Business & Tech News
Trump Pushes Pause on Tariffs, Except for China:
U.S. President Donald Trump late yesterday, announced a decision to pause the wide-ranging tariffs he had, a week ago, implemented on most countries that had bent and moved stock markets across the globe. President Trump announced a 90-day pause on reciprocal tariffs for countries that had not retaliated with reciprocal tarrifs. The move offered key US trading partners a window for negotiations in a welcome relief amid a dimming economic outlook. However, regarding China, Trump raised tariffs on Chinese imports to 125% in response to retaliatory measures from Beijing who have imposed an 84% tariff on US imports. Billionaire investor Bill Ackman said on Thursday that China was now isolated and other U.S. trading partners were lining up to make deals following President Donald Trump’s stunning reversal of his tariff decision.
This morning there has been a surging of share prices across multiple indices despite the heightened trade war with China. The tariff turnabout on Wednesday, which came less than 24 hours after steep new tariffs kicked in on most trading partners, followed the most intense episode of financial market volatility since the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic. U.S. stock indexes moved higher with the benchmark S&P 500 index closing 9.5% higher, and the relief has spilled over into the Asian markets this morning with Japan’s Nikkei index jumping by 8%.
Facebook – Legal Furore Over Data Release Allegations:
A whistleblower and previous employee at Meta has told US senators at a Senate judicial subcommittee yesterday was damming for Meta. Ms Wynn-Williams’s, a former global public policy director at Facebook, stated that the company undermined national security in order to build a $18 billion business in China. In her testimony she said that she had observed how executives decided to provide the Chinese Communist Party with access to the data of Meta users, including that of Americans. Meta has however slated Ms Wynn-Williams’s statements with Meta spokesman Ryan Daniels claiming that “Sarah Wynn-Williams’ testimony is divorced from reality and riddled with false claims.”
According to Daniels, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg had been public about the company’s interest in offering its services in China and confirmed that Meta does not operate in China today although they do generate advertising revenue from Chinese companies who advertise on Facebook. Wynn-Williams also alleged the parent company of Facebook and Instagram worked “hand in glove” with Beijing to build censorship tools aimed at silencing critics of the Chinese Community Party.
Chinese Goods Stockpiled and Prices Dropping:
China’s producer prices dropped by 2.5% y-o-y in March 2025, a larger than expected fall with the market anticipation of a 2.3% drop. Prices fell by 2.2% in February. This was the fastest annual price drop since November 2024, amid a seasonal downtrend in energy demand and ongoing trade row with the U.S. that has raised concerns over growing stockpiles of unsold exports, potentially pushing domestic prices even lower. The cost of production materials also fell further (-2.8% vs -2.5% in February), with deeper drops in mining (-8.3% vs -6.3%), raw materials (-2.4% vs -1.5%), and processing (-2.6% vs -2.7%).
Consumer goods prices also saw a sharper drop (-1.5% vs -1.2%), due to lower prices of clothing (-0.3% vs -0.2%), durable goods (-3.4% vs -2.5%), and food (-1.4% vs -1.6%), while prices for daily-use goods eased slightly (0.7% vs 0.9%). On a monthly basis, producer prices shrank 0.4%, the largest drop in six months, after a 0.1% dip in February. During Q1 of 2025, factory-gate prices fell by 2.3%, following a 2.2% decline in 2024. source: National Bureau of Statistics of China
Easy Equities Trading Update
The Innovative share trading platform, a division of the Purple Group, has seen a massive up-tick in deposits and trading with a record R1.4 billion (ZAR) in deposits in February, which surpassed its previous record held since August 2024, by more than R100 million. Purple Group had introduced a R25 account fee called a Thrive-fee, in November 2023 that was designed to ensure that EasyEquities account holders deposit more than they withdraw in a month.
Easy Equities was the first share trading platform in South Africa to introduce fractional share trading. It has seen remarkable growth in its local (ZAR) core EasyEquites product, mostly due to asset price increases. This has jumped by 24%, from R21.7 billion to R26.8 billion in the last 12 months. This jump in assets under management has seen a growth of 30% in the group’s revenue from its various platforms. Its overall revenue in the six months increased by 30%, with retail revenue driving this surge.
Markets by Numbers
Currencies:
Currency markets are indicating the US Dollar trading stronger against the major currencies and currently at 1.09791 against the Euro and trading stronger against the Pound at 1.28554. The Yen is trading at 146.70 to the dollar currently. The rand has gained back some of its lost ground to the US dollar after hitting an all-time low yesterday and trading at R19.29 currently.
Commodities:
- Gold futures prices have gained more than 1% this morning and currently at $3121.
- Copper prices have gained over 1% this morning and at 4.4372 currently.
- Silver futures prices continue to gain after positive moves yesterday and trading at 31.243 currently.
- Platinum is trading upwards today and at $928.70 currently, while Palladium prices are also trading upwards and at $903 currently.
- Brent Crude Oil prices are at $64.93 currently, with WTI trading at $61.95 currently.
- Cocoa futures are currently trading upwards after losing traction yesterday, and at $8368 per ton.
- Coffee futures prices are trending upwards, and is at $353 currently.
Crypto Currencies:
- Bitcoin prices have gained overnight but trending downward this morning and currently trading at $82142
- Ether prices have gained back some losses overnight but trending downward again this morning, and currently trading at $1617.70
- $Trumpcoin is currently trading up over 7% this morning and at $8.04 currently
(All prices quoted at approximately 08H00 – Central African Time)
