Why Nvidia Stock Is Rising Today

The S&P 500 was 2.6% higher in midday trading, coming off a big gain Tuesday that more than made up for its steep loss on Monday. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 848 points, or 2.2%, as of 11:20 a.m. Eastern time, and the Nasdaq composite was 3.6% higher.

Wall Street’s gains followed strong moves higher for stocks across much of Europe and Asia. They also continue a dizzying, up-and-down run for financial markets as investors struggle with how to react to so much uncertainty about what Trump will do with his economic policies. The S&P 500 remains 11.7% below its record set earlier this year after briefly dropping roughly 20% below the mark.

The market’s latest move is up in part because Trump said late Tuesday that he has “no intention” to fire the head of the Federal Reserve. Trump had been angry with Jerome Powell, whom Trump had called “a major loser,” because of the Fed’s hesitance to cut interest rates.

While cutting rates could give the economy a boost, it could also put upward pressure on inflation. Economists say Trump’s tariffs are likely both to slow the economy and to raise inflation, at least briefly.

Trump’s tough talk had frightened investors because the Fed is supposed to act independently, without pressure from politicians, so that it can make decisions that may be painful in the short term but are best for the long term.

Trump may have recognized the market’s fear about a move against Powell. He may also be looking to keep someone around whom Trump could blame later if the economy does fall into a recession, according to Thierry Wizman, a strategist at Macquarie.

“Indeed, if the Fed cuts its policy interest rates aggressively, Trump would have little excuse for a recession apart from the pugnacity of his tariff policies,” Wizman said.

Markets also rose after Trump said late Tuesday that U.S. tariffs on imports coming from China could come down “substantially” from the current 145%. “It won’t be that high, not going to be that high,” Trump said.

The hope along Wall Street has been that Trump may lower his tariffs after negotiating trade deals with other countries, and Trump said Tuesday he would be “very nice” to the world’s second-largest economy and not play hardball with Chinese President Xi Jinping.

“There is an opportunity for a big deal here,” U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said in a Wednesday morning speech.

If Trumps brings his tariffs down by enough and quickly enough, investors believe a recession could be averted.

U.S. businesses say they’re already feeling the effects of the trade war. A preliminary reading of U.S. business activity fell to a 16-month low, as the threat of tariffs helped push up prices charged for goods and services at the sharpest rate for just over a year, according to S&P Global’s latest survey released Wednesday.

That’s why one of the few predictions many along Wall Street are willing to make is only that sharp swings for financial markets will continue for a while. The market will “more likely than not continue to be dictated by Trump’s latest whims regarding tariffs and trade,” said Tim Waterer, chief market analyst at KCM Trade.

Trump’s comments also had a big effect on the bond market, where Treasury yields eased. It’s a turnaround from earlier this month, when spiking Treasury yields raised fears that Trump’s actions were scaring investors away from U.S. investments and weakening the U.S. bond market’s reputation as one of the safest places to keep cash.

The yield on the 10-year Treasury fell to 4.33% from 4.41% late Tuesday. That’s a notable move for the bond market, which measures things in hundredths of percentage points.

On Wall Street, Big Tech helped lead a widespread rally where most U.S. stocks climbed.

Nvidia rose 5% to claw back more of the sharp losses it took last week, when it said U.S. restrictions on exports of its H20 chips to China could hurt its first-quarter results by $5.5 billion. The chip company’s stock was the strongest single force lifting the S&P 500.

Other stocks in the artificial-intelligence technology ecosystem also helped lead the way. Vertiv Holdings, which traces its roots to the industry’s first manufacturer of computer room air conditioning, jumped 12% after reporting stronger profit and revenue for the latest quarter than analysts expected. It said it’s continuing to see accelerated demand from AI data centers.

Super Micro Computer, a company that makes servers used in AI, leaped 10.6% for the biggest gain in the S&P 500. Palantir Technologies, which offers an AI platform for customers, climbed 8.5%.

Tesla revved 7.9% higher after CEO Elon Musk said he’ll spend less time in Washington and more time running his electric vehicle company. Tesla on late Tuesday reported a big drop in profits. It’s been struggling because of backlash against Musk’s efforts to lead cost-cutting efforts by the U.S. government.

In stock markets abroad, indexes jumped 2.4% in France, 2.4% in Hong Kong and 1.9% in Japan. Stocks in Shanghai were an exception, where they dipped 0.1%.

Source: BNN BIoomberg

Gold Technical Analysis

Gold markets have dropped again during the trading session on Wednesday as it looks like we are giving up some of the momentum that has been such a major driver of where things go here. That being said, it’s not necessarily that we are going to see the trend change suddenly. It’s just that things got way too out of hand. In fact, it would not surprise me at all to see gold go lower from here. And quite frankly, I would welcome it. I would prefer to buy gold on a pullback. I think the $3,200 level would be an excellent place to start buying. But there’s the question as to whether or not we ever get down there.

Because of this, I have to watch it on a day by day basis. And it does look to me like we could possibly go sideways here as well. Remember, there are two ways to work off excess froth in the market. The first one is the most obvious and that is a pullback and then a bounce to continue. But the other one involves just simply going sideways and the market readjusting getting comfortable with the idea of the new price.

I’m not sure which one we are doing here. But the fact that we have bounced off the lows of the day suggests that we may just go sideways. Again, I would prefer to buy gold at a lower price, perhaps the $3,200 level or even better, the $3,000 level. But I don’t know if we get that. Either way, I will not get short of this market. It is just far too strong.

Source: Kitco

U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent on Wednesday called on the International Monetary Fund and World Bank to refocus on their core missions of macroeconomic stability and development, arguing that they have strayed too far into vanity projects such as climate change that have reduced their effectiveness.

Bessent, in remarks outlining his vision for U.S. engagement with the IMF and World Bank on the sidelines of the institutions' spring meetings, said that they serve critical roles in the international financial system.

"And the Trump administration is eager to work with them - so long as they can stay true to their missions," Bessent said in prepared remarks to the Institute of International Finance.

"The IMF and World Bank have enduring value. But mission creep has knocked these institutions off course. We must enact key reforms to ensure the Bretton Woods institutions are serving their stakeholders - not the other way around," he said, calling on U.S. allies to join the effort. "America First does not mean America alone."

Bessent said the IMF needed to focus on its key mandate and adhere to strong standards in its lending.

"The IMF was once unwavering in its mission of promoting global monetary cooperation and financial stability. Now it devotes disproportionate time and resources to work on climate change, gender, and social issues. These issues are not the IMF's mission."

"And sometimes, the IMF needs to say 'No.' The organization has no obligation to lend to countries that fail to implement reforms."

Bessent added that the World Bank must be "tech-neutral and prioritize affordability in energy investment. In most cases, this means investing in gas and other fossil fuel-based energy production." He added that it could also finance renewable energy projects along with systems to manage energy latency in wind and solar.

Source: TradingView

U.S. business activity slowed to a 16-month low in April and prices charged for goods and services soared amid uncertainty caused by tariffs, reinforcing financial market fears of stagflation that could put the Federal Reserve in a tough spot.

The survey from S&P Global on Wednesday also showed President Donald Trump's protectionist trade policy, which has boosted the United States' average effective tariff rate to levels not seen in more than a century, and an immigration crackdown were hurting goods exports and tourism.

Businesses were also reluctant to hire, which S&P Global said was blamed on "concerns over the economic outlook and demand environments both at home and in export markets, with rising cost concerns and labor availability." Confidence about business conditions over the next 12 months also deteriorated.

S&P Global's flash U.S. Composite PMI Output Index, which tracks the manufacturing and services sectors, dropped to 51.2 this month. That was the lowest level since December 2023 and followed a reading of 53.5 in March. A reading above 50 indicates expansion in the private sector.

The survey was conducted between April 9-22, well afterTrump's"Liberation Day" tariffs announcement and subsequent 90-day delay of reciprocal duties on more than 50 trade partners. Trump, however, raised tariffs on Chinese imports to 145%.

Beijing retaliated with duties of its own, unleashing a trade war between the two economic giants. A 10% universal tariff on nearly all trading partners remains in effect as do 25% duties on automobiles, steel and aluminum.

The tariffs, which Trump sees as a tool to raise revenue to offset his promised tax cuts and to revive a long-declining U.S. industrial base, have stoked fears of high inflation and stagnation in economic growth.

That has partly resulted in investors dumping U.S. assets.

The pullback in the Composite PMI suggested that economic activity was tepid at the start of the second quarter.

Economists believe economic growth braked sharply in the first quarter, with gross domestic product estimates converging below a 0.5% annualized rate.

The government is scheduled to publish its advance GDP estimate for the January-March quarter next Wednesday, which will coincide with Trump's 100 days in office. The economy grew at a 2.4% pace in the fourth quarter.

MARGINAL GROWTH

"Output rose in April at its slowest pace since December 2023, indicating that the U.S. economy is growing at a modest annualized rate of just 1.0%," said Chris Williamson, chief business economist at S&P Global Market Intelligence.

Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell last week suggested the Fed was in no rush to move on interest rates, but cautioned Trump's tariff policies risked pushing inflation and employment further from the U.S. central bank's goals. The Fed's benchmark overnight interest rate is currently in the 4.25%-4.50% range.

The S&P Global survey's business confidence measure was the lowest since July 2022. Its measure of new orders received by businesses slipped to 52.5 from 53.3 in March, hampered "by a fall in exports of services, which include tourism-related activities as well as cross-border activities by service providers on a scale not seen since January 2023."

Manufacturing orders ticked up, but that was offset by declining exports, also attributed to trade policy. Prices charged by businesses for goods and services increased to a 13-month high of 55.2 from 53.5 in March, driven mostly by manufacturers.

"These higher prices will inevitably feed through to higher consumer inflation, potentially limiting the scope for the Fed to reduce interest rates at a time when a slowing economy looks in need of a boost," said Williamson.

A gauge of employment slipped to 50.8 from 51.5 in March.

The survey's flash manufacturing PMI edged up to 50.7 from 50.2 in March. Economists polled by Reuters had forecast the manufacturing PMI declining to 49.1.

Its flash services PMI dropped to 51.4 from 54.4 last month. Economists had forecast the services PMI falling to 52.5.

Source: Reuters

The U.S. government has finalized severe tariffs on imports of solar panels from four Southeast Asian countries, in connection with a complaint filed last year by major U.S.-based solar manufacturers.

The U.S. Commerce Department determined that solar cells from Cambodia, Malaysia, Thailand, and Vietnam were being “dumped” into the U.S. market at artificially low prices, and benefiting from unfair Chinese government subsidies, the Department’s International Trade Administration (ITA) said in a statement late on Monday.

The tariffs varied widely depending on the company and country, ranging from just over 41 percent on Jinko Solar products from Malaysia to over 375 percent on products manufactured by Trina Solar in Thailand. Solar panels and components from Cambodia were slapped with duties of more than 3,500 percent—a rate so high that it amounts to an import ban—because their producers chose not to cooperate with the American investigation.

The tariff rates represent the Commerce Department’s “final affirmative determinations” in two trade complaints filed last year by the American Alliance for Solar Manufacturing Trade Committee, which represents several major solar equipment producers, including South Korea’s Hanwha Qcells USA Inc. and the U.S. firm First Solar Inc. The first complaint claimed that solar imports from Cambodia, Malaysia, Thailand, and Vietnam were unfairly benefiting from Chinese government aid. The second accused these companies of flooding the U.S. market with unfairly priced goods.

In preliminary rulings in October and December of last year, the Commerce Department ruled in favor of the Alliance, arguing that Chinese firms based in the four nations were circumventing its existing antidumping and countervailing duty orders on solar cells from China. It then announced preliminary tariffs on imports from these countries, although the rates announced this week were significantly higher.

“These are very strong results,” Tim Brightbill, an attorney for the Alliance, told reporters, according to Reuters. “We are confident that they will address the unfair trade practices of the Chinese-owned companies in these four countries, which have been injuring the U.S. solar manufacturing industry for far too long.”

The tariffs will not come into effect until the International Trade Commission votes on whether the industry was materially harmed by the dumped and subsidized imports. The vote must take place by June 2.

In 2023, these four countries exported almost $12 billion worth of solar panels and related components to the U.S., making up around 80 percent of total U.S. imports of these goods. The imposition of such severe tariffs would therefore amount to a significant reshaping of the global supply chains for these products.

Indeed, changes in the supply chains are already evident, in anticipation of a cut-off of imports from Cambodia, Thailand, Vietnam, and Malaysia. As Reuters reported, “Imports from the four targeted countries this year are a fraction of what they were a year ago, while shipments of panels from nations like Laos and Indonesia are on the rise.”

In a post on X, Trinh Nguyen, a senior economist for emerging Asia at the financial services firm Natixis, described the ruling as “a win” for U.S. producers, and also those, such as Hanwha Qcells, which have invested in solar panel manufacturing facilities in the United States. “It rewards onshoring & closes out loopholes of cheap Chinese solar that were being arbitraged via Southeast Asian countries,” she wrote.

These solar panel tariffs have enjoyed bipartisan support, and are not directly related to the severe “reciprocal tariffs” announced by President Donald Trump on April 2. But the imposition of the high anti-dumping duties could well play into the trade negotiations that are taking place, or are likely to take place, with these four Southeast Asian nations. This is particularly the case for Vietnam, which was hit with a 46 percent tariff by Trump, as “punishment” for its lopsided trade surplus with the U.S.

This has grown significantly since the first Trump administration imposed tariffs on Chinese imports to the U.S., rising from $38.3 billion in 2017 to $123.5 billion last year. This has naturally raised concerns in Washington that much of this surplus has been made up of Chinese goods that are either fraudulently transshipped via Vietnam, or goods made in Chinese factories set up in the country to avoid U.S. tariffs on Chinese imports.

As Trinh Nguyen noted, the solar duties, which will eliminate much (if not all) of the exports of solar panels and related technology from Vietnam to the U.S., demonstrate the risks to Vietnam of being perceived as a mere transshipment point for Chinese goods. While the extent of this transshipment has arguably been exaggerated, any attempt by Vietnam to argue down the 46 percent reciprocal tariff will likely involve commitments to prevent the rerouting of goods from China. The Vietnamese government recently announced its intention to do so, suggesting an awareness of the problem that this poses for its lucrative trade relationship with the United States.

Meanwhile, the effective cut-off of cheap Chinese solar imports will force Americans to buy more expensive solar panels from local manufacturers. Some critics of the tariffs, including the Solar Energy Industries Association trade group, also argue that they will harm U.S. solar producers by raising prices on imported cells and other components that are assembled into panels by U.S.-based factories. However, this is a cost that Washington seems ready to bear in order to protect and develop industries that it has identified as a national security priority.

Source: The Diplomat

Market analyst “Ash Crypto” said ETH was “about to explode,” drawing comparison from the current chart pattern for Ether to that for Bitcoin’s performance in late 2024.

BTC vs ETH performance and prediction. Source: Ash Crypto

ETH dominance fell to its September 2019 low of 7% on April 22, according to TradingView. However, its subsequent price pump has seen that share bounce off this critical support level and return above 7.5% on April 23.

ETH dominance lows. Source: Rekt Capital

Source: Cointelegraph