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Nissan shares plunged on Wednesday after Japan’s Nikkei business daily said the carmaker had decided to withdraw from merger talks with rival Honda.The newspaper and other Japanese media had earlier reported that Honda had proposed making Nissan a subsidiary, instead of the previous plan to integrate under a new holding company.”Strong opposition” within Nissan to this proposal had led it to walk away, the Nikkei said, adding that discussions on a holding company had faltered as the pair disagreed on the integration ratio and other conditions.In late afternoon trade in Tokyo, Nissan shares were down 4.8 percent. Honda shares, however, soared 12 percent.Tokyo Stock Exchange then suspended trading of Nissan shares, saying that confirmation of the authenticity of media reports related to the cancellation of the merger was necessary.Nissan and Honda agreed in December to launch discussions on joining forces to create the world’s third largest automaker, seen as a bid to catch up with Tesla and Chinese electric vehicle firms.Honda’s CEO insisted at the time it was not a bailout for Nissan, which last year announced thousands of job cuts after reporting a 93 percent plunge in first-half net profit.Lacklustre consumer spending and stiff competition in several markets are making life hard for many automakers.Business has been especially tough for foreign brands in China where electric vehicle manufacturers such as BYD are leading the way as demand grows for less polluting vehicles.China overtook Japan as the biggest vehicle exporter last year, helped by government support for EVs.Honda and Nissan are Japan’s number two and three automakers after Toyota.They already agreed last year to explore a partnership on EV software and components among other technologies, an initiative joined by Mitsubishi Motors in August.But the smaller automaker’s chief said this week it would make a final decision on whether to join the Honda-Nissan merger talks in mid-February or later.In December, reports said Taiwanese electronics behemoth Foxconn had unsuccessfully approached Nissan to acquire a majority share.It then reportedly asked Renault to sell its 35 percent stake in Nissan — a pursuit that was put on hold before the merger talks were announced.Nissan has weathered a turbulent decade, including the 2018 arrest of former boss Carlos Ghosn, who later jumped bail and fled Japan concealed in a music equipment box.The company is also saddled with billions of dollars of debt that will reportedly mature over the next two years.

China’s new tariffs on US imports like oil, coal and cars are relatively modest in scale, suggesting that Beijing is hoping for a last-minute deal but also giving them the option to inflict more pain if needed, analysts say.China on Tuesday fired a return salvo in its escalating trade war with the United States, slapping fresh tariffs on everything from American crude oil to agricultural machinery.The moves hit roughly $20 billion worth of US goods per year — roughly 12 percent of total American imports into China, according to calculations by Capital Economics.Over a third of that is energy: according to Beijing customs data, imports of oil, coal and LNG totalled more than $7 billion last year.Beijing has also slapped fresh export controls on rare metals and chemicals including tungsten, tellurium, bismuth, indium and molybdenum, used in everything from mining to phone screens. China dominates global supply chains for rare metals.The countermeasures came as a surprise to some — analysts at UBS this week told AFP they had expected Beijing to keep its powder dry.But they are a far cry from the 10 percent tariffs slapped on all Chinese imports by US President Donald Trump this week that will affect some $450 billion worth of goods.”The measures are fairly modest, at least relative to US moves,” Capital Economics’s Julian Evans-Pritchard said.They “have clearly been calibrated to try to send a message to the US (and domestic audiences) without inflicting too much damage,” he added.- Limited room for manoeuvre -That restraint can in part be explained by China’s reliance on many US imports for its industries and its longstanding economic woes at home, Agatha Kratz at the Rhodium Group told AFP.”Given the current economic downturn, China cannot afford — and does not want — to impose excessive trade barriers,” she said.”China’s economy is in a fragile state, and this limits its ability to act freely,” she explained.”Beijing cannot afford to take reckless actions, and I don’t think it wants to.”Far from inflicting deep pain, analysts say Beijing’s goal is to send a message to Washington: that China can and will retaliate to swingeing tariffs.”These tariffs are structured to signal China’s capacity to endure prolonged economic confrontation while forcing the US to deal with internal economic pressures,” Mingzhi Jimmy Xu, an assistant professor at Peking University, to AFP.- ‘Serious damage’ -And Beijing can do “serious damage” to the United States should it decide to, Shehzad Qazi from China Beige Book told AFP.The US remains heavily reliant on China for critical minerals needed to produce electric vehicles, their batteries and other key industrial applications.Washington has had a flavour of this. In December, Beijing banned exports of metals gallium, antimony and germanium, key components in semiconductors.That it had chosen not to, analysts say, suggests Beijing is keen to leave the door open to negotiations with Washington that could see the tariffs reversed.Trump on Monday indicated a call with Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping could be imminent, hinting that a similar volte-face could be in the works. But he later rolled back that claim, saying he was in “no rush” to speak with the Chinese leader.Both Mexico and Canada — hit with 25 percent tariffs over the weekend — succeeded in securing a 30-day stay in last-minute deals with the US. Beijing may be hoping for the same kind of agreement — likely tied to a further commitment to crack down on the trafficking of fentanyl and the ownership of social media app TikTok.”The Chinese tariffs do not go into effect until five days from now, a long time in Trump world,” Wendy Cutler, a former US trade official, said in a note.But “the question is whether Trump will react in the same way to such threats” from China, Alicia Garcia Herrero at Natixis told AFP.”If he doubles down, China will have a problem.”

US President Donald Trump said Tuesday he was not in a hurry to speak with his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping, despite expectations that they would hold talks after announcing tit-for-tat tariffs in a growing trade conflict.Beijing said it was imposing levies on imports of US energy, vehicles and equipment in a return salvo minutes after Trump’s threatened tariffs on Chinese goods came into effect Tuesday.A day prior, Trump suspended duties on Mexico and Canada for a month after both countries vowed to step up measures to counter flows of the drug fentanyl and the crossing of undocumented migrants into the United States.Trump had signaled earlier that the talks with Xi could take place early this week, but addressing reporters at the White House Tuesday afternoon, he said he was in “no rush” to talk to Xi.US stock markets shrugged off weakness on Tuesday, but Chinese stocks saw volatility after markets opened Wednesday as the US Postal Service said it was suspending inbound package shipments from China and Hong Kong “until further notice.”Letters and flats, it said, would not be impacted.Trump had imposed fresh 10 percent tariffs on Chinese goods, on top of levies that were already in place against Washington’s biggest economic competitor. Mexico and Canada had faced 25 percent tariffs.Trump’s tariff order also eliminated a duty-free exemption for low value packages, a move that could delay packages of Chinese-founded online retailers Shein and Temu from entering the country.White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said on Monday that Trump was due to talk to Xi, but on Tuesday said she had no “updates on when that call will take place.” “He is not going to allow China to continue to source and distribute deadly fentanyl into our country, that was the reason for this tariff,” Leavitt told reporters outside the West Wing of the White House.- ‘Malicious’ -China unveiled 15 percent levies on imports of coal and liquefied natural gas from the United States, while crude oil, agricultural machinery, big-engined vehicles, and pickup trucks face 10 percent duties.Beijing says it will also probe US tech giant Google and the US fashion group that owns Tommy Hilfiger and Calvin Klein.China’s government said the measures were in response to the “unilateral tariff hike” by Washington. It said it would also file a complaint to the World Trade Organization over the “malicious” levies.Additionally, it unveiled fresh export controls on rare metals and chemicals including tungsten, tellurium, bismuth, and molybdenum, used in a range of industrial appliances.China is a major market for US energy exports and according to Beijing customs data, imports of oil, coal and LNG totaled more than $7 billion last year.But that is dwarfed by China’s imports from more friendly powers such as Russia, from which it purchased $94 billion-worth last year.- Last-minute deals -Trump has made tariffs a key foreign policy tool of his second term, joking that the word tariff is the “most beautiful” in the dictionary.The Republican billionaire said his duties aimed to punish countries for failing to halt flows of illegal migrants and drugs including the powerful opioid fentanyl into the United States.Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau both struck last-minute deals with Trump on Monday to tighten border measures, leading to a 30-day pause on threatened levies.Talks will continue for the next month on broader pacts.Mexico said Tuesday it had begun the 10,000-strong border troop deployment it had promised Trump as part of the agreement to halt tariffs.”The deployment has already started,” Sheinbaum told reporters.More than 450,000 people have been murdered countrywide since Mexico launched a major offensive against drug cartels in 2006.Trudeau said Canada would appoint a “Fentanyl Czar” and list drug cartels as terrorist organizations.burs-dk-bys/jgc

Asian markets stumbled Wednesday and gold hit a new record as investors kept tabs on China and the United States after they exchanged tariffs, sparking fears of another debilitating trade war between the economic superpowers.Shanghai, which reopened after a week-long break, and Hong Kong were among the main losers as e-commerce firms took a hit from news that the US Postal Service was suspending inbound parcels from China and Hong Kong.The tepid performance came despite a positive lead from Wall Street, where there was a sigh of relief that US President Donald Trump had reached a deal to delay 25 percent duties on imports from Canada and Mexico.Disappointing earnings from Google-parent Alphabet and Advanced Micro Devices added to the unease over the tech sector, which has already been roiled by the unveiling of a new chatbot by Chinese startup DeepSeek.All eyes were on Washington and Beijing after they renewed their trade spat, though analysts said China’s apparently more measured approach provided some hope that a full-blown crisis could be avoided.”Regarding China’s counter measures, we think that the tariffs are less than what we had expected in our view. The move is largely symbolic given that only about 12% of total imports from the US would be subject to tariffs,” said Kai Wang, Asia equity market strategist at Morningstar.”A key takeaway from this development, at least for now, is that fundamentally there is less risk implied than expected before.”However, escalation of the trade war remains a risk given Trump’s history of unpredictable behaviour. Therefore, the volatility risk remains on the table for the next four years at least,” Wang added.Economists at HSBC Global Research added that China’s “moves so far are more measured compared with the universal 10 percent tariff imposed by the US, suggesting a likely different playbook than a tit-for-tat strategy, though we acknowledge the risk of escalation has increased”.Hong Kong fell 1.2 percent, with e-commerce giant JD.com sinking more than four percent and rival Alibaba losing more than one percent on news of the US Postal Service suspension.Trump’s tariff announcement against China included the removal of an allowance — used by China’s e-commerce firms — that exempted small packages worth less than $800 from duties.The suspension does not involve letters and flat mail.There were also losses in Tokyo, Singapore, Wellington and Jakarta, though Sydney, Seoul, Taipei and Manila rose.Gold hit a fresh peak of $2,853.82 as investors rushed into the safe-haven metal.Tech firms were again under pressure after Alphabet sank 7.5 percent in after-hours trade in New York owing to disappointment at its lower-than-expected revenue growth and its ambitious 2025 capital spending forecast.Advanced Micro Devices also sank in post-close business.The tech sector has been feeling some pain since DeepSeek’s arrival on the scene with its chatbot, which apparently was developed at a fraction of the cost of similar tools made by US firms, stoking concerns about the eye-watering investments made in AI in recent years.On currency markets, the yen strengthened against the dollar following data showing nominal wages in Japan rose far more than expected last month and at the fastest pace since 1997. That firmed expectations the country’s central bank would continue to hike interest rates this year.- Key figures around 0230 GMT -Tokyo – Nikkei 225: DOWN 0.2 percent to 38,727.19 (break)Hong Kong – Hang Seng Index: DOWN 1.0 percent to 20,574.20Shanghai – Composite: DOWN 0.5 percent to 3,236.09Euro/dollar: DOWN at $1.0378 from $1.0383 on TuesdayPound/dollar: DOWN at $1.2477 from $1.2480Dollar/yen: DOWN at 153.66 yen from 154.32 yenEuro/pound: UP at 83.17 pence from 83.16 penceWest Texas Intermediate: UP 0.2 percent at $72.82 per barrelBrent North Sea Crude: FLAT at $76.22 per barrelNew York – Dow: UP 0.3 percent at 44,556.04 (close)London – FTSE 100: DOWN 0.2 percent at 8,570.77 (close)

Honda shares surged on Wednesday as Japanese media said the automaker had proposed making its struggling rival Nissan a subsidiary — with some reports saying the move could spell the end of their merger talks.The companies agreed in December to launch discussions on joining forces to create the world’s third largest automaker, seen as a bid to catch up with Tesla and Chinese electric vehicle firms.Honda’s CEO insisted at the time it was not a bailout for Nissan, which last year announced thousands of job cuts after reporting a 93 percent plunge in first-half net profit.Japanese public broadcaster NHK and other media outlets reported Tuesday that Honda was offering to acquire Nissan shares and make it a subsidiary, instead of the previous plan to integrate under a new holding company.But that proposal is expected to face fierce opposition from Nissan over concerns about its autonomy, the reports said.Honda shares jumped more than four percent in Wednesday morning trade. Nissan also surged more than seven percent but pared gains and was up 3.3 percent before the break.A Honda spokeswoman told AFP there had been no official announcement and declined to comment further. Nissan said merger discussions were “ongoing”, adding that “we aim to finalise our direction by mid-February and will announce it at that time.”The Asahi newspaper said both companies would soon hold separate board meetings to discuss issues including the possibility of calling off the talks.The Yomiuri daily cited an unnamed Nissan executive as saying the merger was now “almost impossible”, with difficulties satisfying shareholders on either side.Lacklustre consumer spending and stiff competition in several markets are making life hard for many automakers.Business has been especially tough for foreign brands in China where electric vehicle manufacturers such as BYD are leading the way as demand grows for less polluting vehicles.Honda and Nissan are Japan’s number two and three automakers after Toyota.They already agreed last year to explore a partnership on EV software and components among other technologies, an initiative joined by Mitsubishi Motors in August.But the smaller automaker’s chief said this week that it will make a final decision on whether to join the Honda-Nissan merger talks in mid-February or later.

Australia has banned DeepSeek from all government devices on the advice of security agencies, a top official said Wednesday, citing privacy and malware risks posed by China’s breakout AI program.The DeepSeek chatbot — developed by a China-based startup — has astounded industry insiders and upended financial markets since it was released last month.But a growing list of countries including South Korea, Italy and France have voiced concerns about the application’s security and data practices. Australia upped the ante overnight banning DeepSeek from all government devices, one of the toughest moves against the Chinese chatbot yet. “This is an action the government has taken on the advice of security agencies. It’s absolutely not a symbolic move,” said government cyber security envoy Andrew Charlton. “We don’t want to expose government systems to these applications.” Risks included that uploaded information “might not be kept private”, Charlton told national broadcaster ABC, and that applications such as DeepSeek “may expose you to malware”. – ‘Unacceptable’ risk -Australia’s Home Affairs department issued a directive to government employees overnight. “After considering threat and risk analysis, I have determined that the use of DeepSeek products, applications and web services poses an unacceptable level of security risk to the Australian Government,” Department of Home Affairs Secretary Stephanie Foster said in the directive. As of Wednesday all non-corporate Commonwealth entities must “identify and remove all existing instances of DeepSeek products, applications and web services on all Australian Government systems and mobile devices,” she added.  The directive also required that “access, use or installation of DeepSeek products” be prevented across government systems and mobile devices. It has garnered bipartisan support among Australian politicians. Deputy opposition leader Sussan Ley said the public should “think carefully” about also removing DeepSeek from their private phones and computers.In 2018 Australia banned Chinese telecommunications giant Huawei from its national 5G network, citing national security concerns. TikTok was banned from government devices in 2023 on the advice of Australian intelligence agencies.- Alarm bells -DeepSeek raised alarm last month when it claimed its new R1 chatbot matches the capacity of artificial intelligence pace-setters in the United States for a fraction of the cost. It has sent Silicon Valley into a frenzy, with some calling its high performance and supposed low cost a wake-up call for US developers.Some experts have accused DeepSeek of reverse-engineering the capabilities of leading US technology, such as the AI powering ChatGPT. Several countries now including South Korea, Ireland, France, Australia and Italy have expressed concern about DeepSeek’s data practices, including how it handles personal data and what information is used to train DeepSeek’s AI system. Tech and trade spats between China and Australia go back years. Beijing was enraged by Canberra’s Huawei decision, along with its crackdown on Chinese foreign influence operations and a call for an investigation into the origins of the Covid-19 pandemic. A multi-billion-dollar trade war raged between Canberra and Beijing but eventually cooled late last year, when China lifted its final barrier, a ban on imports of Australian live rock lobsters. 

Stock markets managed to push higher on Tuesday but investors braced for volatility as President Donald Trump pressed on with tariffs against China after delaying duties on Mexican and Canadian imports.Beijing said it was imposing levies on imports of US energy, vehicles and equipment after Trump’s 10 percent tariffs came into effect.But Art Hogan of B. Riley Wealth said markets were taking a wait and see view of Trump’s trade policy given the pullback on Mexico and Canada, while regarding earnings as “a positive tailwind.All three US indices finished higher after a sluggish start.The hesitant trading came after heavy selling Monday following Trump’s weekend announcement of the tariffs, before later offering a reprieve for the United States’ closest neighbors.Investors also tracked mixed earnings from major companies — including alcoholic drinks giant Diageo, which scrapped a key performance target as it predicted sales of tequila and Canadian whisky in the key US market would be hit by the tariffs.In the United States, PepsiCo slumped after it reported flat quarterly sales while the soda and snacks giant worked to address “subdued” demand in North America and faced “business disruptions due to geopolitical tensions in certain international markets.”But Palantir Technologies piled on more than 20 percent after reporting a 36 percent increase in revenues based on artificial intelligence growth as its CEO described Palantir as a “software juggernaut.”Indexes from Japan to New York were sent tumbling Monday after news at the weekend that Trump had signed off 25 percent duties against Mexico and Canada, fanning concerns for the stuttering global economy.Hours before the tariffs were due to kick in, Trump said he would postpone the measures until March.”A risk is that this is the beginning of a tit-for-tat trade war, which could result in lower GDP growth everywhere, higher US inflation, a stronger dollar and upside pressure on US interest rates,” said Stephen Dover, chief market strategist and head of Franklin Templeton Institute.”The uncertainty surrounding the permanence of these tariffs makes it challenging for companies to make informed capital investment decisions,” he added.Trump has warned that the European Union would be next in the firing line and has not ruled out tariffs against Britain.The volatile start to February on markets follows their roller-coaster ride last week after China’s DeepSeek unveiled a cheaper artificial intelligence model rivalling those of US tech giants, sparking questions over the vast sums invested in the sector in recent years.”One thing we can say for sure. Markets are going to remain subject to massive headline risk in coming hours… days… and years,” forecast Ray Attrill, foreign currency strategist at National Australia Bank.- Key figures around 2140 GMT -New York – Dow: UP 0.3 percent at 44,556.04 (close)New York – S&P 500: UP 0.5 percent at 6,037.88 (close)New York – Nasdaq: UP 1.4 percent at 19,654.02 (close)London – FTSE 100: DOWN 0.2 percent at 8,570.77 (close)Paris – CAC 40: UP 0.7 percent at 7,906.40 (close)Frankfurt – DAX: UP 0.4 percent at 21,505.70 (close)Tokyo – Nikkei 225: UP 0.7 percent at 38,798.37 (close)Hong Kong – Hang Seng Index: UP 2.8 percent at 20,789.96 (close)Shanghai – Composite: Closed for a holidayEuro/dollar: UP at $1.0383 from $1.0344 on MondayPound/dollar: UP at $1.2480 from $1.2450Dollar/yen: DOWN at 154.32 yen from 154.73 yenEuro/pound: UP at 83.16 pence from 83.08 penceWest Texas Intermediate: DOWN 0.6 percent at $72.70 per barrelBrent North Sea Crude: UP 0.3 percent at $76.20 per barrel

Stock markets managed to push higher on Tuesday but investors braced for volatility in the coming weeks as President Donald Trump pressed on with tariffs against China after delaying duties on Mexican and Canadian imports.The hesitant trading came after heavy selling Monday following Trump’s weekend announcement of the tariffs, before later offering a reprieve for the United States’ closest neighbours.Oil prices also clawed back early losses seen after Beijing announced retaliatory tariffs against US products, including hydrocarbons, shortly after US levies came into force on Tuesday.”Chinese imports of US crude and oil products are relatively modest,” Jorge Leon, an economist at Rystad Energy, told AFP.”However, the key question is where we go from here. Is this the start of a tit-for-tat trade war between the two biggest economies in the world? If so, the downside risk to global economic growth would be significant,” he said.Gold, a haven asset in uncertain times, traded close to recent record highs.Investors also tracked mixed earnings from major companies — including alcoholic drinks giant Diageo, which scrapped a key performance target as it predicted sales of tequila and Canadian whisky in the key US market would be hit by the tariffs.In the United States, PepsiCo slumped after it reported flat quarterly sales while the soda and snacks giant worked to address “subdued” demand in North America and faced “business disruptions due to geopolitical tensions in certain international markets”.Indexes from Japan to New York were sent tumbling Monday after news at the weekend that Trump had signed off 25 percent duties against Mexico and Canada, fanning concerns for the stuttering global economy.Hours before the tariffs were due to kick in, Trump said he would postpone the measures until March.China, Canada and Mexico are the United States’ three biggest trading partners.”A risk is that this is the beginning of a tit-for-tat trade war, which could result in lower GDP growth everywhere, higher US inflation, a stronger dollar and upside pressure on US interest rates,” said Stephen Dover, chief market strategist and head of Franklin Templeton Institute.”The uncertainty surrounding the permanence of these tariffs makes it challenging for companies to make informed capital investment decisions,” he added.Trump has warned that the European Union would be next in the firing line and has not ruled out tariffs against Britain.The volatile start to February on markets follows their roller-coaster ride last week after China’s DeepSeek unveiled a cheaper artificial intelligence model rivalling those of US tech giants, sparking questions over the vast sums invested in the sector in recent years.”One thing we can say for sure. Markets are going to remain subject to massive headline risk in coming hours… days… and years,” forecast Ray Attrill, foreign currency strategist at National Australia Bank.- Key figures around 1645 GMT -New York – Dow: UP 0.1 percent at 44,484.22 pointsNew York – S&P 500: UP 0.7 percent at 6,034.36New York – Nasdaq: UP 1.3 percent at 19,640.00London – FTSE 100: DOWN 0.2 percent at 8,570.77 (close)Paris – CAC 40: UP 0.7 percent at 7,906.40 (close)Frankfurt – DAX: UP 0.4 percent at 21,505.70 (close)Tokyo – Nikkei 225: UP 0.7 percent at 38,798.37 (close)Hong Kong – Hang Seng Index: UP 2.8 percent at 20,789.96 (close)Shanghai – Composite: Closed for a holidayEuro/dollar: UP at $1.0385 from $1.0302 on MondayPound/dollar: UP at $1.2488 from $1.2407Dollar/yen: DOWN at 154.55 yen from 154.80 yenEuro/pound: UP at 83.17 pence from 83.03 penceWest Texas Intermediate: DOWN 0.4 percent at $72.76 per barrelBrent North Sea Crude: UP 0.2 percent at $76.19 per barrel

US President Donald Trump and Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping are expected to speak by phone on Tuesday, just hours after slapping tariffs on each other’s economies in an escalating trade war.Beijing said it was imposing levies on imports of US energy, vehicles and equipment in a return salvo minutes after Trump’s threatened tariffs on Chinese goods came into effect.Trump suspended tariffs on Mexico and Canada on Monday for a month after they vowed to step up measures to counter flows of the drug fentanyl and crossing of undocumented migrants into the United States.Stock markets wavered on Tuesday as investors braced for volatile market activity in the coming weeks over Trump’s threatened tariffs on the three biggest US trading partners.”Let’s see what happens with the call today,” Trump trade advisor Peter Navarro, a veteran of the US president’s first term, told news outlet Politico.Asked if Trump could halt the tariffs on China too, he added: “It’s up to the boss. I never get ahead of the boss, that’s why I’m sitting here.”Trump imposed fresh 10 percent tariffs on Chinese goods, on top of levies that were already in place against America’s biggest economic competitor. Mexico and Canada had faced 25 percent tariffs. White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said on Monday that Trump was due to talk to Xi, but said Tuesday that “I don’t have any updates on when that call will take place.” “He is not going to allow China to continue to source and distribute deadly fentanyl into our country, that was the reason for this tariff,” Leavitt told reporters outside the West Wing.- ‘Malicious’ -China unveiled levies of 15 percent on imports of coal and liquefied natural gas from the United States, while crude oil, agricultural machinery, big-engined vehicles, and pickup trucks face 10 percent duties.It says it will also probe US tech giant Google and the American fashion group which owns Tommy Hilfiger and Calvin Klein.Beijing said the measures were in response to the “unilateral tariff hike” by Washington. It said it would also file a complaint to the World Trade Organization over the “malicious” levies.It also unveiled fresh export controls on rare metals and chemicals including tungsten, tellurium, bismuth, and molybdenum, used in a range of industrial appliances.China is a major market for US energy exports and according to Beijing customs data, imports of oil, coal and LNG totaled more than $7 billion last year.But that is dwarfed by China’s imports from more friendly powers such as Russia, from which it purchased $94 billion-worth last year.- Last-minute deals -Trump has made tariffs a key foreign policy tool of his second term, joking that the word tariff is the “most beautiful” in the dictionary.The Republican billionaire said his tariffs aimed to punish countries for failing to halt flows of illegal migrants and drugs including the powerful opioid fentanyl into the United States.Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau had both struck last-minute deals with Trump on Monday to tighten border measures, leading to a 30-day pause on threatened tariffs.Talks will continue for the next month on broader deals.Mexico said it had begun the 10,000-strong border troop deployment it had promised Trump as part of the agreement to halt tariffs.”The deployment has already started,” Sheinbaum told reporters.More than 450,000 people have been murdered countrywide since Mexico launched a major offensive against drug cartels in 2006.Trudeau meanwhile said Canada would appoint a “Fentanyl Czar” and list drug cartels as terrorist organizations.burs-dk/bjt

Stock markets wavered on Tuesday, with investors bracing for volatile trading in the coming weeks as President Donald Trump pressed on with tariffs against China after delaying duties on Mexican and Canadian imports.Oil prices retreated as Beijing announced retaliatory tariffs against US products, including hydrocarbons, shortly after US levies came into force on Tuesday.”Chinese imports of US crude and oil products are relatively modest,” Jorge Leon, an economist at Rystad Energy, told AFP.”However, the key question is where we go from here. Is this the start of a tit-for-tat trade war between the two biggest economies in the world? If so, the downside risk to global economic growth would be significant,” he said.Gold, a haven asset in uncertain times, traded close to recent record highs.Investors also tracked mixed earnings from major companies — including alcoholic drinks giant Diageo, which scrapped a key performance target as it predicted sales of tequila and Canadian whisky in the key US market would be hit by the tariffs.Markets from Japan to New York were sent tumbling Monday after news at the weekend that Trump had signed off 25 percent duties against Mexico and Canada, fanning concerns for the stuttering global economy.Hours before the tariffs were due to kick in, Trump said he would postpone the measures until March.China, Canada and Mexico are the United States’ three biggest trading partners.”A risk is that this is the beginning of a tit-for-tat trade war, which could result in lower GDP growth everywhere, higher US inflation, a stronger dollar and upside pressure on US interest rates,” said Stephen Dover, chief market strategist and head of Franklin Templeton Institute.”The uncertainty surrounding the permanence of these tariffs makes it challenging for companies to make informed capital investment decisions,” he added.Trump has warned that the European Union would be next in the firing line and has not ruled out tariffs against Britain.The volatile start to February on markets follows their roller-coaster ride last week after China’s DeepSeek unveiled a cheaper artificial intelligence model rivalling those of US tech giants, sparking questions over the vast sums invested in the sector in recent years.”One thing we can say for sure. Markets are going to remain subject to massive headline risk in coming hours… days… and years,” forecast Ray Attrill, foreign currency strategist at National Australia Bank.- Key figures around 1445 GMT -New York – Dow: DOWN 0.1 percent at 44,388.98 pointsNew York – S&P 500: UP 0.2 percent at 6,003.73New York – Nasdaq: UP 0.5 percent at 19,487.61London – FTSE 100: DOWN 0.3 percent at 8,561.71 Paris – CAC 40: UP 0.4 percent at 7,888.02Frankfurt – DAX: UP 0.2 percent at 21,459.97Tokyo – Nikkei 225: UP 0.7 percent at 38,798.37 (close)Hong Kong – Hang Seng Index: UP 2.8 percent at 20,789.96 (close)Shanghai – Composite: Closed for a holidayEuro/dollar: UP at $1.0350 from $1.0302 on MondayPound/dollar: UP at $1.2442 from $1.2407Dollar/yen: UP at 155.02 yen from 154.80 yenEuro/pound: UP at 83.19 pence from 83.03 penceWest Texas Intermediate: DOWN 2.2 percent at $70.96 per barrelBrent North Sea Crude: DOWN 1.6 percent at $74.34 per barrel