Gold prices rebound on weaker US dollar and tariff concerns

Gold prices rose over 1% on Monday after falling to a three-week low in the previous session, driven by a weaker dollar and safe-haven buying amid concerns over US President Donald Trump’s tariff policies.

Spot gold gained 1.1% to USD 2,890.57 an ounce as of 02.04 p.m. ET (1904 GMT). US gold futures settled 1.8% higher at USD 2,901.1.

“I think ultimately we are in a very bullish market and gold can get much higher than USD 3,000 … with tariffs and possible retaliation I still think you’re seeing central banks come in and buy,” said Daniel Pavilonis, senior market strategist at RJO Futures.

The dollar index dropped by over 1%, moving away from a more than two-week high hit in the previous session, reflecting weakness that makes dollar-priced gold less expensive for buyers holding other currencies.

Trump is expected to decide on Monday what level of tariffs he will impose effective from early Tuesday, on imports from Canada and Mexico.

Last week, Trump threatened China with an additional 10% duty, also set to take effect on Tuesday, resulting in a cumulative 20% tariff.

Investors will also focus on the ADP employment report due on Wednesday and the US non-farm payrolls report due on Friday for more clues on the Federal Reserve’s monetary policy.

Despite being widely viewed as a hedge against geopolitical and economic uncertainty, non-yielding gold becomes less attractive to investors when interest rates rise.

Spot silver was up 2% at USD 31.77 an ounce, platinum gained 0.9% to USD 956.50 and palladium added 2% to USD 937.10.

“We see room for larger gains in silver as the gold rally consolidates and global industrial production signals a modest recovery,” UBS analysts wrote in a note.

(Reporting by Anmol Choubey in Bengaluru; Editing by Emelia Sithole-Matarise, Mohammed Safi Shamsi, and Krishna Chandra Eluri)

Japan’s Nikkei rebounds after Wall Street’s strong finish

TOKYO – Japan’s Nikkei share average rebounded on Monday from a sharp decline in the previous session, underpinned by Wall Street’s strong finish last week.

The Nikkei was up 0.91% at 37,503.29, as of 0012 GMT. The index ended at a five-month low on Friday, dragged by declines in chip-related stocks.

The broader Topix rose 1.03% to 2,709.88.

Wall Street ended higher on Friday, with Dell Technologies dipping and other tech stocks climbing after a meeting between US President Donald Trump and Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelenskiy ended in disaster.

The Nasdaq gained 1.63% and the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 1.39%.

In Japan, chip-making equipment maker Tokyo Electron 8035.T rose 0.53% to give the biggest boost to the Nikkei on Monday. Robot maker Fanuc 6954.T rose 0.95%.

All of the Tokyo Stock Exchange’s 33 industry sub-indexes rose, with the brokerage sector rising 2.87% to become the top performer.

(Reporting by Junko Fujita; Editing by Rashmi Aich)

Oil falls on White House spat, tariffs, Iraq exports

HOUSTON – Oil prices fell on Friday and were headed for their first monthly drop since November, as markets watched an Oval Office argument between the US and Ukrainian presidents while also bracing for Washington’s new tariffs and Iraq’s decision to resume oil exports from the Kurdistan region.

Brent crude futures, which expired on Friday, settled at USD 73.18 a barrel, down 86 cents, or 1.16%. US West Texas Intermediate crude futures finished at USD 69.76 a barrel, losing 59 cents, or 0.84%.

Both benchmarks are on track to post their first monthly decline in three months.

WTI was strengthening late in the session until an on-camera argument in the Oval Office broke out between US President Donald Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy over a possible cease-fire agreement in the Russia-Ukraine war.

“This translates to a favorable posture for Russia and the potential for them to get more oil on the market,” said John Kilduff, partner with Again Capital LLC.

During the shouting match, Trump threatened to withdraw support for Ukraine and Zelenskiy left the White House without signing an agreement for joint development by the two countries of Ukraine’s mineral resources.

Market participants are also struggling to gauge the impact of all the energy-related policy announcements made by the Trump administration this month, economists at Fitch’s BMI research unit.

Trump on Thursday said his proposed 25% tariffs on Mexican and Canadian goods will take effect on March 4, along with an extra 10% duty on Chinese imports.

Traders are reducing risks amid rising volatility sparked by Trump stepping up the tariffs war, not least against China, significantly raising concerns about global demand, said Ole Hansen, head of commodity strategy at Saxo Bank.

A tariff war could slow global growth, spark inflation and, in turn, suppress crude demand.

Baghdad is set to announce the resumption of oil exports from the semi-autonomous Kurdistan region through the Iraq-Turkey pipeline, according to an Iraqi oil ministry statement.

Iraq will export 185,000 barrels per day through state oil marketer SOMO, and that quantity will gradually increase, the ministry said.

Despite the expected announcement, eight international oil firms operating in the Kurdistan region said they would not be resuming exports on Friday as there was no clarity on commercial agreements and guarantees of payment for past and future exports.

“The resumption of exports raises questions about how Iraq will comply with its OPEC+ obligations, having already regularly produced above its quota,” said Harry Tchilinguirian, head of research at Onyx Capital Group.

“If OPEC+ delays a 120,000 bpd return of voluntary cut barrels starting in April, then the increase in Iraq will exceed that restraint,” he added.

OPEC+ is debating whether to raise oil output in April as planned or freeze it as its members struggle to read the global supply picture, eight OPEC+ sources said.

A delay could break prices out of the current range in which they have been trading, said Phil Flynn, senior analyst with Price Futures Group.

“Currently, oil prices are fluctuating within a trading range, but a delay will give prices an upside breakout,” Flynn wrote in a research note. “Generally, the seasonality of oil, gasoline, and diesel becomes bullish around Easter anyway.”

(Reporting by Erwin Seba in Houston, Florence Tan, Mohi Narayan, Enes Tunagur, and Arunima Kumar; Editing by David Evans, Kirsten Donovan, and Nia Williams)

Trump names cryptocurrencies in strategic reserve, sending prices up

WEST PALM BEACH, Florida – US President Donald Trump on social media announced the names of five digital assets he expects to include in a new US strategic reserve of cryptocurrencies on Sunday, spiking the market value of each.

Trump said in a post on Truth Social that his January executive order on digital assets would create a stockpile of currencies including bitcoin, ether, XRP, Solana, and cardano. The names had not previously been announced.

More than an hour later, Trump added: “And, obviously, BTC and ETH, as other valuable Cryptocurrencies, will be at the heart of the Reserve.”

Bitcoin, the world’s largest cryptocurrency by market value, was up more than 11% at USD 94,164 Sunday afternoon. Ether, the second-largest cryptocurrency, was up about 13% at USD 2,516.

The total cryptocurrency market has risen about 10%, or more than USD 300 billion, in the hours since Trump’s announcement, according to CoinGecko, a cryptocurrency data and analysis company.

XRP is cryptocurrency company Ripple Labs’ token. Ripple backed a so-called super PAC to influence congressional elections in November in favor of the crypto industry, Reuters reported.

“This move signals a shift toward active participation in the crypto economy by the US government,” said Federico Brokate, head of US business at 21Shares, a digital assets investment management firm. “It has the potential to accelerate institutional adoption, provide greater regulatory clarity, and strengthen the US’s leadership in digital asset innovation.”

James Butterfill, head of research at asset manager CoinShares, said he was surprised to see digital assets other than bitcoin included in the reserve.

“Unlike bitcoin…these assets are more akin to tech investments,” Butterfill said. “The announcement suggests a more patriotic stance toward the broader crypto technology space, with little regard for the fundamental qualities of these assets.”

Trump won support from the crypto industry in his 2024 election bid, and he has quickly moved to back their policy priorities. He is hosting the first White House Crypto Summit on Friday, and his family has also launched its own coins.

Under his Democratic predecessor, Joe Biden, regulators cracked down on the industry in a bid to protect Americans from fraud and money laundering.

Under Trump, the Securities and Exchange Commission has withdrawn investigations into several crypto companies and dropped a lawsuit against Coinbase, the largest crypto exchange in the US.

But in recent weeks cryptocurrency prices are down sharply, with some of the biggest digital currencies erasing nearly all of the gains made after Trump’s election win triggered a wave of excitement across the industry.

Analysts say the market needs a reason to move higher, such as signs that the US Federal Reserve plans to cut interest rates or a clear pro-crypto regulatory framework from the Trump administration.

Reuters has reported that Geoff Kendrick, an analyst at Standard Chartered, is targeting Bitcoin to hit USD 500,000, against a record high of USD 109,071, before Trump leaves office.

Regulatory filings in the US showed that while hedge funds remain the dominant crypto buyers, banks and sovereign wealth funds are buying too.

Quarterly filings showed that asset managers boosted allocations to US ETFs tied to the price of spot bitcoin in the fourth quarter of 2024.

Analysts and legal experts are divided on whether an act of Congress will be necessary to set up the reserve. Some have argued the reserve could be created via the US Treasury’s Exchange Stabilization Fund, which can be used to purchase or sell foreign currencies.

Trump’s crypto group had planned to look at potentially creating the stockpile with cryptocurrencies seized in law enforcement actions.

(Reporting by Trevor Hunnicutt in West Palm Beach, Florida; Katharine Jackson in Washington and Jessica DiNapoli in New York; Editing by Bill Berkrot and Lisa Shumaker)

US yields slump as inflation ebbs and Zelenskiy, Trump tussle

NEW YORK – US Treasury yields sank to new multi-month lows on Friday as bonds continued to rally after a report closely tracked by the Federal Reserve showed annual inflation subsided and consumer spending slowed last month.

Financial markets viewed the data as likely keeping the US central bank on track to cut interest rates at least twice this year.

US yields extended their fall as bond prices rose further on safe-haven buying after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy and US President Donald Trump clashed in a meeting on Friday over the Russia-Ukraine war. Yields move inversely to prices.

“Most US investors (and voters) pay attention to what hits the pocketbook closer to home and Russia/Ukraine has been just one of many global considerations on the edges for a very long time,” said Carol Schleif, chief market strategist, at BMO Private Wealth, in Minneapolis.

Yields briefly ticked higher, before soon starting to fall again, after the Commerce Department said its Personal Consumption Expenditures Price Index gained 0.3% last month, matching December’s unrevised 0.3% rise.

In the 12 months through January, the PCE increased 2.5% after climbing 2.6% in December. Both readings were in line with the expectations of economists polled by Reuters and indicated movement toward the Fed’s 2% target.

But the data also showed a consumer spending slowdown, reinforcing signs that the US economy is cooling. Consumer spending, which accounts for more than two-thirds of US economic activity, dropped 0.2% last month after an upwardly revised 0.8% increase in December. Economists polled by Reuters had forecast consumer spending would gain 0.1%.

Weak consumer confidence and soft manufacturing, retail sales, and home sales data in recent weeks sparked a bond rally that pushed yields lower, with investors moving out of stocks into the safety of Treasury markets amid worries about how Trump administration tariff policies will affect growth and inflation.

The Fed paused its policy easing in January after bringing rates down a full percentage point from September to December. The central bank’s policy rate is currently in the 4.25%-4.50% range.

“This week we saw a sharp drop in the yields because people became worried about the growth outlook, which puts the Fed in a bit of a bind. There are signs of growth decelerating, but inflation is not yet where the Fed wants it to be,” said John Lloyd, lead for the Multi-Sector Credit Strategies at Janus Henderson.

In afternoon trading, the benchmark 10-year yield was last at 4.216%, down 6.4 basis points (bps) and near the day’s lows. It bottomed earlier on Friday to 2.212%, its lowest since December 11, after the Zelenskiy-Trump headlines.

On the month, the 10-year yield plunged nearly 35 bps, its largest monthly decline since December 2023.

The two-year yield, which typically moves in step with interest rate expectations, touched its lowest since October 21 of 3.985% in the aftermath of the Trump and Zelenskiy meeting, and was last down 8.5 bps at 3.989%, posting its biggest daily fall since mid-January.

The yield dropped 25 bps for the month of February, its heftiest drop since September last year.

Expectations the Fed will cut rates by at least 25 basis points at its June meeting edged up after the PCE data, with markets pricing in a 75% chance of a cut, up from nearly 70% in the prior sessions, according to CME Group’s FedWatch Tool.

Rate futures are also pricing in 65 basis points of easing this year, or slightly more than two cuts, compared with 60 basis points of rate reductions late on Thursday.

The breakeven rate on five-year US Treasury Inflation-Protected Securities (TIPS) was last at 2.532%, up from 2.518% on Thursday. The 10-year TIPS breakeven rate was last at 2.373%, slightly higher from 2.361% on Thursday.

(Reporting by Gertrude Chavez-Dreyfuss and Tatiana Bautzer; Editing by Alden Bentley, Chizu Nomiyama, Paul Simao, and Nick Zieminski)

Rising investor angst about economy to be tested by US jobs data

The stakes are high for the monthly US jobs report in the coming week, as investors gauge whether a string of worrisome data is signaling significant concern about the economy.

The benchmark S&P 500 stock index has pulled back 4% from its all-time high reached earlier this month, while falling Treasury yields and a slide in bitcoin are also indicating increasing investor wariness.

A number of recent economic releases have disappointed or weakened, including consumer confidence, business activity, and retail sales. The Trump administration’s dramatic moves on trade and other policies have injected uncertainty for consumers and businesses.

The monthly employment release is seen as among the most crucial data points assessing the economy’s health and investors will be looking for the jobs data for February, due on March 7, to either bring relief or drive further worry.

“The market is on edge because of fears regarding a US economic growth scare,” Michael Arone, chief investment strategist for the US SPDR Business at State Street Global Advisors. “If the unemployment figure shows signs of weakness, it further fuels the flames for that growth scare.”

Employment in February is estimated to have increased by 133,000 jobs, according to a Reuters poll, compared to 143,000 in added jobs in January. The unemployment rate is expected to be 4.0%.

“The jobs market is the most important pillar of the US economy,” said Matthew Miskin, co-chief investment strategist at John Hancock Investment Management. “Whether the consumer is in too much debt or whether they’re going to spend is really going to come down to whether or not they have a job and they feel comfortable in their job.”

Despite concerns about economic weakening, investors remain on guard about inflation, with the annual pace of inflation still running above the Federal Reserve’s 2% target, so an overly strong jobs report also could spark market concerns.

“The street is hoping for a number that’s not going to be too cool, too negative relative to expectations, or too hot, meaning that … inflation might take longer than expected to normalize,” said Angelo Kourkafas, senior investment strategist at Edward Jones.

In a possible silver lining for stocks, investors expect more monetary policy easing than they did earlier this month following the recent disappointing economic reports. Fed funds data indicate at least two more interest rate cuts expected by December, according to LSEG.

The jobs data comes as Trump takes dramatic action to shrink the federal workforce, with the administration on Wednesday ordering agencies to undertake more large-scale layoffs. Tens of thousands of US government workers have been fired in recent weeks, according to a Reuters tally of announcements tracking Trump’s plans.

With federal employees and contractors worrying about their jobs, “the risks are rising that households may begin to hold back purchases,” said Torsten Slok, chief economist at Apollo Global Management.

“We remain bullish on the economic outlook, but we are very carefully watching the incoming data for signs if this is an inflection point for the business cycle,” Slok said in a note on Thursday.

Data on manufacturing and the services sector are due in the coming week, when several Fed officials are set to speak and give their views on the economy.

Investors remain mindful of market volatility stemming from further announcements from Trump on tariffs and other policies. The president on Wednesday raised hopes for another pause on steep tariffs on imports from Mexico and Canada, while floating a tariff on European cars and other goods.

“Yesterday was another example of how the words from the White House or the President can shake things up on any given day,” Matthew Maley, chief market strategist at Miller Tabak, said in a note on Thursday.

(Reporting by Lewis Krauskopf; Editing by Nick Zieminski)

Nvidia’s optimistic forecast fails to convince Wall Street

Wall Street took a dim view of Nvidia’s quarterly forecast on Thursday with investors pushing the stock down more than 8%, piling pressure on the “Magnificent Seven” stocks that have garnered market skepticism in the last three months.

The stock closed lower at USD 120.15, while other members of the group such as Microsoft and Amazon also ended the session weaker, after Nvidia’s earnings failed to inspire the kind of gains that became a hallmark of the AI rally through 2023 and 2024.

To be sure, Nvidia’s first-quarter revenue forecast was better than market estimates, with CEO Jensen Huang also noting the company was seeing “amazing” demand for its new Blackwell chips.

But growth is slowing. Nvidia’s projected revenue increase of about 65% is far from the triple-digit growth that investors have been accustomed to in the past year, while the company also expects gross margin to dip to 71%, the lowest level in at least a year.

Nvidia is viewed as a barometer of the health of AI spending and the two-year boom propelled its valuation to more than USD 3 trillion. Investors were hoping its results would restart a rally that has sputtered following the “Magnificent Seven” stocks’ peaks in late 2024.

In recent weeks, Chinese startup DeepSeek’s low-cost AI model had fanned investor skepticism over the billions of dollars earmarked by Big Tech for AI infrastructure, with many of the stocks still struggling to recoup the losses.

Fears of a pullback in spending on Nvidia’s priciest AI chips vaporized more than half a trillion dollars of its stock-market value in a single day last month, a record on Wall Street.

And more recently, an analyst report that Microsoft had cut back on data-center leases reignited concerns over tech companies’ spending.

Nvidia’s report was eyed as a bellwether for chip spending on generative AI – and while it indicated demand remains strong, it did not quell concerns among investors who were hoping for more.

“(The) results and guidance were relatively in line with market expectations − not bullish enough to see another beat and raise,” said HSBC Global Research analyst Frank Lee.

Nvidia expects total revenue of USD 43 billion, plus or minus 2% for the first quarter, compared with analysts’ average estimate of USD 41.78 billion, according to LSEG.

The massive revenue surges and beats that had become synonymous with Nvidia, however, are becoming a thing of the past.

The company’s January-quarter revenue of USD 39.33 billion beat estimates by a margin of 3.4%, compared with a beat of more than 7% in the year-ago period.

Nvidia’s Huang on Wednesday said the company had already pulled in around $11 billion in revenue related to its Blackwell processor in the fourth quarter.

The world’s second-most valuable company has been the top beneficiary of an AI-driven spending spree over the past two years, with its shares gaining more than 400% in that period.

Of the 63 analysts covering the stock, 33 have a “strong buy” rating, as per LSEG data. The median price target stood at USD 175, implying that analysts expect a 33% increase from the stock’s Wednesday close.

Nvidia shares recently traded at about 29 times their forward earnings, down from more than 80 two years ago, as rising earnings pull down the premium at which the stock trades. Rival Advanced Micro Devices AMD.O trades at about 22 times its forward earnings.

“At around 30x forward earnings the valuation still doesn’t look overcooked,” said Derren Nathan, head of equity research at Hargreaves Lansdown.

(By By Arsheeya Bajwa; Reporting by Alun John in London, Joel Jose, Sruthi Shankar and Arsheeya Bajwa in Bengaluru; Additional reporting by Deborah Sophia; Editing by Amanda Cooper, Saumyadeb Chakrabarty, Sriraj Kalluvila and Daniel Wallis)

Dollar jumps as Trump tariffs loom

NEW YORK – The dollar jumped on Thursday and was poised for its biggest daily percentage gain in more than two months as US President Donald Trump’s latest tariff comments overshadowed signs of slower economic growth.

The greenback initially pared gains after data showed weekly initial jobless claims rose by 22,000 to a seasonally adjusted 242,000, above the 221,000 estimate of economists polled by Reuters.

Other data from the Commerce Department showed gross domestic product increased at a 2.3% annualized rate last quarter after accelerating at a 3.1% pace in the July-September quarter in its second estimate of the data.

But the dollar quickly rebounded after Trump said 25% tariffs on Mexican and Canadian goods will go into effect on March 4 as scheduled because drugs are still pouring into the United States from those countries.

“It’s a world where people do not know what’s going on, so they will wait for clarity before they commit to bigger investments, and that leaves foreign exchange a little bit sidelined and a little bit more prone to these kind of quick catch-ups,” said Bob Savage, head markets strategist at BNY in New York.

“Tariffs will confuse people about what it means for the economics of the world and who’s going to get hurt the most and who wins and who loses, and there’s going to be a lot of noise and dust to figure out before anyone comes through all of that,” Savage added.

The dollar index, which measures the greenback against a basket of currencies, climbed 0.72% to 107.23, on track for its biggest daily percentage gain since December 18. The euro slumped 0.74%, on pace for its biggest drop since January 2, to USD 1.0405.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Canada “will have an immediate and extremely strong response” if the United States imposes tariffs on Canadian imports next Tuesday.

The Canadian dollar weakened 0.69% versus the greenback to CAD 1.44, and the Mexican peso was off 0.12% versus the dollar at 20.464.

The greenback had fallen earlier this week nearly 4% from a more than two-year high in January on renewed worries about US economic growth and inflation as Trump shifted tariff deadlines on Canada and Mexico. Investors are also bracing for the labor market impact from actions by the Department of Government Efficiency under Elon Musk.

The path of interest rate cuts by the Federal Reserve has become less clear, with markets pricing in 58 basis points of easing by year-end, and a cut of at least 25 bps not topping 50% until the June meeting.

Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland President Beth Hammack said she expects US central bank interest rate policy is on hold for the time being. Philadelphia Federal Reserve Bank President Patrick Harker expressed support for continuing to hold short-term U.S. borrowing costs in their current range.

The European Central Bank is expected to cut rates next week to 2.50%, according to all 82 economists polled by Reuters who expected two further cuts by mid-year.

Against the Japanese yen, the dollar strengthened 0.52% to 149.85. Bank of Japan Governor Kazuo Ueda told reporters at the close of a Group of 20 finance meeting in South Africa it was notable that many countries had warned of high global economic uncertainty.

In cryptocurrencies, bitcoin fell 0.66% to USD 83,896.18 after falling to USD 82,156.99 on Wednesday, its lowest since November 11.

(Reporting by Samuel Indyk and Brigid Riley; Editing by Shri Navaratnam, Sam Holmes, Kevin Liffey, Alex Richardson, Will Dunham and Richard Chang)

ECB fixes outage in multi-trillion-euro payment system

LONDON/FRANKFURT – The European Central Bank said late on Thursday it had fixed an unprecedented outage in its payment system which had left transactions likely worth trillions of euros from companies, consumers and investors up in the air for most of the day.

The malfunction of the Target 2 system, used to settle more than 3 trillion euros (USD 3.12 trillion) of daily payments and financial trades, meant transactions between banks could not go through.

While the interruption had not been felt by regular bank customers, it had put a question mark on the transactions between lenders that are completed at the end of the day and underpin the very functioning of the euro zone’s economy.

The event caused disruptions during US trading hours, according to a source at one US lender. There are still expectations that the backlog could be cleared during the extended settlement hours which could make the overall impact muted, the source added.

Another US bank said it was processing backlogs without issue after the ECB restarted the system.

After a hiatus that lasted roughly seven hours, the ECB said around 1800 GMT that Target 2 (T2) was functioning normally although all the deadlines to settle the day’s payment flows had been postponed by several hours.

“The previous incident has been resolved and T2 has resumed normal operations,” the ECB said in a status update on its website.

In a statement to Reuters earlier, the ECB said the unprecedented issue had been caused by a “hardware defect” and there was no “malicious (or) foul play”.

Banks, which depend on the system to settle their accounts with one another, had been instructed to keep placing their payments in the queue throughout the day as they waited for the outage to be fixed.

An emergency channel had remained open for “very critical payments”, the ECB said.

The pan-European TARGET 2 Securities (T2S) platform, which is used to complete trades in cash and securities across 24 depositories such as Euroclear, was also back online after being affected by a glitch in its communication channels.

“T2S is operating normally and the previous incident… was resolved,” the ECB said.

The cut-off time for Thursday’s trade had been pushed back by six hours to 2100 GMT.

Trading sources said communications had been disrupted and the status of trades since the outage was reported remained unclear.

The problem affected critical communications between central securities depositories (CSDs), the basic plumbing of financial markets.

Market participants usually communicate with T2S via their CSD or central bank.

Michael Thomas, a partner at Hogan Lovells’ financial services team and market structure expert, said the episode could have a wide variety of consequences.

“Where there are chains of transactions, where each leg is dependent on settlement of each other leg, a break in the chain can affect the whole series of transactions,” he said.

“The longer the delay, the greater the impact on liquidity in the financial system, where cash cannot be realized because securities transactions are not able to settle, meaning that cash is not available for other purposes,” he said.

According to the ECB’s website, any issues with the T2S system in the past couple of years have typically been resolved quickly. Thursday’s outage was reported at 0730 GMT and was only resolved at around 1700 GMT.

European stock, currency and bond markets appeared to have traded normally, according to LSEG data.

Settlement on trades takes two working days, which might mean disruption may not show up until early next week.

Central counterparties, or clearing houses, ensure that a stock, bond or derivatives transaction is completed. The final leg of a trade, known as settlement, is conducted by the CSDs.

One CSD, Clearstream, said on its website that settlement of euro securities would be delayed. Others including Euroclear did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Reuters.

A person familiar with the matter said some Euroclear clients might see delays in the processing of their transactions.

(USD 1 = 0.9607 euros)

(By Sinead Cruise, Amanda Cooper and Francesco Canepa; Additional reporting by Lucy Raitano and Samuel Indyk in London and Lefteris Papadimas in Athens and Nupur Anand in New York; Writing by John O’Donnell; Editing by Harry Robertson, Philippa Fletcher, Nia Williams and Daniel Wallis)

S&P 500 ends barely changed; Nvidia shares up after the bell

NEW YORK – The S&P 500 ended little changed on Wednesday ahead of quarterly results from Nvidia, whose positive outlook could set the tone for the artificial intelligence sector.

Stocks lost ground in afternoon trading, with investors digesting the latest comments from US President Donald Trump on tariffs.

Trump said on Wednesday his administration would soon announce a 25% tariff on imports from the European Union. He also raised hopes for another pause on steep new tariffs on imports from Mexico and Canada by saying they would take effect on April 2, about a month later than the deadline next week.

After the closing bell, Nvidia’s shares were up about 2% in choppy trading. The AI tech leader forecast first-quarter revenue above market estimates.

Nvidia’s stock ended the regular session up 3.7%, while an index of semiconductors was up 2.1% on the day.

The launch and popularity of low-cost AI models from China’s DeepSeek had rattled the industry in January and raised questions around US companies’ heavy investments in the technology.

Any upbeat comments by Nvidia on demand will elevate stocks of companies investing heavily in AI, said Daniel Morgan, portfolio manager at Synovus Trust in Atlanta. “It’s become the biggest tech report.”

The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 188.04 points, or 0.43%, to 43,433.12, the S&P 500 gained 0.81 points, or 0.01%, at 5,956.06 and the Nasdaq Composite rose 48.88 points, or 0.26%, to 19,075.26.

Gains in technology shares were offset by losses in healthcare, consumer staples and other sectors.

Nvidia’s results came near the end of a stronger-than-expected earnings period for S&P 500 companies.

“It’s been a pretty constructive earnings season,” said Tom Hainlin, senior investment strategist at US Bank.

A Reuters poll showed strategists still expect the S&P 500 to finish 2025 about 9% above current levels, although market volatility will persist.

Since last week, a series of data releases, including Tuesday’s weak consumer sentiment report, have hinted that the world’s largest economy might be stalling despite inflation remaining high, keeping investors on the edge.

Intuit shares rose 12.6% after the TurboTax maker forecast third-quarter revenue above Street estimates.

Advancing issues outnumbered decliners by a 1.13-to-1 ratio on the NYSE. There were 91 new highs and 115 new lows on the NYSE. On the Nasdaq, 2,502 stocks rose and 1,917 fell as advancing issues outnumbered decliners by a 1.31-to-1 ratio.

Volume on US exchanges was 14.58 billion shares, compared with the 15.4 billion average for the full session over the last 20 trading days.

(Additional reporting by Johann M Cherian and Sukriti Gupta in Bengaluru; Editing by Devika Syamnath and Richard Chang)

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