The boss of the Central Bank alerts inflation, Wall Street and semiconductors plunge-Liberation
The tremors of The trade war launched by Donald Trump continue to be felt. The New York Stock Exchange fell sharply during the session this Wednesday, April 16. Around 8:30 p.m. (Paris time), the Nasdaq index, where the technological sector is concentrated, plunged 3.45 %, while the Dow Jones lost 1.50 %. The dollar too Refused, falling by 1.02 % against the euro, to 1.1398 dollars.
Already in the red at the opening, the American square was weighed down by the words of the boss of the American Central Bank (Fed), Jerome Powell. During an event from the Chicago Economy Club, he judged that « Customs duties will certainly have at least one temporary increase in inflation », with the possibility that « The inflationary effects are also persistent ».
Jerome Powell also considered that Donald Trump’s protectionist strategy place the central bank in the face of a situation « Complicated in which our two objectives are in tension ». The Fed is responsible for a double mandate, without priority, between the maintenance of inflation close to its long-term target of 2 % increase in annual rate, while ensuring the economic conditions conducive to full employment.
The republican president has greatly increased customs duties applying to the products entering the United States, now taxed at least 10 %, with up to 145 % more on many Chinese products. Beijing and Washington continue to send the ball to customs duties, fueling uncertainty about the outcome of the trade war which should cause a decline in world exchanges this year, Wednesday warned Wednesday.
The semiconductor sectoralready undermined by the trade war launched by Trump, also sank more beautiful after Powell’s speech. In the evening, NVIDIA plunged 10.01 % and AMD by 10.38 %, while Taiwan Semiconductor manufacturing (TSMC) lost 4.40 % and Broadcom 4.10 %.
The giant Nvidia had already announced Tuesday evening that its first trimester results (February to April) should include up to around 5.5 billion dollars in exceptional charges. In a document at the SEC, the group said that the US government informed it last week that it should now obtain a license to export certain chips used for artificial intelligence (AI) to China and other countries.
