LONDON: Stock markets rose, gold hit another record high and the dollar re­­mained under pressure as investors grappled with the latest twists and turns in US President Donald Trump’s trade war.

Technology shares jumped in early Wall Street deals in reaction to late Friday’s announcement by the Trump administration of tariff exemptions for smartphones, laptops, semiconductors and other electronics — all key Chinese-made products.

But they later pared their gains as investors digested the other weekend news — Trump suggesting that the exemptions would be temporary.

The tech-heavy Nasdaq index was flat, with Amazon, Facebook parent Meta and chip-maker Nvidia in the red while Apple and Google owner Alphabet were still up.

“Washington’s partial retreat from its hard-line tariff regime has momentarily eased fears of an all-out trade war,” said Fawad Razaqzada, analyst at City Index and Forex.com.

“The US dollar remained under pressure, with ongoing trade tensions denting its appeal,” said David Morrison, analyst at financial services platform Trade Nation.

The dollar fell against the euro and other major currencies after briefly paring back losses earlier.

US Treasuries also recovered somewhat but yields remained high following a sell-off last week that called into question the reliability of US government bonds as a haven investment. There has been speculation that China contributed to the turmoil in the US bond market by selling Treasury holdings.

Gold, a go-to asset of safety in times of turmoil, hit a new peak of $3,245.75 an ounce Monday before paring back gains.

Published in Dawn, April 15th, 2025