The Overnight News Roundup

Feb 11, 2025

PiQ and Zack Eiseman provide you with a consolidated roundup of the overnight news that matters most to markets.

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MACRO:

President Donald Trump substantially raised tariffs on steel and aluminum imports on Monday to a flat 25% "without exceptions or exemptions", affecting imports from Canada, Brazil, Mexico, South Korea and other countries that had been entering the U.S. duty free under the carve-outs. (RTRS)
Trump said he would announce plans to impose reciprocal tariffs on other countries over the next two days, doubling down on comments he made on Sunday. (RTRS)
Trump agreed to consider exempting Australia from his steel and aluminium tariffs in view of the country's trade surplus with the US, following a phone call with Prime Minister Anthony Albanese. (RTRS)
Trump said he wants to increase the amount of money for the US military, a goal that runs counter to efforts from Elon Musk to slash spending. “We want to raise defense spending. I think we have to have it,” Trump said in an interview with Fox News’ Bret Baier, taped last week and broadcast on Monday. (BBG)
Trump said he had spoken to Chinese President Xi Jinping since taking office on January 20, but did not offer details on the topics of their conversation. (RTRS)
A U.S. judge kept his block on Trump's buyout plan for federal employees in place on Monday while he considers whether to impose it for a longer period of time. (RTRS)
Trump signed an executive order directing the Justice Department to pause prosecutions of Americans accused of bribing foreign government officials while trying to win or retain business in their countries. (RTRS)
Reuters poll shows majority of economists believe the Fed will wait until next quarter before cutting rates again, having previously expected a March cut. Economists have raised their inflation forecasts since Trump was elected, particularly due to tariffs. (RTRS)
Chinese investors are helping to drive a bull run in Hong Kong shares, plowing almost HK$150 billion ($19.3 billion) into the financial hub this year, more than seven times the amount they added during the same period in 2024. (BBG)
China sales of cars, home appliances, and digital products under trade-in programs totaled 31 billion yuan during the Chinese New Year holiday, showing that government policies have boosted consumer confidence, according to a report in the China Securities Journal. (CSJ)
Chinese refined nickel exports could almost treble this year, as domestic overcapacity produces yet another glut of metal that will have to be absorbed by overseas markets, according to Mysteel Global. (BBG)
Bond traders in China, desperate to boost their returns, are turning to the basis trade, exploiting small differences between spot and futures prices. (BBG)
The EU is preparing a radical overhaul of its next trillion euro common budget, replacing dozens of programmes with merged funds that would hand more spending power to capitals, calling for a more “ambitious” budget in “size and design” to meet increased spending demands on defence and hefty debt repayments. (FT)
French unemployment unexpectedly edged down in the final months of last year, despite a creaking economy. (WSJ)
BoE's Mann, who was previously a hawk but dissented for a larger cut last week, said companies will struggle to raise prices this year as consumers are hit by job losses and spending softens. Said a 50bp cut was needed last week to "cut through the noise" amid expectations of a non-linear fall in employment. (FT)
UK retailers reported a reasonable start to 2025 after a disappointing 2024 but are concerned about rises in employment costs in April and broader inflation pressures, the BRC said on Tuesday. (RTRS)
Australia’s business confidence climbed to be almost back to its long-run average, while a recent recovery in consumer sentiment showed signs of stalling amid ongoing cost of living pressures, according to NAB's latest survey. (BBG)
Australia will provide tax incentives for firms that produce renewable hydrogen or process critical minerals under legislation passed in parliament on Tuesday, in the latest move by the center-left government to boost domestic green industries and shore up supply chains. (BBG)
New Zealand’s government is considering whether to relax a ban on foreigners buying residential property, Finance Minister Nicola Willis said on Tuesday. (BBG)
Norway’s economy surprised last quarter with the biggest contraction since the pandemic, adding pressure on the central bank to start its long-awaited easing campaign. (BBG)
Hungarian inflation accelerated far more quickly than expected, testing the central bank’s hawkish pivot and morphing into a pre-election political problem for Prime Minister Viktor Orban. (BBG)
South Korea’s state-run think tank has cut its growth forecast for the country this year, citing President Donald Trump’s trade policy as a downside risk to exports growth. (WSJ)
South Africa enacted changes to its public-finance laws that will reduce the red tape for projects valued at less than 2 billion rand ($108 million) where the government partners with private businesses. (BBG)
Saudi Arabia’s Neom, the megacity being developed on the Red Sea coast, secured a $5 billion investment from a local firm to establish a 1.5GW AI data center. (BBG)
US oil refiners along the Gulf Coast are snubbing shipments from Mexico, complaining that Pemex is increasingly delivering crude that’s unfit to make gasoline and diesel. (BBG)

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GEOPOLITICAL:

Trump warned Hamas to free all the hostages held in Gaza by Saturday, hours after the Palestinian militant group said it would postpone this week’s scheduled release amid a dispute over goods needed to provide shelter for the enclave’s displaced population. (WSJ)
Russia targeted Ukrainian gas and power facilities in strikes overnight and early Tuesday as night temperatures in Ukraine fell below minus 10C. Ukraine's gas production facilities have been damaged, according to Naftogaz. (BBG/RTRS)

EQUITIES:

OpenAI CEO Altman said the board will reject Elon Musk's USD 97bln offer made on Monday. (The Information)
Axios reports that Musk is not trying to buy the OpenAI nonprofit, per se, but rather the underlying for-profit assets that Altman must buy in order to reorganise the company. Axios says it's partially a troll, and partially setting a price that may cause Sam to pay more than he might want to. (Axios)
SoftBank is weighing debt-heavy financing in its $500 billion AI push. The Stargate project may tap the complex, high-leverage project finance model. (BBG)
Elliott Investment Management has built a more than $2.5 billion stake in Phillips 66 and plans to push the oil refiner to consider operational changes to boost its stagnant stock, specifically a spin-off of its midstream business. (WSJ)
Stripe is discussing a sale of employees’ shares at a valuation of at least $85 billion, a price that would bring it closer to its 2021 peak. (The Information)
Kering, the owner of Gucci, reported lower revenue for the fourth quarter at a time when some peers have signaled a potential rebound in demand for luxury goods. The company noted sequential improvement in mainland China. (WSJ/RTRS)
Novartis said it has agreed to acquire U.S. privately held, clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company Anthos Therapeutics for up to $3.08 billion to boost its cardiovascular pipeline. (WSJ)
Michelin is considering accelerating American investments to counter the threat of US tariffs. (FT)
UniCredit reported a fourth-quarter profit that beat analyst estimates, allowing the bank to boost shareholder returns even as CEO Andrea Orcel pursues takeovers in Italy and Germany. (BBG)
BP has pledged to “fundamentally reset” its strategy and improve its performance as the struggling oil major reported a steep drop in profits for the final quarter of last year. Still launched a $1.75 billion quarterly buyback. Updates expected at its capital markets day on April 26th. (FT/WSJ)
HSBC has been acquitted by a South Korean court of charges that the bank engaged in illegal short-selling, a blow to the government’s efforts to rein in abuses in the stock trading practice. (BBG)
TSMC could decide to build capacity in the US for advanced packaging, a fabrication phase crucial to the most advanced chips that TSMC has kept in Taiwan, in efforts to please Trump as US subsidies come into question. (FT)
Samsung and SK Hynix are carrying out a 10% production cut for NAND flash. (ET News)
Deepseek raised its prices by 300%, with input tokens now costing 2 Yuan per million tokens and output tokens costing 8 Yuan per million tokens. (
@Jukanlosreve
citing local press)
Macquarie Group Ltd.’s profit was flat for the first three quarters of the fiscal year as business in its commodities trading arm continued to slip even as its asset management unit jumped “substantially.” (BBG)