Asian stock markets dipped on Monday as investors tried to understand Washington’s mixed signals about delaying planned UUS tariffs. Meanwhile, oil slid after OPEC and its allies agreed to boost crude output beyond expectations.
In Asia, Tokyo’s Nikkei slipped 0.5%, while South Korea’s main index held flat. MSCI’s broad measure of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan slid 0.6%, and China’s CSI 300 lost 0.5%.
In Europe, futures for the EURO STOXX 50 fell 0.1%, FTSE futures dipped 0.2%, and DAX contracts were largely unchanged.
U.S. President Donald Trump said on Sunday that his administration is nearing completion of multiple trade deals and will send notices about higher tariffs by July 9, with the new duties set to begin on August 1.
According to Reuters, the announcement left markets uncertain because officials gave few specifics on which countries would see the deadline shift.
In April, the president also said some tariffs could climb as high as 60% or 70% and threatened an extra 10% tariff on any country he felt sided with the BRICS group’s “anti-American policies.”
So far, few formal agreements have been made, leaving analysts to suspect the August 1 deadline would slip further. Furthermore, confusion remains over whether the change applies to all partners or only select ones.
Markets have grown accustomed to the unpredictability of U.S. trade policy and its potential effects on growth and prices. Those concerns have also held the Federal Reserve back from cutting rates.
The Reserve Bank of Australia meets on Tuesday. Most experts expect it to cut the main interest rate by 0.25% to 3.60%. That would be the third cut in this cycle, and markets think rates could drop as low as 2.85% or stay near 3.10%.
The Reserve Bank of New Zealand is set to announce its decision on Wednesday. New Zealand’s policy rate currently stands at 3.25% after cuts totaling 225 basis points over the last year, and most forecasters predict it will hold steady.
Gold dips despite weekly gain while oil prices weaken
In commodity markets, gold eased 0.3% to $3,324 an ounce, despite a nearly 2% gain last week as the dollar softened.
Oil prices fell further after OPEC and its partners, collectively known as OPEC+, agreed on Saturday to raise production by 548,000 barrels per day in August. The group also flagged a similar increase in September, a move seen as aimed at squeezing higher-cost U.S. shale producers.
“We see OPEC+ targeting Brent oil futures around $60–65 per barrel as a result,” said Vivek Dhar, an analyst at Commonwealth Bank of Australia. Such a range would challenge the viability of some U.S. shale operations and curb non-OPEC+ supply growth.
By Monday’s close, Brent traded lower by 52 cents at $67.78 per barrel, and U.S. crude fell down $1.01 at $65.99 a barrel.
