Tariff News Highlights (April 14): OPEC cuts 2025 oil demand forecast over US tariffs

• The technology giants hit hardest in this year’s selloff were leading the rest of the stock market higher Monday, after temporary reciprocal tariff exemptions were made for phones, computers and popular consumer electronics.
•  The S&P 500 Index climbed 1.5% as of 9:33 a.m. in New York, while the technology-heavy Nasdaq 100 Index jumped 1.9%. (Read More)

OPEC lowers 2025 oil demand outlook due to US tariffs

• India's exports of cut and polished diamonds dropped to their lowest point in nearly 20 years during the 2024/25 fiscal year, which concluded in March, due to weak demand from key markets like the United States and China, according to a top industry body on Monday.
• As the world’s leading hub for diamond cutting and polishing—processing around 90% of the globe’s diamonds—India remains highly vulnerable to global economic instability, especially in the U.S., its largest customer.
• According to the Gems and Jewellery Export Promotion Council (GJEPC), exports of cut and polished diamonds—typically making up almost half of India’s total gem and jewellery exports—declined by 16.8% year-on-year to $13.3 billion.

Wall Street Futures were up 1.5 percent on April 14 after a rally on Friday, buoyed by positive sentiments over US president Trump’s exemption on a range of consumer electronics - including smartphones, laptops and PCs - from the 125 percent tariff on Chinese goods and a 10 percent global flat rate. At around 5:15 pm IST, index futures tied to the tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 were higher by over 1.6 percent, while the S&P 500 Futures was higher by 1.36 percent. Futures of Dow Jones Industrial Average were up 0.96 percent. (Read More)

The allocation of cheaper Administered Price Mechanism (APM) gas to city gas distribution (CGD) companies would be further reduced, effective April 16, senior company officials aware of the matter told Moneycontrol. The city gas distribution companies including Indraprastha Gas Limited (IGL) and Mahanagar Gas Limited (MGL) will have to review prices of Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) used by vehicles and domestic Piped Natural Gas (PNG), owing to allocation cuts in cheaper APM gas, the sources added. (Read More)

• Tata Power Renewable Energy Ltd (TPREL) has signed a power purchase agreement (PPA) with NTPC Ltd to develop a 200 MW clean power project.
• "With this project, its total renewable utility capacity has reached 10.9 GW," TPREL, a Tata Power subsidiary, said in a statement on Monday.
• The Firm and Dispatchable Renewable Energy (FDRE) project, spread across multiple locations in India, is set to be completed within 24 months and is expected to generate approximately 1,300 million units (MUs) of electricity annually, TPREL said. - PTI

• More than three years after Russia's invasion of Ukraine, Europe's energy security is fragile.
• U.S. liquefied natural gas helped to plug the Russian supply gap in Europe during the 2022-2023 energy crisis.
• But now that President Donald Trump has rocked relationships with Europe established after World War Two, and turned to energy as a bargaining chip in trade negotiations, businesses are wary that reliance on the United States has become another vulnerability.
• Against this backdrop, executives at major EU firms have begun to say what would have been unthinkable a year ago: that importing some Russian gas, including from Russian state giant Gazprom, could be a good idea.
• That would require another major policy shift given that Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022 made the European Union pledge to end Russian energy imports by 2027.
• Europe has limited options. Talks with LNG giant Qatar for more gas have stalled, and while the deployment of renewables has accelerated, the rate is not fast enough to allow the EU to feel secure. (Reuters)

• European stock markets have bounced back following the U.S. decision to exempt certain tech products—such as smartphones—from tariffs, even if they contain materials sourced from China.
• As of 09:30 BST, here’s how the key indices are performing:
• Germany’s Dax: up 2.39%
• UK’s FTSE 100: up 1.96%
  France’s CAC 40: up 2.08%
• Chip-related firms like Infineon, ASML, and BE Semiconductor have seen gains ranging from 2.9% to 4.0% so far today.
• Meanwhile, the Stoxx 600 Technology index, which tracks tech stocks across Europe, has climbed 2.8%.

China's President Xi Jinping on Monday called for stronger ties with Vietnam on trade and supply chains amid disruptions caused by U.S. tariffs, as he kicked off a three-nation trip to Southeast Asia in the Vietnamese capital of Hanoi.

The visit, planned for weeks, comes as Beijing faces 145% U.S. duties, while Vietnam is negotiating a reduction of threatened U.S. tariffs of 46% that would otherwise apply in July after a global moratorium expires.

"The two sides should strengthen cooperation in production and supply chains," Xi said in an article in Nhandan, the newspaper of Vietnam's Communist Party, posted ahead of his arrival on Monday. He also urged more trade and stronger ties with Hanoi on artificial intelligence and the green economy.

Bank of America Corp. is rebuilding its India investment banking team after a string of senior resignations and scrutiny over share sales rocked its local operations last year, according to people familiar with the matter.

The Wall Street firm is in talks with senior bankers at rival firms to fill key deal advisory roles, including the head of its capital markets business, the people said, asking not to be identified discussing private information. The replacements were on hold earlier as the bank reviewed its internal processes following alleged violations of share sales regulations.

The US bank is now looking to scale up operations and regain lost ground after naming Vikram Sahu — its global head of equity research — as the new India country head, and having completed a review of its processes. BofA ranked seventh among advisers for equity capital market transactions in India last year, and failed to make it to the top 10 in M&A advisory, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

India will start sector-specific trade discussions with the US on Monday, according to a New Delhi official, as the South Asian nation rushes to take advantage of Donald Trump’s three-month pause on additional levies.

Virtual talks will begin this week, a senior official aware of the developments told Bloomberg News. By end of May, both sides aim to have clarity on the sectors where they have room for concessions, the official added, asking not to be identified in line with protocol. The development was first reported by local Indian media on Monday.

India’s largest airline IndiGo on April 14 said it is moving its flight operations from terminal 2 to terminal 1 at the Indira Gandhi International Airport in Delhi.

Following the shift, the carrier will operate from terminal 1 and terminal 3 for all the arrivals and departures starting April 15, a company statement said. The operations at terminal 3 remain unchanged, it said.

The company said it has taken “proactive measures” to ensure that all its flyers are informed about the change and it is reaching out to their travel agents through SMS, calls and emails.

As China staggers into a slowdown caused by Donald Trump’s trade war, a hobbled jobs market is impairing the resilience Beijing needs to battle it out against the US.

Trump’s 145% tariffs on China’s goods are threatening to obliterate its access to the world’s biggest economy, with Goldman Sachs Group Inc. estimating that up to 20 million people — or about 3% of the labor force — may be exposed to US-bound exports. A full economic divorce would roil a workforce already drained by widespread salary cuts and layoffs.

The upheaval coming from the Trump administration’s tariffs is reinforcing views that the riskiest assets face more losses ahead.

Most emerging-market currencies will decline, according to Societe Generale SA strategists, who warned that China’s yuan is set for a “modest” depreciation and that South Africa’s rand and Latin American currencies will likely be stuck at weak levels. At Goldman Sachs Group Inc., strategists said the dollar unwind will probably support exchange rates in other big developed countries, and not EM.

The “wrecking ball still underway in EM FX, but will slow,” wrote analysts led by Phoenix Kalen at Societe Generale in London.

Asian stocks advanced after President Donald Trump paused import duties on a range of consumer electronics, lifting sentiment after a volatile week for markets.

Gauges in the region gained along with equity-index futures for the US and Europe as Trump halted some tech levies, though he indicated a specific tariff will be announced in due course.

While stocks got a temporary relief, concerns were building up in other corners of the market about the US economy with the dollar weakening to a fresh low for the year. Gold, a traditional haven asset, hit a record, indicating market participants still remain wary amid mounting confusion over Trump’s tariff agenda. US Treasury yields edged down across the curve.