Hang Seng Index, Nifty 50, Kospi
Sunset scene of light trails traffic speeds through an intersection in Gangnam center business district of Seoul at Seoul city, South Korea
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Asia-Pacific markets were set to open higher Monday, brushing aside concerns after U.S. President Donald Trump announced over the weekend that he would increase global tariffs to 15% from 10%.
The move came on the heels of a Supreme Court decision striking down a broad swath of the president’s trade agenda enacted under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act of 1977, or IEEPA.
That said, U.S. trading partners are not off the hook, said Rystad Energy’s chief economist Claudio Galimberti.
“While the Supreme Court’s ruling invalidates a large share of existing tariffs and weakens the ability to target individual countries, it does not dismantle the broader tariff framework,” he wrote in a note following the announcement.
If the upper tariff limit is reached without prior IEEPA exemptions, the average rate could climb even higher than under the structure the Supreme Court just struck down, Galimberti added.
Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 added 0.17% in early trade.
Futures for Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index stood at 26,855, higher than its last close of 26,413.35.
Markets in China and Japan were closed for a holiday.
Oil prices were last seen trading lower, erasing earlier gains. International benchmark Brent crude futures fell 0.6% to $71.33 a barrel, while U.S. West Texas Intermediate futures stood 0.78% lower at $65.96.
“The Supreme Court ruling is a setback … but it is not an end to his policy agenda,” said Arthur Laffer, Jr., president of Laffer Tengler Investments.
Laffer said countries such as Vietnam and India that struck trade deals with the U.S. should think twice before backing away from those agreements, arguing that trade remains a central pillar of Trump’s political and economic strategy and that the president is likely to keep pressing the issue.
On Friday, U.S. stocks rose after the Supreme Court ruling, potentially providing relief for companies burdened by higher costs from the duties and easing concern about sticky inflation still plaguing the U.S. economy.
The S&P 500 advanced 0.69% and closed at 6,909.51, while the Nasdaq Composite gained 0.9% and settled at 22,886.07. The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 230.81 points, or 0.47%, and ended at 49,625.97. The 30-stock index recovered from a 200-point loss earlier in the session on disappointing economic data.
— CNBC’s Sean Conlon and Pia Singh contributed to this report.
