index advanced 0.50% to end at 6,950.23. The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 313.69 points, or 0.64%, and settled at at 49,412.40. The Nasdaq Composite climbed 0.43% and closed at 23,601.36. The tech-heavy index was supported by jumps of about 3%, 2% and 1% in Apple, Meta Platforms and Microsoft, respectively, ahead of their earnings reports later in the week. President Donald Trump over the weekend threatened to slap a 100% tariff on goods coming into the U.S. from Canada if the country makes a trade deal with China.
Gold prices climbed more than 1% to around $5,070 per ounce on Tuesday, having hit an all-time peak above $5,100 in the previous session, driven by strong haven demand amid rising trade and geopolitical tensions. On Monday, President Trump threatened to raise tariffs on autos, lumber, and pharmaceutical drugs from South Korea, with duties on other goods increasing from 15% to 25%, citing a lack of progress on a trade deal announced last year. Investor attention now turns to the US Federal Reserve’s two-day policy meeting, which begins today. While interest rates are expected to remain unchanged, markets will closely scrutinize Chair Jerome Powell’s remarks, particularly amid mounting pressure from the White House to lower rates.
WTI crude oil futures fell to around $60.2 per barrel on Tuesday, extending losses from the previous session, despite ongoing supply disruptions in the US and heightened geopolitical risks. US oil producers are estimated to have lost roughly 15% of national output over the weekend due to a massive winter storm that swept across large parts of the country. On the geopolitical front, rising tensions in the Middle East, with the US increasing its military presence amid frictions with Iran, continued to stoke concerns about potential disruptions to regional energy supplies. Additionally, the Russia-Ukraine peace talks last weekend failed to reach a breakthrough, which will keep sanctions on Russian energy exports in place, though both sides agreed to resume negotiations next weekend.
China’s industrial profits rose 0.6% in 2025 from a year earlier, snapping three consecutive years of declines as officials moved to rein in aggressive price competition and companies sought overseas growth amid weak domestic demand. The pace of growth accelerated from 0.1% in the January-to-November period, according to data from the National Bureau of Statistics. The recovery last year was driven by policy intervention, particularly Beijing’s campaign against aggressive price undercutting, and companies’ efforts to expand overseas, said Tianchen Xu, a senior economist at the Economist Intelligence Unit. Industrial profits climbed 5.3% in December from a year earlier, the strongest performance since September when earnings surged 21.6%. Profits had faltered in the prior two months, falling 5.5% in October and 13.1% in November.
The White House on Monday appeared to soften its rhetoric surrounding the recent killing of ICU nurse Alex Pretti by federal agents in Minneapolis, after its initial response spurred widespread calls to de-escalate ongoing federal deportation efforts in Minnesota. “Nobody in the White House, including President [Donald] Trump, wants to see people getting hurt or killed in America’s streets,” press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters during a briefing. That includes Pretti and Renee Nicole Good — another U.S. citizen who was fatally shot by federal agents in Minneapolis — “and the brave men and women of federal law enforcement and the many Americans who have been victimized at the hands of illegal alien criminals,” Leavitt said.
Europe and U.S. relations are facing their “lowest moment” since NATO came into being, former European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso said, as Washington’s disruptive approach to diplomacy forces allies to reexamine the transatlantic relationship. “There are some doubts about the relationship with the United States,” Barroso, also former prime minister of Portugal, said in an interview with CNBC’s “The China Connection” on Monday, pointing to a loss of trust that extends beyond the European Union to include the U.K. U.S. President Donald Trump’s aim to acquire Greenland, a semi-autonomous territory of Denmark, including threats of possible military action and higher tariffs on European nations, has shaken confidence in the U.S. among European leaders and the public.
President Donald Trump said Monday that he was increasing tariffs on imported autos, pharmaceuticals, and lumber from South Korea from 15% to 25% because of a delay in that country’s legislature approving a trade deal with the United States reached last summer. Hyundai Motor shares fell as much as 4.77% on the heels of the news, but later pared losses and were last down 0.81% in volatile trading. The South Korean-based is the largest importer of new vehicles from that country into the United States. The share price of Hyundai’s subsidiary Kia dropped nearly 3.5%, and the affiliated Hyundai Mobis was down 5%, Reuters reported. “South Korea’s Legislature is not living up to its Deal with the United States,” Trump said in a Truth Social post. “President Lee [Jae Myung] and I reached a Great Deal for both Countries on July 30, 2025, and we reaffirmed these terms while I was in Korea on October 29, 2025. Why hasn’t the Korean Legislature approved it?” Trump asked.
Nike is laying off 775 employees, a source familiar with the matter told Reuters on Monday, as the sportswear giant looks to boost profits and accelerate its use of automation. The cuts will primarily impact distribution center roles in Tennessee and Mississippi, where the sneaker giant operates large warehouses, the person said. Nike, whose business is struggling, is trying to reestablish itself as the world’s leading sportswear brand after losing market share to rivals. It has undergone several rounds of layoffs in recent years. In August, it cut a little less than 1% of its corporate workforce as part of its turnaround efforts under CEO Elliott Hill, who took over the top job in 2024. It had previously announced it would cut 2% of its jobs - more than 1,600 in total - in February 2024.
Microsoft on Monday unveiled the second generation of its in-house artificial intelligence chip, along with software tools that take aim at one of Nvidia’s biggest competitive advantages with developers. The new "Maia 200" chip comes online this week in a data center in Iowa, with plans for a second location in Arizona, Microsoft said. It is the second generation of an AI chip called Maia that Microsoft introduced in 2023. The Maia 200 comes as major cloud computing firms such as Microsoft, Alphabet’s Google and Amazon’s, Amazon Web Services - some of Nvidia’s biggest customers - are producing their own chips that increasingly compete with Nvidia.
CoreWeave stock jumped 14% Monday after Nvidia announced a $2 billion investment to expand their AI infrastructure partnership. Nvidia purchased CoreWeave Class A common stock at $87.20 per share as part of a collaboration to accelerate the buildout of more than 5 gigawatts of AI factories by 2030. The investment demonstrates Nvidia’s confidence in CoreWeave’s business model and growth strategy as a cloud platform built on Nvidia infrastructure. The expanded partnership will focus on building AI factories using Nvidia’s accelerated computing platform technology, with CoreWeave handling development and operations. Nvidia will leverage its financial strength to help CoreWeave accelerate procurement of land, power, and shell infrastructure.
U.S. memory chipmaker Micron Technology announced on Tuesday a $24-billion investment plan to build a new memory chip making facility in Singapore, as it races to boost output in the face of an acute global shortage. The news, reported earlier by Reuters, comes amid an industry scramble to build AI infrastructure that has left sectors from consumer electronics to AI service providers battling a severe scarcity of all types of memory chips. Micron said the new investment to build an advanced wafer fabrication facility over the next decade will help it meet growing market demand for NAND memory chips, fuelled by the rise of AI and data-centric applications. Wafer output is set to begin in the second half of 2028 in a cleanroom space sprawling over 700,000 square feet (65,000 sq m), it added in a statement.