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Shares rise as investors look past Trump's tariffs

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Trump says 50% tariff on US copper imports, goods from

Brazil to

begin August 1

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Bitcoin holds near record high

By Rae Wee

SINGAPORE, July 10 (Reuters) - Asian stocks rose

slightly on Thursday, riding on optimism from Nvidia's ( NVDA ) brief

rise to a world-record $4 trillion valuation and as investors

largely shrugged off U.S. President Donald Trump's latest tariff

salvos.

U.S. copper futures widened their premium to the London

benchmark overnight after Trump announced plans to impose a 50%

tariff on copper. He later said on Wednesday the levies would

come into effect on August 1.

Trump also turned his trade ire against Brazil on Wednesday

as he threatened a punitive 50% tariff on exports to the U.S.

and issued tariff notices to seven minor trading partners.

The latest moves did little to rattle markets, leaving

MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan

up 0.2%.

The Nikkei fell 0.56%, while China's CSI300

blue-chip index rose 0.2% and Hong Kong's Hang Seng

Index added 0.1%.

EUROSTOXX 50 futures gained 0.18% and FTSE futures

advanced 0.33%.

Artificial intelligence chip designer Nvidia ( NVDA ) on

Wednesday became the world's first company to hit a $4 trillion

market value, as it solidified its position as one of Wall

Street's most favoured stocks.

U.S. stock futures eased slightly in Asia on Thursday, with

Nasdaq futures and S&P 500 futures both down about

0.2% each, after both indexes closed higher in the cash session

overnight.

The market reaction to Trump's tariff developments this week

has been much less severe than the post "Liberation Day" selloff

in April, with Jeff Ng, SMBC's head of Asia macro strategy,

saying investors have grown somewhat "numb" to the ever-changing

situation.

"They know that there is still room for negotiation. A lot

of these announcements, they start off with eye-catching

numbers, but they are not totally final, and they are still

subject to changes. Even if they are implemented, they could

also be reversed in the coming few months to year," he said.

Also keeping stocks supported were expectations of Federal

Reserve rate cuts later this year.

Minutes released on Wednesday showed "most participants" at

the Fed's meeting last month anticipated rate cuts would be

appropriate later this year, with any price shock from tariffs

expected to be "temporary or modest".

"Right now, markets are not pricing in a high chance of a

full-blown recession at this stage, given that the labour market

continues to be quite resilient, but they know that there's a

lot of pressure to push policy rates lower, so that could lower

the opportunity cost of holding equities," Ng said.

DOLLAR EASES

The dollar was on the back foot on Thursday, falling 0.4%

against the yen to 145.79 after a sharp rise earlier

this week when Trump slapped Japan with 25% tariffs.

The euro was up 0.17% to $1.1742 and sterling

gained 0.11% to $1.3605.

An exception was the Brazilian real, which languished

near a one-month low at 5.5826 per dollar owing to Trump's

tariff threat on Latin America's largest economy.

"Despite the S&P 500's impressive rally, the U.S. dollar

continues to retreat, underscoring a shifting global macro

narrative," said Julia Wang, global market strategist at J.P.

Morgan Private Bank.

"We believe the greenback remains 5-15% overvalued and

expect continued weakness as cyclical convergence and capital

reallocation trends play out."

In cryptocurrencies, bitcoin hovered near a record

high and was last at $111,234.63, while ether was up 1.3%

to $2,775.54.

"We're seeing our clients take a more measured approach,

making strategic allocations into cryptocurrencies with real

utility instead of chasing short-term moves. Bitcoin remains the

top pick on our platform," said Gracie Lin, OKX's Singapore CEO.

Elsewhere, oil prices fell on Thursday, with Brent crude

futures down 0.16% to $70.08 per barrel, while U.S.

crude lost 0.22% to $68.23 a barrel.

Spot gold rose 0.3% to $3,322.69 an ounce.