Economy
Lingering Trade Worries to Stretch Wall Street Volatility
By Investors Hub
The major U.S. index futures are pointing to a lower opening on Wednesday following the notable advance seen over the course of the previous session.
Stocks are likely to move back to the downside as traders continue to worry the trade dispute between the U.S. and China is escalating into a full-fledged trade war.
A report from the South China Morning Post said Chinas is re-examining the entire bilateral economic relationship between the U.S. and China.
The SCMP said Chinese government advisers are highlighting the risk of sourcing critical supplies from an increasingly hostile U.S. following the Trump administration?s recent move to blacklist Chinese tech giant Huawei.
Mei Xinyu, a fellow at the research institute under China?s Ministry of Commerce, told the SCMP that Beijing should prepare for the worst-case scenario to defend its rights in climbing up the global value chain through technological catch-up.
?Even if a deal is reached, it could be torn apart [by President Donald Trump] easily at any time,? Mei said, comparing the current trade talk deadlock to the Panmunjom peace talks during the Korean War.
Potentially adding to the trade concerns, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin recently told CNBC?s Ylan Mui the U.S. has no plans to go to Beijing to resume trade negotiations.
Later in the session, trading may be impacted by reaction to the release of the minutes of the latest Federal Reserve meeting.
The minutes may shed additional light on the outlook for interest rates but could also be viewed as old news considering the constantly shifting developments on the trade front.
With the markets continuing to show intense sensitivity to trade-related news, stocks showed a strong move back to the upside during the trading day on Tuesday after moving mostly lower over the course of Monday?s session.
The major averages ended the day firmly in positive territory. The Dow climbed 197.43 points or 0.8 percent to 25,877.33, the Nasdaq jumped 83.35 points or 1.1 percent to 7,785.72 and the S&P 500 advanced 24.13 points or 0.9 percent to 2,864.36.
The rebound on Wall Street came in reaction to news that the U.S. Commerce Department has temporarily eased trade restrictions on Chinese tech giant Huawei.
The Commerce Department issued a temporary license authorizing specific, limited engagement in transactions involving the export, re-export, and transfer of items to Huawei for 90 days.
Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross said the temporary reprieve grants “operators time to make other arrangements and the Department space to determine the appropriate long term measures for Americans and foreign telecommunications providers that currently rely on Huawei equipment for critical services.”
“In short, this license will allow operations to continue for existing Huawei mobile phone users and rural broadband networks,” he added.
The move by the Trump administration led U.S. tech giant Google to reverse an earlier decision and announce it will continue to work with Huawei over the next 90 days.
Tech stocks rebounded on the news after falling sharply in the previous session amid reports of companies cutting off supplies to Huawei.
Meanwhile, traders largely shrugged off a report from the National Association of Realtors showing an unexpected drop in existing home sales in the month of April.
NAR said existing home sales dipped by 0.4 percent to an annual rate of 5.19 million in April after plunging by 4.9 percent to a rate of 5.21 million in March.
The continued decrease came as a surprise to economists, who had expected existing home sales to jump by 2.7 percent to a rate of 5.35 million.
Semiconductor stocks turned in some of the market’s best performances on the day after falling sharply in the previous session.
Reflecting the rebound by the sector, the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index spiked by 2.1 percent after plunging by 4 percent on Monday.
Substantial strength also emerged among biotechnology stocks, as reflected by the 2.2 percent jump by the NYSE Arca Biotechnology Index.
Natural gas, steel, computer hardware and oil service stocks also saw considerable strength on the day, moving higher along with most of the other major sectors.
By Dipo Olowookere
The domestic stock market crashed by 0.37 per cent on Thursday as a result of the decline in the price of shares of McNichols, Eterna, Aradel Holdings, and others.
Business Post reports that investor sentiment remained weak after the Nigerian Exchange (NGX) Limited ended the session with 25 price gainers and 31 price losers, indicating a negative market breadth index.
McNichols lost 10.00 per cent to trade at N7.74, ABC Transport slipped by 9.88 per cent to N6.20, Eterna shrank by 9.85 per cent to N29.75, Aradel Holdings depreciated by 9.51 per cent to N1,749.90, and NPF Microfinance Bank contracted by 8.45 per cent to N5.20.
On the flip side, International Energy Insurance gained 10.00 per cent to close at N6.60, Omatek improved by 9.73 per cent to N2.03, Abbey Mortgage Bank surged by 9.68 per cent to N8.50, Cutix expanded by 9.66 per cent to N3.18, and John Holt grew by 7.79 per cent to N14.90.
As for the sectorial performance, the industrial goods and banking indices chalked up 0.54 per cent and 0.31 per cent, respectively. But the energy sector depleted by 4.90 per cent, the insurance counter tumbled by 0.58 per cent, and the consumer goods index slumped by 0.03 per cent.
As a result, the All-Share Index (ASI) dipped by 905.30 points to 242,227.31 points from 243,132.61 points, and the market capitalisation stumbled by N581 billion to N155.359 trillion from N155.940 trillion.
During the session, investors traded 588.5 million equities valued at N27.9 billion in 57,352 deals compared with the 923.0 million equities worth N42.3 billion transacted in 69,332 deals on Wednesday, showing a drop in the trading volume, value, and number of deals by 36.24 per cent, 34.04 per cent, and 17.28 per cent, respectively.
The most active equity yesterday was Access Holdings with 109.7 million units sold for N2.6 billion, FCMB traded 35.6 million units valued at N384.2 million, NGX Group transacted 28.1 million units worth N3.9 billion, Zenith Bank exchanged 26.9 million units for N3.3 billion, and Sterling Holdings recorded a turnover of 22.5 million units worth N176.1 million.
By Adedapo Adesanya
A 0.1 per cent or N1,49 loss was recorded by the Nigerian Naira against the United States Dollar in the Nigerian Autonomous Foreign Exchange Market (NAFEX) on Thursday, June 4, closing at N1,358.75/$1 compared with the previous day’s N1,347.26/$1.
In the same vein, the Naira depreciated against the Pound Sterling in the official FX market during the session by N5.39 to trade at N1,828.06/£1 versus Wednesday’s closing rate of N1,822.67/£1, but gained N6.75 against the Euro to sell at N1,574.83/€1 versus the preceding session’s N1,584.39/€1.
At the black market and GTBank FX desk, the local currency traded flat against the Dollar during the session at N1,375/$1 and N1,372/$1, respectively.
Data from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) showed that NFEM interbank FX turnover contracted to $128.117 million in 121 deals on Thursday from $133.731 million the previous day.
On the positive side, Nigeria’s external reserves moved closer to a 2009 high of $50 billion, enhancing analysts’ confidence about the local currency outlook in the second half of 2026.
This improvement has been helped by heightened global uncertainty, which has reduced the incentive for importers and corporates to demand FX, as cautious trade weighs on import needs. Analysts estimate a $40 billion net FX position for the year, a projection anchored in oil windfall gains.
As for the cryptocurrency market, prices extended steep weekly losses as the broader artificial-intelligence trade that has driven global risk assets since 2026 faltered.
The sell-off was led by equity and currency markets, with semiconductor stocks, Asian indexes and several regional currencies sliding in a broad risk-off shift.
Persistent outflows from US spot Bitcoin ETFs and a rare BTC sale by Strategy have removed a key source of support, leaving markets focused on Friday’s US jobs report for clues on Federal Reserve policy and the fate of the AI trade. The most valued coin slipped 3.6 per cent to $61,914.58.
Cardano (ADA) plunged by 17.6 per cent to $0.1630, Solana (SOL) declined by 7.0 per cent to $65.69, Ethereum (ETH) slipped by 6.9 per cent to $1,666.13, Dogecoin (DOGE) went down by 6.5 per cent to $0.8445, and Ripple (XRP) crashed by 6.5 per cent to $1.11.
Further, Binance Coin (BNB) slumped by 4.3 per cent to $581.45, and TRON (TRX) dropped 1.9 per cent to sell at $0.3261, while the US Dollar Tether (USDT) and the US Dollar Coin (USDC) gained 0.01 per cent each to sell at $0.9990 and $0.9998, respectively.
By Adedapo Adesanya
The price of the crude oil benchmarks moderated by about 3 per cent on Thursday on investor hopes for an end to the United States-Israeli war with Iran that could reopen the Strait of Hormuz, following a ceasefire deal between Israel and Lebanon.
Brent futures lost $2.78 or 2.84 per cent to trade at $95.03 per barrel, while the US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude declined by $2.98 or 3.1 per cent to close at $93.04 per barrel.
Israel and Lebanon said they have agreed to implement a ceasefire on Wednesday, raising hopes for a deal between the US and Iran. Iran has made any agreement conditional in part on an end to fighting between Israel and Hezbollah, an Iran-aligned group in Lebanon. However, Israeli strikes in southern Lebanon continued on Thursday.
Iran signalled that there has been “no tangible progress” in the talks with the Americans on a potential deal, while the Israel-Lebanon ceasefire announced by the United States overnight appears shaky.
“No tangible progress has been achieved in the negotiation process,” Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi was quoted as saying by the semi-official Iranian news agency Tasnim.
The US and Iran have been exchanging messages on a framework proposal for a potential agreement for weeks. The oil market has reacted to each signal or hint of a breakthrough with sell-offs that sent Brent Crude prices to below $100 per barrel last week.
Despite the market hopes, the positions of the two sides appear to remain very distant, and a re-opening of the Strait of Hormuz is not imminent.
Earlier this week, Iran targeted civilian infrastructure in Kuwait and Bahrain, and alarms were raised at US military bases in Saudi Arabia, as Iran responded to the Israeli offensive in Lebanon.
The Republican-led US House of Representatives approved a resolution to block President Donald Trump from continuing the war against Iran. To take effect, the resolution would need Senate approval and a two-thirds majority in both chambers to override an almost certain Trump veto.
The Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) expects robust oil demand growth and is not changing its estimate, according to its Secretary General, Haitham Al Ghais, on Thursday.
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