Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index drops more than 2% as investors assess Trump tariff threats
Asia-Pacific markets traded mixed Tuesday as investors assessed U.S. President Donald Trump’s tariff threats.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index ended the day 2.35% lower at 23,344.25, while the Hang Seng Tech index plunged 3.82% to 5,517.52.
Meanwhile, mainland China’s CSI 300 closed flat at 3,932.30.
India’s benchmark Nifty 50 rose 0.32% while the broader BSE Sensex traded flat as at 1.45 p.m. local time.
Japan’s benchmark Nikkei 225 ended the day 0.46% higher at 37,780.54, while the broader Topix index increased 0.24% to 2,797.52.
Over in South Korea, the Kospi index fell 0.62% to 2,615.81 while the small-cap Kosdaq declined 1.24% to 711.26.
Over in Australia, the S&P/ASX 200 ended the day flat at 7,942.50.
— Amala Balakrishner
Trading platform eToro submitted a regulatory filing to the Securities and Exchange Commission for an initial public offering.
The company expects to list its Class A common shares on the Nasdaq Global Select Market under the ticker “ETOR.”
Underwriters of the IPO include Goldman Sachs, Jefferies, UBS Investment bank and Citigroup.
The company was founded in 2007, and users can trade a range of asset classes, including stocks, exchange-traded funds and options.
—Darla Mercado
Mohamed El-Erian, Allianz chief economic advisor, said part of the driver for the recent market sell-off could be behind us.
“You’ve seen quite a de-leveraging among fast money. And you’ve also seen a shift of institutional to Europe. I think most of the de-leveraging is behind us. The shift to Europe isn’t quite behind us, but the technical certainly are not as bad as they were a few weeks ago,” El-Erian said on Monday.
The widely followed strategist and economist said there will be one rate cut this year at best as inflation proves to be stubborn.
“I wouldn’t surprise me if we get no cuts this year unless we go into recession,” he said. Recent data are “all consistently pointing to inflation going up. So I think the Fed should take it more seriously.”
— Yun Li
Check out the companies making headlines in extended trading.
KB Home — The homebuilder tumbled nearly 9% after missing both top-and bottom-line estimates in the first quarter. KB Home posted earnings of $1.49 per share on revenues of $1.39 billion. Analysts polled by LSEG were looking for earnings of $1.58 per share and $1.5 billion in revenues. The company also cut its revenue guidance for the 2025 fiscal year.
UniFirst – Shares of the workwear provider dipped 10%. Competitor Cintas terminated talks to take over UniFirst in a deal valued at $275 per share in cash. “While we continue to believe in the merits of a transaction, we were unable to have substantive engagement with UniFirst regarding key transaction terms,” Cintas CEO Todd Schneider said in a statement. “We do not believe further discussions are warranted at this time.”
American Electric Power — The Columbus, Ohio-based utility dropped 2% after planning a $2 billion secondary sale of common stock through Citigroup and Barclays.
— Hakyung Kim
