LDN - Business

Stock market today: Asian shares sag after Trump raises tariffs on auto imports

[March 27, 2025] By YURI KAGEYAMA

TOKYO (AP) — Shares sagged Thursday in Asia, apart from China, after President Donald Trump announced he will slap 25% tariffs on imported cars.

Trump said he was raising duties on auto imports to encourage more manufacturing in the U.S., but the impact will be complicated since U.S. automakers and even foreign manufacturers with factories in the U.S. source many of their components from around the world.

Japan's benchmark Nikkei 225 lost 0.6% to finish at 37,799.97.

Toyota Motor Corp. stock dove 2%, while Honda Motor Co. stock dipped 2.5%. Nissan was down 1.7%. Mazda Motor Corp. shares dropped 6%, while those in Subaru Corp. slipped nearly 5% and Mitsubishi Motors Corp. lost 3.2%.

Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba has sought to persuade Trump to exempt Japan from the higher tariffs, and he reiterated his position Thursday.

”We strongly request that tariff measures not be applied to Japan,” he told reporters.

When asked about possible responses, he said without giving specifics: “All options are naturally subject to consideration.“

Ivan Espinosa, who will become chief executive at Nissan Motor Corp. April 1, told reporters earlier this week that the automaker was considering several scenarios as what Trump might do was “fluid.”

Toyota declined comment.

South Korea’s Kospi fell 1.4% to 2,607.15. Korean automakers also felt a chill from Trump's announcement. Hyundai Motor Co.'s shares traded in Seoul lost 4.3% while Kia Corp.'s shares dropped 3.5%.

Shares in Greater China, apart from Taiwan, were higher. Hong Kong's Hang Seng gained 0.5% to 23,605.67, while the Shanghai Composite index was up 0.2% at 3,373.75.

Chinese automakers and parts manufacturers have been expanding sales around the world, but not in the United States, so any impact from the tariffs announcement would be an indirect one.

But Taiwan's benchmark, the Taiex, sank 1.4%.

In Australia, the S&P/ASX 200 dropped 0.4% to 7,969.00.

The S&P 500 sank 1.1% to 5,712.20 to break what had been a run of calmer trading. The Dow Jones Industrial Average swung from a gain of 230 points in the morning to a loss of 132 points, or 0.3%, closing at 42,454.79.

Weakness for Big Tech sent the Nasdaq composite to a market-leading drop of 2%, at 17,889.01.

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Currency traders work near a screen showing the Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI), top center left, and the foreign exchange rate between U.S. dollar and South Korean won, top center, at the foreign exchange dealing room of the KEB Hana Bank headquarters in Seoul, South Korea, Thursday, March 13, 2025. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon, File)

The group of dominant stocks known as the “Magnificent Seven” has been at the center of the U.S. stock market’s recent sell-off, which earlier this month took the S&P 500 10% below its all-time high for its first “correction” since 2023. Big Tech had rocketed in earlier years amid a frenzy around artificial-intelligence technology, and critics said their prices rose too quickly compared with their already rapidly growing profits.

Nvidia fell 6% to bring its loss for the young year so far to 15.5%. It was the single heaviest weight on the S&P 500 by far.

Other AI-related stocks were also weak, including server-builder Super Micro Computer, which fell 8.9%, and power companies hoping to electrify AI data centers.

Tesla has been contending with additional challenges, including worries that political anger at its CEO, Elon Musk, will hurt the electric-vehicle maker’s sales. Tesla dropped 5.6% to extend its loss for 2025 to 32.6%.

Other U.S. automakers also declined after Trump said he would announce his tariffs on auto imports.

U.S. auto giants have already spread their production around North America following prior free-trade deals encompassing the United States, Canada and Mexico. General Motors sank 3.1%. Ford Motor went from an early gain to a loss and back before inching up by 0.1%.

So far, the economy and job market have appeared to remain solid despite the worsening moods of shoppers and businesses.

Orders for machinery, airplanes and other long-lasting manufactured products unexpectedly grew last month, when economists were forecasting a contraction. But a subset of the data seen as an indicator for investment by businesses flipped from growth to contraction. That could be a signal businesses are holding back on spending to see how tariffs play out.

In energy trading, benchmark U.S. crude lost 5 cents to $69.60 a barrel. Brent crude, the international standard, fell 6 cents to $73.73 a barrel.

In currency trading, the U.S. dollar declined to 150.40 Japanese yen from 150.54 yen. The euro cost $1.0769, up from $1.0754.

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AP Business Writer Stan Choe and Videographer Ayaka McGill contributed.

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