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Investors unfazed with Trump's tariff moves, Asian shares are up on Nvidia.

Asian stocks rose on Thursday on the back of optimism following Nvidia's rise to a record $4 trillion valuation. Investors also shrugged off President Donald Trump's recent tariffs.

U.S. Copper Futures increased their premium over the London benchmark overnight, after Trump announced his plans to impose 50% tariffs on copper. Later, on Wednesday, he said that the tariffs would be in effect from August 1.

Trump's trade anger also turned against Brazil on Wednesday, as he issued notices of tariffs and threatened a 50% punitive tariff on Brazilian exports to the U.S.

The recent moves have not caused much of a stir in the markets. MSCI's broadest Asia-Pacific share index outside Japan is up 0.4%.

The Nikkei Index fell by 0.6%. China's blue-chip CSI300 index increased by 0.4%, and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index gained 0.1%.

The FTSE Futures and EuroStoxx 50 Futures both gained 0.4%.

Nvidia, a designer of artificial intelligence chips, became the first company in the world to reach a market cap of $4 trillion on Wednesday. This solidified its position as arguably one Wall Street's favourite stocks. Chipmaker Disco, with a 4.3% increase in value, was the biggest gainer in Japan.

U.S. Stock Futures Weakened in Asia on Thursday. Nasdaq and S&P 500 Futures each fell about 0.2% after both indexes had closed higher overnight.

Jeff Ng of SMBC, Asia macro strategy head, said that investors are "numb" about the constantly changing situation.

"They know there is still room to negotiate." Many of these announcements start with impressive numbers but are not final and are subject to change. "Even if implemented, these changes could be reversed within the next few months or even a year," said he.

Expectations of Federal Reserve rate reductions later in the year also kept stocks supported.

The minutes of the Fed meeting held last month showed that "most participants" expected rate cuts to occur later this year. Any price shocks from tariffs are expected to be "temporary and modest".

Ng stated that markets do not currently price in a large chance of a full blown recession, as the labour market is still quite resilient. However, they are aware that there is a lot pressure on policy rates to drop, which could reduce the opportunity costs of holding stocks.

DOLLAR EASES

The dollar fell against the euro on Thursday, but held its own against yen, at 146.27. This was after Trump imposed 25% tariffs on Japan earlier in the week.

The euro rose 0.17%, to $1.1742. Sterling gained 0.11%, to $1.3605.

The Brazilian real was an exception, as it sank to a low of 5.5826 dollars per Brazilian real in response to Trump's threat of tariffs on Latin America's biggest economy.

Julia Wang, Global Market Strategist at J.P. Morgan Private Bank, said: "Despite the S&P 500’s impressive rally the U.S. Dollar continues to retreat. This highlights a changing global macro narrative."

We believe that the dollar is still 5-15% undervalued. We expect further weakness as cyclical trends and capital reallocation play out.

Bitcoin was near its record high at $111 085, ether rose 1.3% to $2 779.

"We are seeing our clients adopt a more measured strategy, investing in cryptocurrencies that have real utility rather than chasing short-term movements. Bitcoin is still the most popular choice on OKX Singapore's platform," stated Gracie Lin.

Brent crude futures fell 0.16% on Thursday to $70.08 a barrel. U.S. crude dropped 0.22% to $68.02 a barrel.

Spot gold increased 0.3% to $3322.69 per ounce.

(source: Reuters)