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 Adedapo Adesanya
The National Pension Commission (PenCom) has defended its decision to allow Pension Fund Administrators (PFAs) to invest in the parent companies of their custodians, insisting that adequate safeguards are in place to protect contributors’ funds.
The director-general of the pension regulator, Ms Omolola Oloworaran, speaking on Tuesday during the Meet the Press Briefing at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, said the commission’s decision to relax the investment restriction followed a comprehensive risk assessment that found minimal conflict of interest.
She explained that under PenCom’s investment regulations, PFAs are only permitted to invest pension assets in carefully selected instruments that meet stringent criteria, including profitability, strong credit ratings and proven track records.
According to her, the commission regularly reviews its investment regulations, conducts routine examinations and spot checks on PFAs to ensure strict compliance with established risk management guidelines.
“PFAs cannot just go into the stock market and buy any kind of stock. There are strict guidelines. Companies must demonstrate profitability, have a proven track record and satisfy other criteria before pension funds can invest,” she said.
Ms Oloworaran noted that each PFA also operates under the oversight of a board, an investment committee and a risk management committee, providing additional layers of governance to safeguard contributors’ funds.
She said PenCom recently issued a circular allowing PFAs to invest in the parent companies of their custodians after determining that the potential conflict of interest was negligible.
The PenCom boss explained that the parent companies involved are largely Tier-1 banks, including First Bank, United Bank for Africa (UBA) and Zenith Bank, which she described as A-rated institutions with strong financial foundations.
She said the policy was intended to widen investment opportunities for pension funds without compromising safety.
Using Stanbic IBTC as an example, Ms Oloworaran explained that if its custodian is Zenith Bank, the previous restriction prevented the pension administrator from investing in Zenith Bank shares despite the bank’s strong performance.
“We reviewed the risks and any potential conflict of interest and found the risks to be very low. That is why we opened that investment window,” she said.
By Aduragbemi Omiyale
Analysts at Meristem Research have predicted that the inflation rate for June 2026 in Nigeria should marginally rise to 15.95 per cent on a year-on-year basis from the 15.93 per cent reported in May 2026.
The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) is expected to release inflation numbers for last month later today, Wednesday, July 15, 2026.
In its report sighted by Business Post, Meristem Research said it expects inflationary pressures to re-emerge across key economies in the near term, as the re-escalation of the US-Iran conflict has reignited upward pressure on global oil prices.
It disclosed that this marks a sharp reversal from most of June, when the ceasefire between the two countries helped drive oil prices lower, raising expectations of some relief on the inflation front.
With conflicts now flaring up again, oil prices are likely to increase again, and the anticipated easing in energy-driven inflation may not materialise as broadly as earlier envisaged.
“Nonetheless, some relief is likely from the food segment, where robust supply conditions across major producing regions and softening demand should continue to ease food price pressures,” it stated.
The team also explained that it projected a 15.95 per cent inflation rate because of the lingering effects of persistent food price pressures.
“However, we expect core inflation to moderate as the sharp reversal in energy prices begins to filter through to transportation, distribution, and other energy-related costs, easing underlying price pressures.
“On a month-on-month basis, the combined effect of lower petrol prices, a relatively stable Naira, and the gradual pass-through of reduced energy costs across the supply chain should exert further downward pressure on inflation.
“Based on our assessment, food inflation is expected to remain the key swing factor, as seasonal pre-harvest supply constraints are likely to offset some of the gains from lower logistics costs,” it said.
By Adedapo Adesanya
The duo of Central Securities Clearing System (CSCS) Plc and Afriland Properties Plc weakened the NASD Over-the-Counter (OTC) Securities Exchange by 1.61 per cent on Tuesday, July 14.
CSCS Plc saw its stock value drop N9.08 to close at N82.40 per share compared with the preceding session’s N91.48 per share, and Afriland Properties Plc slid by 17 Kobo to sell at N15.00 per unit versus N15.70 per unit.
The losses recorded by the two securities pulled back the market capitalisation by N41.64 billion to N2.546 trillion from N2.587 trillion, and cracked the NASD Security Index (NSI) by 69.36 points to 4,242.31 points from 4,311.67 points.
It was observed that the exchange witnessed two price advancers during the session, led by FrieslandCampina Wamco Nigeria Plc, which gained N1.37 to end at N151.37 per share compared with the previous day’s N150.00 per share, and Food Concepts Plc chalked up 5 Kobo to settle at N2.50 per unit versus N2.45 per unit.
The volume of securities traded by market participants surged by 50.7 per cent to 13.7 million units from the previous 9.1 million units, while the value of securities went down by 79.7 per cent to N65.2 million from N320.4 million, and the number of deals crashed by 3.6 per cent to 27 deals from the previous session’s 28 deals.
At the close of transactions, Great Nigeria Insurance (GNI) Plc remained the most traded stock by value on a year-to-date basis, with the sale of 3.4 billion units for N8.4 billion, trailed by Infrastructure Credit Guarantee (Infracredit) Plc, which exchanged 2.3 billion units valued at N6.5 billion, and CSCS Plc with 73.9 million units transacted for N5.2 billion.
GNI Plc also closed the trading day as the most traded stock by volume on a year-to-date basis, with 3.4 billion units worth N8.4 billion, followed by Infracredit Plc with 2.3 billion units traded for N6.5 billion, and Resourcery Plc with 1.1 billion units valued at N415.7 million.
