U.S. court ruling on Trump tariffs a stock-market plus: Analyst

Taipei, Feb. 21 (CNA) A ruling by the United States Supreme Court declaring President Donald Trump's global tariffs unconstitutional will help boost Taiwan's stock market when trading resumes Monday after the Lunar New Year holiday ends, an analyst said Saturday.

In a 6-3 decision issued Friday, the court ruled that the Trump administration's use of the International Emergency Economic Powers Act to impose the levies was unlawful.

Commenting on the ruling, Fan Chen-hung (范振鴻), president of Capital Investment Management Corp., said the decision should be seen as somewhat positive for the Taiwan Stock Exchange's post-holiday reopening.

Fan said Taiwan's major exports to the United States, such as semiconductors and electronic components, were already exempt from the tariffs and would therefore see little direct impact.

The main beneficiaries, he said, were likely to be the stocks of non-tech manufacturers, including apparel and footwear producers.

Overall, Fan said the court ruling would have only a limited influence on the local stock market, with investor sentiment likely to be more affected by how the market interprets the earnings report of chip giant Nvidia Corp. scheduled to be released Wednesday.

U.S. stocks closed higher on Friday following the court decision, with gains seen across major indexes, including technology and semiconductor shares.

Market sentiment turned cautious, however, after Trump responded by signaling plans to impose a new 10 percent global tariff.

Shares of tariff-sensitive retail and apparel companies fluctuated, with Nike Inc. briefly surging before ending lower and Walmart Inc. closing down.

Artificial intelligence-related stocks, such as Nvidia, extended their gains, while Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co.'s American depositary receipts also ended higher.

Separately, Chang Cheng-chung (張正中), a fund manager at First Securities Investment Trust Co., saw the AI sector continuing to support market gains in Taiwan.

Chang said the U.S.' four major cloud service providers have confirmed capital expenditure of about US$660 billion this year, up roughly 60 percent year on year.

That increased spending is expected to generate sustained orders for Taiwan's AI supply chain and support earnings growth, he said.