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Over in the US on Tuesday, stocks closed higher as investors shift focus from Trump’s trade wars to fourth quarter earnings results. The Nasdaq rose 1.35%, the S&P500 gained 0.72% and the Dow Jones ended the day up 0.3%. Palantir, the big data analytics software provider, soared 24% on Tuesday to become a $200bn company after posting Q4 results that topped expectations.

In Europe overnight, markets closed mostly higher amid Trump’s tariffs pauses with Mexico and Canada and on the back of strong key corporate results out in the region. The STOXX 600 rose 0.3%, Germany’s DAX added 0.4%, the French CAC climbed 0.7%, and, in the UK, the FTSE100 ended the day down 0.15%.

Across the APAC region on Tuesday, markets rallied as China retaliated to Trump’s tariffs by slapping tariffs on US imports between 10% to 15% for certain goods. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng rose 2.83%, Japan’s Nikkei added 0.72%, South Korea’s Kospi index climbed 1.13% and China’s CSI index remains closed for the Lunar holiday.

Locally yesterday the ASX posted a slight loss of 0.06% yesterday as investors responded to Trump’s tariffs on China coming into effect and the late afternoon retaliation of Beijing placing a 10-15% tariff on certain goods from the US. On Monday, Trump suspended tariffs on Mexico and Canada as discussions between the regions began, while the tariffs in China came into effect late on Tuesday AU time. Tech stocks offset some of the heavy losses yesterday with a gain for the sector of 1.52%, while REIT and consumer discretionary stocks fell 1.06% and 0.76% respectively.

Online jobs advertisement platform Seek’s proposed acquisition of Xref for a value of $42.1m fell through yesterday after Xref’s shareholder voted against the takeover bid. Shares in Xref tumbled 22.6% yesterday while shares in Seek fell just 0.2%.
Crop protection solution producer Nufarm rallied over 3% on Tuesday after reporting a positive trading update including the expectation to achieve $100m from its omega-3 revenue in FY25 and its belt-tightening program for cost cutting remains on track with $50m of annualised savings.

What to watch today:

• Ahead of the midweek trading session here in Australia the SPI futures are anticipating the ASX will open the day up 0.64% tracking Wall Street’s rebound overnight.
• On the commodities front this morning, oil has slipped to trade 0.70% lower at US$72.65/barrel, gold is up 1.04% at US$2843/ounce and iron ore is up 3.38% at US$105.02/tonne.
• The Aussie dollar has strengthened against the greenback to buy US$0.62, 96.41 Japanese Yen, 50.04 British Pence and NZ$1.11.
• On the reporting season calendar today, BWP Trust will release results.

Trading Ideas:

• Bell Potter has increased the 12-month price target on Nufarm (ASX:NUF) from $4.25 to $4.35 and maintain a buy rating on the crop protection company following the release of a FY25 trading update. The analyst sees it has been a pleasing start to FY25 with strong levels of demand for crop protection products and the company remains on track to deliver $100m in Omega-3 revenues this year. The company is also on track to reduce working capital by 25-days per year end.
• And Trading Central has identified a bearish signal on Cleanaway Waste Management (ASX:CWY) following the formation of a pattern over a period of 15-days which is roughly the same amount of time the share price may fall from the close of $2.70 to the range of $2.63 to $2.65 according to standard principles of technical analysis.