Global carmaker shares rise on tariff exemption hopes; Honda may switch some production to US
Shares in carmakers have risen around the world, after Donald Trump said last night that he was considering possible temporary exemptions to his tariffs on imported vehicles and parts, to give carmakers more time to set up US manufacturing.
“I’m looking at something to help some of the car companies,” the US president told reporters in Washington, adding that automotive manufacturers “need a little bit of time” before they can start making components in the US, rather than in countries such as Canada and Mexico.
The European car and parts share index rose by 2.3%.
Shares in Japan’s Toyota and Honda increased by 3.7% and 3.6%, as reported earlier. India’s Tata Motors jumped by 4.7% and Korea’s Hyundai Motors rose by 4.3%. Stellantis was up by 4.3%, while shares in Volkswagen, Mercedes-Benz and BMW rose by more than 2%. Aston Martin increased by 2.4%.
Honda is considering switching some car production from Mexico and Canada to the US, according to the Nikkei newspaper. The Japanese carmaker is aiming for 90% of cars sold in the US to be made in the country to get around the new car tariffs. The US was Honda’s biggest market last year accounting for nearly 40% of global sales, as it sold .4m vehicles there.
Stock markets overall have gained in Europe and parts of Asia, and stock futures are pointing to a higher open on Wall Street later.
The UK’s FTSE 100 is more than 1% ahead at 8,216, up 82 points. Germany’s Dax has gained 1.2% and Italy’s FTSE Mib is 1.6% ahead.
France’s CAC has only increased by 0.3%, weighed down by the luxury goods group LVMH, which reported disappointing quarterly sales. Its shares slumped by 7.5% and the news dragged down other shares in the luxury sector, including the UK’s Burberry, down 2.3%.
Key events
The UK drugmaker GSK has not met required ethical and regulatory standards in the marketing and prescription information for its Omjjara drug, according to an industry self-regulatory body.
Omjjara is a medicine used to treat an enlarged spleen or other symptoms in adults who have myelofibrosis and moderate to severe anaemia (low levels of red blood cells). Myelofibrosis is a disease in which the bone marrow becomes very dense and rigid and produces abnormal, immature blood cells.
The prescribing information provided for the drug misled women using hormonal contraceptives about the necessity for extra precautions to prevent pregnancy, the Prescription Medicines Code of Practice Authority said.
The summary of product characteristics for Omjjara contained that information, but it was missing from the prescribing information, which has now been rectified.
A GSK spokesperson said:
We take adherence to industry codes and regulations very seriously. We are committed to upholding the highest standards of integrity and ethical conduct in all aspects of our business. Our focus is always on ensuring the well-being of patients and maintaining trust in our industry.
UK lenders are stepping up a mortgage price war, with HSBC and the Co-operative Bank announcing fresh rate cuts, and Halifax and Lloyds Bank loosening their affordability rules to enable homebuyers to borrow more.
The number of low-deposit mortgages that let buyers borrow up to 95% of a property’s value has hit a 17-year high.
In recent days, lenders have started cutting their mortgage rates in apparent response to the financial turmoil and changed expectations on UK interest rates sparked by the US trade tariffs.
On Thursday last week, Barclays became the first “big six” lender to cut the cost of some new fixed-rate deals to below 4%, after similar announcements by some smaller players.
Warm weather in March helped give a lift to UK retailers despite a late Easter, with sales of gardening, DIY, food, and health and beauty products getting a boost from the spring sunshine.
Purchases for Mother’s Day also helped retail sales climb 1.1% last month, according to a British Retail Consortium-KPMG survey, keeping pace with February despite trading against a much stronger period a year before and a downturn in visitor numbers on high streets and in retail parks as more sales shifted online.
Helen Dickinson, the chief executive of the BRC, said:
Despite a challenging global geopolitical landscape, the small increase in both food and non-food sales masked signs of underlying strengthening of demand given March 2025’s comparison with last year’s early Easter.
A winter garden filled with plants, dedicated areas to suit both extrovert and introvert workers, a “social lobby”, and a cycle ramp into the building: this is the office of the future.
Well, at least a version of it – as envisioned by property developer British Land and to be made reality within a vast new project at 2 Finsbury Avenue, or “2FA”, in the City of London. With the world of work upended by the pandemic, the bells-and-whistles development is designed to offer companies everything to keep the modern white-collar worker satisfied in the office.
FTSE-listed British Land believes 2FA will provide an “instantly recognisable addition” to the London skyline, with one 36-storey and one 23-storey tower, linked by the winter garden at the top of a 12-storey-high “podium”.
Simon Carter, the British Land boss, says:
It’s about having the right types of space within the building because of the way in which work’s changed.
It’s less about rows and rows of desks and functional work, and that’s why our customers are allocating more of their space to break-out areas, community areas, quiet booths for taking phone calls.
Nvidia and Honda among firms investing in US manufacturing
The chip designer Nvidia has said it will build up to $500bn (£378bn) worth of artificial intelligence infrastructure in the US over the next four years, in a sign of manufacturers investing in operations on American soil amid Donald Trump’s tariffs.
The announcement comes after Trump reiterated threats on Sunday to impose imminent tariffs on the semiconductors that Nvidia makes mostly in Taiwan, and after the chipmaker’s chief executive, Jensen Huang, dined at the president’s Mar-a-Lago resort earlier this month.
Nvidia, whose chips have helped drive the huge wave of artificial intelligence (AI) development in recent years, will work with its manufacturing partners to design and build factories so it can create “supercomputers” completely within the US.
The Japanese carmaker Honda is considering moving some manufacturing from Mexico and Canada to the US, the Nikkei newspaper reported today.
Several global drug companies have also announced investments in the US as the sector prepares for the threatened tariffs on pharmaceuticals. Last week, the Swiss drugmaker Novartis outlined plans to spend $23bn to build and expand 10 facilities in the US.
Britain’s biggest pharmaceutical firm AstraZeneca announced a $3.5bn investment in US manufacturing and research last November.
China has reportedly ordered its airlines not to take any further deliveries of Boeing jets, the latest move in its tit-for-tat trade war with the US.
The Chinese government has asked carriers to stop purchases of aircraft-related equipment and parts from American companies, according to a report from Bloomberg, which cited people familiar with the matter.
The order from Beijing reportedly came after it announced retaliatory tariffs of 125% on US goods over the weekend.
Beijing is considering ways to support airlines that lease Boeing jets and are facing higher costs, according to the report.
About 10 Boeing 737 Max jets are being prepared to join Chinese airlines, and if delivery paperwork and payment on some of them was completed before Chinese ”reciprocal” tariffs came into effect, the planes may be allowed to enter the country, people close to the matter told Bloomberg News.
German investor morale plunges to lowest level since start of Ukraine war
In Germany, morale among investors has plunged to the lowest level since the start of the Ukraine war in February 2022.
The economic sentiment index from the ZEW economic research institute fell to -14 points in April from 51.6 points in March.
The institute’s president, Achim Wambach, pointed to the “erratic changes in US trade policy,” since Donald Trump took office in late January.
He said:
It is not only the consequences the announced reciprocal tariffs may have on global trade, but also the dynamics of their changes, that have massively increased global uncertainty.
Trump has put most of his tariffs, including a 20% duty on US imports from the European Union, on hold for 90 days, after his announcements led to days of heavy selling on world stock markets that erased trillions of dollars of value. The tariffs have also sent the dollar and US government bonds, known as Treasuries, tumbling.
Thomas Gitzel, chief economist at VP Bank, said:
German industry, with its strong capital goods industry, is particularly hard hit.
The tariffs have unsettled the global business community and investment decisions have been put on hold, he added.
Bank of America rakes in higher profits as market volatility boosts trading fees
Bank of America has reported higher profits for the first quarter, as market volatility caused by Donald Trump’s trade tariffs boosted its trading fees.
A day after Goldman Sachs made bumper profits on the back of financial market turmoil (but warned about increased risks of a US recession in the wake of the tariffs), Bank of America raked in profits of $7.4bn in the quarter to 31 March, up from $6.7bn a year earlier.
The bank’s trading revenues rose by 9%, helped by a 17% jump in equities trading. It made $14.4bn in net interest income – the difference between what it earns on loans and pays out on deposits – 3% higher year on year. Federal Reserve rate cuts last year lifted sentiment among borrowers, and the bank had forecast record net interest income in 2025, before Trump unveiled the new tariffs.
Chief executive Brian Moynihan said:
Though we potentially face a changing economy in the future, we believe the disciplined investments we have made for high-quality growth, our diverse set of businesses, and the team’s relentless focus on responsible growth will remain a source of strength.
However, fears of what trade wars will do to the US and global economies have alarmed investment bankers around the world. Corporate dealmaking in the US fell by 13% between January and March, according to Dealogic.
UK banknote maker De La Rue to be taken over by US investment group Atlas
De La Rue, which prints banknotes for the Bank of England, has agreed to be taken over by US investment group Atlas Holdings in a £263m deal, which will lead to the departure of yet another established business from the London stock market.
Atlas, which invests in the industrial sectors, has made an all-cash offer of 130p a share. De La Rue said its directors “intend to recommend unanimously” that shareholders vote to accept the deal.
Established 211 years ago, De La Rue makes banknotes, brand protection labels, tax stamps, security features and passport bio-data pages for customers in 140 countries.
The deal ends months of uncertainty over the UK company’s future. It received a £245m cash bid in January from a group of companies owned by the City financier Edi Truell, and formally put itself up for sale in February.
A statement from Atlas said:
Atlas believes that bringing De La Rue under private ownership will better position it for further investment, coupled with the benefits that accrue from being part of a scaled, better capitalised and actively growing business.
Atlas, founded in Connecticut in 2002, has invested in 27 manufacturing and distribution businesses. It said it had already received irrevocable undertakings in favour of the deal from 40.3% of the De La Rue shares.
De La Rue is selling its authentication division to the Connecticut-based industrial technology company Crane NXT in a £300m deal that is due to complete on 1 May. It will be left with its currency business, which designs and manufactures polymer substrate banknotes and banknote components.
The UK company has faced a string of challenges, including a widespread fall in the use of cash, which accelerated during the pandemic, and it has issued a number of profit warnings over the past few years.
It lost its footing after it lost out on a major contract, to print post-Brexit blue passports, to the Franco-Dutch company Gemalto in 2018.
Oil prices dip after IEA cuts demand outlook due to trade wars
Oil prices have dipped after the International Energy Agency followed in Opec’s footsteps and slashed its forecast for oil demand, although the price declines were limited by Donald Trump’s suggestion of new tariff exemptions for cars and parts.
The IEA cut its estimate for global oil demand growth to 730,000 barrels per day this year from 1.03m bpd previously, falling to 690,000 bpd next year, citing escalating trade tensions.
Brent crude fell by 35 cents, or 0.5%, to $64.53 a barrel while US crude lost 37 cents, or 0.6%, to $61.16 a barrel, reversing earlier gains.
The Swiss bank UBS cut its price forecast for Brent crude by $12 a barrel to $68 a barrel. Its analyst Giovanni Staunovo said:
Should the trade war further escalate, our downside risk scenario case – i.e. a deeper US recession and a hard landing in China – could see Brent trading at $40 to $60 a barrel over the coming months.
Global carmaker shares rise on tariff exemption hopes; Honda may switch some production to US
Shares in carmakers have risen around the world, after Donald Trump said last night that he was considering possible temporary exemptions to his tariffs on imported vehicles and parts, to give carmakers more time to set up US manufacturing.
“I’m looking at something to help some of the car companies,” the US president told reporters in Washington, adding that automotive manufacturers “need a little bit of time” before they can start making components in the US, rather than in countries such as Canada and Mexico.
The European car and parts share index rose by 2.3%.
Shares in Japan’s Toyota and Honda increased by 3.7% and 3.6%, as reported earlier. India’s Tata Motors jumped by 4.7% and Korea’s Hyundai Motors rose by 4.3%. Stellantis was up by 4.3%, while shares in Volkswagen, Mercedes-Benz and BMW rose by more than 2%. Aston Martin increased by 2.4%.
Honda is considering switching some car production from Mexico and Canada to the US, according to the Nikkei newspaper. The Japanese carmaker is aiming for 90% of cars sold in the US to be made in the country to get around the new car tariffs. The US was Honda’s biggest market last year accounting for nearly 40% of global sales, as it sold .4m vehicles there.
Stock markets overall have gained in Europe and parts of Asia, and stock futures are pointing to a higher open on Wall Street later.
The UK’s FTSE 100 is more than 1% ahead at 8,216, up 82 points. Germany’s Dax has gained 1.2% and Italy’s FTSE Mib is 1.6% ahead.
France’s CAC has only increased by 0.3%, weighed down by the luxury goods group LVMH, which reported disappointing quarterly sales. Its shares slumped by 7.5% and the news dragged down other shares in the luxury sector, including the UK’s Burberry, down 2.3%.
France’s prime minister: Trump tariffs shattered trust worldwide
Donald Trump’s trade tariffs have shattered trust around the world and led to a “tsunami of destabilisation,” according to France’s prime minister.
Speaking at a press conference to discuss France’s budget plans for next year, François Bayrou warned that the country faces a moment of truth in terms of getting its public finances in order. He said the US tariffs had damaged trust around the world.
The fact that this power has gone over to the side of the aggressors is a dramatic turn of events, a warning shot that ruins our fundamental vision of the world.
