Gulf stocks steady as strong earnings offset US tariff jitters
Despite global jitters, strong results from regional heavyweights and steady oil prices helped offset external headwinds.
Saudi Arabia's benchmark index (.TASI), opens new tab edged 0.2% higher, on course to snap its longest downturn in nearly two years, with financials driving the gains.
Saudi National Bank (1180.SE), opens new tab - the country's biggest lender by assets - gained 1.5% and Al Rajhi Bank (1120.SE), opens new tab, the largest sharia-compliant bank, jumped over 1% after their strong second-quarter results lifted sentiment across the banking sector.
However, the petrochemical giant SIPCHEM (2310.SE), opens new tab fell 3.7% after posting a rare loss, breaking a five-year streak of profitability.
Dubai's benchmark index (.DFMGI), opens new tab eased 0.1%, pressured by broad-based declines as investors locked in gains after a recent multi-year rally.
Meanwhile, Air Arabia (AIRA.DU), opens new tab surged 5.1% to a fresh record high after securing a bid to operate a new Saudi low-cost national airline, set to launch by 2030.
Abu Dhabi Index (.FTFADGI), opens new tab posted a decline ahead of key upcoming earnings as investors looked for cues on the market's next direction.
Qatar's stock index (.QSI), opens new tab added 0.1%, nearing a two-year peak, led by a 1.5% rise in Commercial Bank (COMB.QA), opens new tab.
Among other gainers, Qatar International Islamic Bank (QIIB.QA), opens new tab advanced 1.4% on a year-on-year rise of 5.2% in its six-month profit.
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The Independent
21 minutes ago
- The Independent
US-EU trade deal wards off further escalation but will raise costs for companies, consumers
President Donald Trump and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen have announced a sweeping trade deal that imposes 15% tariffs on most European goods, warding off Trump's threat of a 30% rate if no deal had been reached by Aug. 1. The tariffs, or import taxes, paid when Americans buy European products could raise prices for U.S. consumers and dent profits for European companies and their partners who bring goods into the country. Here are some things to know about the trade deal between the United States and the European Union: What's in the agreement? Trump and von der Leyen's announcement, made during Trump's visit to one of his golf courses in Scotland, leaves many details to be filled in. The headline figure is a 15% tariff rate on 'the vast majority' of European goods brought into the U.S., including cars, computer chips and pharmaceuticals. It's lower than the 20% Trump initially proposed, and lower than his threats of 50% and then 30%. Von der Leyen said the two sides agreed on zero tariffs on both sides for a range of 'strategic' goods: Aircraft and aircraft parts, certain chemicals, semiconductor equipment, certain agricultural products, and some natural resources and critical raw materials. Specifics were lacking. She said the two sides 'would keep working' to add more products to the list. Additionally, the EU side would purchase what Trump said was $750 billion (638 billion euros) worth of natural gas, oil and nuclear fuel to replace Russian energy supplies, and Europeans would invest an additional $600 billion (511 billion euros) in the U.S. What's not in the deal? Trump said the 50% U.S. tariff on imported steel would remain; von der Leyen said the two sides agreed to further negotiations to fight a global steel glut, reduce tariffs and establish import quotas — that is, set amounts that can be imported, often at a lower rate. Trump said pharmaceuticals were not included in the deal. Von der Leyen said the pharmaceuticals issue was 'on a separate sheet of paper' from Sunday's deal. Where the $600 billion for additional investment would come from was not specified. And von der Leyen said that when it came to farm products, the EU side made clear that 'there were tariffs that could not be lowered,' without specifying which products. What's the impact? The 15% rate removes Trump's threat of a 30% tariff. It's still much higher than the average tariff before Trump came into office of around 1%, and higher than Trump's minimum 10% baseline tariff. Higher tariffs, or import taxes, on European goods mean sellers in the U.S. would have to either increase prices for consumers — risking loss of market share — or swallow the added cost in terms of lower profits. The higher tariffs are expected to hurt export earnings for European firms and slow the economy. The 10% baseline applied while the deal was negotiated was already sufficiently high to make the European Union's executive commission cut its growth forecast for this year from 1.3% to 0.9%. Von der Leyen said the 15% rate was 'the best we could do' and credited the deal with maintaining access to the U.S. market and providing 'stability and predictability for companies on both sides.' What is some of the reaction to the deal? German Chancellor Friedrich Merz welcomed the deal which avoided 'an unnecessary escalation in transatlantic trade relations" and said that 'we were able to preserve our core interests,' while adding that 'I would have very much wished for further relief in transatlantic trade.' The Federation of German Industries was blunter. "Even a 15% tariff rate will have immense negative effects on export-oriented German industry," said Wolfgang Niedermark, a member of the federation's leadership. While the rate is lower than threatened, "the big caveat to today's deal is that there is nothing on paper, yet," said Carsten Brzeski, global chief of macro at ING bank. 'With this disclaimer in mind and at face value, today's agreement would clearly bring an end to the uncertainty of recent months. An escalation of the US-EU trade tensions would have been a severe risk for the global economy," Brzeski said. 'This risk seems to have been avoided.' What about car companies? Asked if European carmakers could still sell cars at 15%, von der Leyen said the rate was much lower than the current 27.5%. That has been the rate under Trump's 25% tariff on cars from all countries, plus the preexisting U.S. car tariff of 2.5%. The impact is likely to be substantial on some companies, given that automaker Volkswagen said it suffered a 1.3 billion euro ($1.5 billion) hit to profit in the first half of the year from the higher tariffs. Mercedes-Benz dealers in the U.S. have said they are holding the line on 2025 model year prices 'until further notice.' The German automaker has a partial tariff shield because it makes 35% of the Mercedes-Benz vehicles sold in the U.S. in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, but the company said it expects prices to undergo 'significant increases' in coming years. What were the issues dividing the two sides? Before Trump returned to office, the U.S. and the EU maintained generally low tariff levels in what is the largest bilateral trading relationship in the world, with some 1.7 trillion euros ($2 trillion) in annual trade. Together the U.S. and the EU have 44% of the global economy. The U.S. rate averaged 1.47% for European goods, while the EU's averaged 1.35% for American products, according to the Bruegel think tank in Brussels. Trump has complained about the EU's 198 billion-euro trade surplus in goods, which shows Americans buy more from European businesses than the other way around, and has said the European market is not open enough for U.S.-made cars. However, American companies fill some of the trade gap by outselling the EU when it comes to services such as cloud computing, travel bookings, and legal and financial services. And some 30% of European imports are from American-owned companies, according to the European Central Bank.
Reuters
22 minutes ago
- Reuters
Breakingviews - EU's lopsided Trump trade deal will be short-lived
BERLIN, July 27 (Reuters Breakingviews) - European Union trade negotiators may promptly celebrate the success they have achieved by clinching a deal with Donald Trump. If so, the question should be: If that passes for success, what would failure have looked like? Financial markets and European captains of industry will doubtless heave a sigh of relief at the agreement, announced on Sunday by the U.S. president and his European Commission counterpart Ursula von der Leyen. The continent's main exporters can base their investment and commercial plans on the 15% levy on U.S. imports accepted by the Commission. That's much lower than the 30% charge on European goods Trump had promised to impose on August 1 in the absence of a deal, which in turn was less than a previous 50% threat. Importantly, the rate applies to European cars, which join Japanese-made vehicles in escaping the 25% charge on U.S. auto imports, and to the continent's pharmaceuticals and semiconductors, which may have otherwise faced punitive sector-specific treatment. The deal also enables the Europeans to shelve counter-tariffs and other measures they had lined up. Some degree of uncertainty has at least been dispelled. Nevertheless, the tariff level still amounts to capitulation by Brussels. It must be compared not to Trump's threats, but to the 1.47% average, opens new tab rate previously applied to European goods crossing the Atlantic. Only two months ago, several EU governments were warning, opens new tab that a 10% across-the-board charge, similar to what the UK had obtained, would be a red line that should trigger some form of response. In addition to the added trade friction, the EU has also promised to import more energy – spending $250 billion a year on American oil and gas – and could invest some $600 billion stateside. That, at least, is Trump's interpretation of the deal. It's unclear whether these figures represent incremental amounts, or what time frame the president had in mind. Fuzzy as they are, these EU pledges at least do not look very binding. Yet the vague agreement also suggests Sunday's announcement is unlikely to be the last word. Even at the lower rate, the tariffs will hurt the U.S. economy. They will either bring much-needed revenue — a source of pride for Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent – or shrink imports. But they cannot achieve both at the same time. And if EU businesses do crank up investment in the U.S., the resulting capital flows will be to the detriment of the trade balance. All this means the EU's trade surplus, opens new tab with the U.S., which reached 198 billion euros in goods last year, partly offset by a 109 billion euro deficit on services, may not shrink much in the coming years. When the impulsive and unpredictable president can no longer deny the destructive impact of his tariffs, he will be tempted to yet again blame U.S. trade partners. It's puzzling that the EU, the world's largest, opens new tab trading power, has failed to grasp that the best way to fight bullying is to stand your ground. Follow Pierre Briancon on Bluesky, opens new tab and LinkedIn, opens new tab.
BBC News
an hour ago
- BBC News
US-EU tariff deal: Both sides can claim victory, but devil may be in detail
After weeks of tense negotiations between their top trade officials, the EU and US have finally struck a deal - and it comes on the eve of America's latest round of tariff talks with it took leaders from Washington and Brussels to sit down face to face to reach Sunday's something we've also seen with the other deals that President Donald Trump has struck - his personal involvement is what has pushed them over the line – even when the prospects of a breakthrough did not seem matters to both sides because so many businesses and jobs depend on what the EU calls "the world's largest bilateral trade and investment relationship".Both President Trump and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen can paint this as something of a the EU, the tariffs could have been worse at 15%, rather than the 30% that had been threatened – although it's not as good as the UK's 10% rate. For the US that equates to the expectation of roughly $90bn (£67bn) of tariff revenue for government coffers – based on last year's trade figures - plus there's $600bn of investment now due to come into the country.A lot of other big numbers have been thrown around in terms of how much the EU will invest in the US, but the devil will be in the like exactly when those investments will be made, and in what areas, are for now, deal is being sold as a landmark moment in relations between the US and the has not been easy getting to this and the 27-nation bloc have both played hardball and neither was ready to give in easily, which is why these talks went down to the neither side wanted these negotiations to drag on beyond the 1 August years, the US president has railed against what he regards as Europe's unfair trade first part of that is the deficit. Last year that meant the US bought $236bn of goods more from the EU than it sold to the takes the somewhat simplified view that this is American wealth needlessly leaving the country. The reality is that international trade is a more complex other complaint has been that the EU's strict regulations on everything from cars to chickens make it harder for American companies to sell their products in the EU than the other way we get more details of this deal, we may know how much has been done to address European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen seemed to acknowledge the need to tackle the announcing the agreement, she said: "We have to rebalance it. We have an excellent trade relation."It's a huge volume of trade that we have together. So we will make it more sustainable."This deal shows how serious President Trump is about renegotiating how the US, the world's biggest economy, does business with everyone the EU consists of 27 very different countries, it has seemed one of the trickier trade agreements to pull comes days after the US struck another major agreement with Japan - there have also been deals with the UK, Vietnam and other big ones still on the table are with the three biggest US trade partners - Mexico, Canada and with the US president in a deal-making mood, there could be more positive news for the global economy over the next 48 the third time in as many months, the US and China are holding their next trade talks in Stockholm, Sweden, on Monday and TuesdayThere is some expectation that higher tariffs could be suspended for another 90 days.A few days ago Trump said the US was "getting along with China very well" and implied that the major sticking point of rare earth metals exports had been the broad outlines of an EU agreement in the hold, Washington's trade negotiators have the wind in their sails going into talks with China has so far taken a more uncompromising approach than other US trade partners. And if talks between the world's two biggest economies falter, global trade could still be heading for choppy waters in the months ahead.
