(Alliance News) - Stocks in London are set to open slightly higher on Tuesday, while the dollar perked up on more Donald Trump tariff threats.
IG says futures indicate the FTSE 100 to open 10.2 points higher, 0.2% at 8,513.91 on Tuesday. The index of London large-caps ended up just 1.36 points at 8,503.71 on Monday.
In Paris, however, the CAC 40 is called down 0.1%. The DAX 40 is called to open 0.4% higher.
In Hong Kong, the Hang Seng Index ended up 0.1% in an abbreviated trading day before the Chinese New Year holiday. Markets there do not re-open until Monday. Financial markets in Shanghai were closed on Tuesday and do not re-open until next week Wednesday.
In Sydney, financial markets re-opened after Australia Day at the start of the week. The S&P/ASX 200 fell 0.1%. In Tokyo, the Nikkei 225 was down 1.3% in late trade.
Over in New York, tech shares were heavily sold off overnight. The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 0.7%, but the S&P 500 shed 1.5% and the Nasdaq Composite tumbled 3.0%.
Nvidia was among those to suffer the most, slumping 17%.
"This plunge was triggered by the release of the DeepSeek R1 artificial intelligence model, developed by the Chinese start-up DeepSeek. This new system promises to match competitors' performance like ChatGPT but with significantly lower operating costs, raising concerns about future investments in AI infrastructure," XS.com analyst Antonio Di Giacomo commented.
"In a statement, Nvidia described the launch of DeepSeek as a significant breakthrough for the industry and a demonstration of scalability in record time. However, these remarks failed to ease market skepticism. Analysts fear such advancements could trigger price competition, reducing profit margins in the sector, particularly in selling specialized hardware like GPUs."
Against the dollar, the pound fell to USD1.2443 early Tuesday, from USD1.2479 at the time of the London equities close on Monday. The euro declined to USD1.0438 from USD1.0505. Against the yen, the dollar surged to JPY155.73 from JPY154.16.
Trump said Monday that the US will soon place tariffs on foreign-made semiconductor chips, pharmaceuticals and metals such as steel.
Speaking at a Republican congressional retreat in Miami, Trump said the levies could take place in the "very near future," so as to "return production of these essential goods to the US of America."
"If you want to stop paying the taxes or the tariffs, you have to build your plant right here in America," he added.
Brent oil was quoted at USD77.43 a barrel early Tuesday, rising from USD77.26 at the time of the London equities close on Monday. Gold dropped to USD2,739.34 an ounce from USD2,740.66.
Tuesday's global economic calendar sees US durable goods orders figures at 1330 GMT and a US consumer confidence print at 1500 GMT.
Tuesday's local corporate calendar sees trading statements from Irn-Bru maker AG Barr, recruiter SThree and computer services provider, Computacenter.
In focus elsewhere, there are full-year results from aeroplane maker Boeing and luxury goods retailer LVMH.
By Eric Cunha, Alliance News news editor
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