Markets appear to be settling a day after a broad rally was fueled by hopes the Trump administration may take a more targeted approach to tariffs.
Futures for the S&P 500, the Nasdaq and the Dow Jones Industrial Average all rose less than 0.1% before Tuesday's opening bell.
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Financial information is displayed on the floor at the New York Stock Exchange in New York, Monday, March 24, 2025. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)
Financial information is displayed on the floor at the New York Stock Exchange in New York, Monday, March 24, 2025. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)
Currency traders watch monitors near a screen showing the Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) at the foreign exchange dealing room of the KEB Hana Bank headquarters in Seoul, South Korea, Tuesday, March 25, 2025. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)
The display board with the Dax curve in the trading hall of the Frankfurt Stock Exchange, Germany, Thursday, March 20, 2025. (Arne Dedert/dpa/dpa via AP)
Currency traders work near a screen showing the Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI), top left, and the foreign exchange rate between U.S. dollar and South Korean won, top center, at the foreign exchange dealing room of the KEB Hana Bank headquarters in Seoul, South Korea, Tuesday, March 25, 2025. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)
A currency trader talks on the phone near a screen showing the Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) at the foreign exchange dealing room of the KEB Hana Bank headquarters in Seoul, South Korea, Tuesday, March 25, 2025. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)
KB Homes slid 8.6% after it fell significantly short of Wall Street's first quarter sales and profit forecasts. Already mired in a slump, homebuilders are now faced with potentially rising costs due to tariffs, which they will have to pass on to buyers. KB's results and grim forecast dragged a host of other homebuilders' shares down with it, including Toll Brothers, LGI and Lennar.
Tesla shares ticked up 1.3% despite more grim sales figures from Europe.
European sales of Tesla electric cars were almost cut in half during the first two months of the year compared with a year earlier, even as the overall market for battery-powered cars grew, according to the European Automobile Manufacturers Association.
In addition to an aging model line, sales declines are also being blamed in part on CEO Elon Elon Musk’s endorsement of Germany’s far-right party in last month’s national election, his embrace of fringe political movements, and a gesture during a Trump event in January that many saw as a Nazi salute. Tesla is also facing increasing competition from Chinese carmakers such as BYD.
Wall Street has several economic updates this week. The Conference Board releases its consumer confidence survey for March on Tuesday. On Friday, the U.S. government releases the personal consumption expenditures price index for February, a measure of inflation closely watched by the Federal Reserve.
Stocks have been roiled for weeks by concerns that a trade war could hinder economic growth and increase inflationary pressures.
A new round of tariffs is scheduled to go into effect on April 2, but President Donald Trump has been unclear on his plans, saying Monday that even though he wants to charge “reciprocal” rates — import taxes to match the rates charged by other countries -- that “we might be even nicer than that.”
In a Truth Social post, Trump said Venezuela has been “very hostile” to the U.S. and any county purchasing its oil will pay a 25% tariff on all exports to the U.S. starting April 2.
“U.S. tariffs remain a critical headwind for the region to navigate. Any slowdown in trade could weigh on Asia’s export-driven economies, while shifting supply chains may complicate investment flows,” Junrong Yeap of IG said in a commentary.
That would likely more than double the already high tariffs facing China, which in 2023 bought 68% of the oil exported by Venezuela, according to a 2024 analysis by the U.S. Energy Information Administration. The U.S. also imports oil from Venezuela.
In Asian trading, Tokyo's Nikkei 225 gained 0.5% to 37,780.54, while the Kospi in South Korea lost 0.6% to 2,615.81.
Hong Kong's Hang Seng sank 2.4% to 23,344.25 as heavy selling of tech-related shares pulled the benchmark lower.
Cell phone maker Xiaomi's Hong Kong-traded shares dropped 6.3% and delivery app company Meituan lost 4.4%. E-commerce giant Alibaba was down 3.8%.
The Shanghai Composite index was unchanged at 3,369.98.
Taiwan's Taiex gained 0.8% and the SET in Thailand lost 0.5%.
In Europe at midday, Germany’s DAX added 1.1%, while the CAC 40 in Paris was up 1.3%. Britain’s FTSE 100 advanced 0.7%.
Financial information is displayed on the floor at the New York Stock Exchange in New York, Monday, March 24, 2025. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)
Financial information is displayed on the floor at the New York Stock Exchange in New York, Monday, March 24, 2025. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)
Currency traders watch monitors near a screen showing the Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) at the foreign exchange dealing room of the KEB Hana Bank headquarters in Seoul, South Korea, Tuesday, March 25, 2025. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)
The display board with the Dax curve in the trading hall of the Frankfurt Stock Exchange, Germany, Thursday, March 20, 2025. (Arne Dedert/dpa/dpa via AP)
Currency traders work near a screen showing the Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI), top left, and the foreign exchange rate between U.S. dollar and South Korean won, top center, at the foreign exchange dealing room of the KEB Hana Bank headquarters in Seoul, South Korea, Tuesday, March 25, 2025. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)
A currency trader talks on the phone near a screen showing the Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) at the foreign exchange dealing room of the KEB Hana Bank headquarters in Seoul, South Korea, Tuesday, March 25, 2025. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump used a White House meeting to forcefully confront South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, accusing the country of failing to address Trump's baseless claim of widespread and targeted killing of white farmers.
Trump even dimmed the lights of the Oval Office to play a video of a far-left politician chanting a song that includes the lyrics “kill the farmer.” He also leafed through news articles to underscore his point, saying the country's white farmers have faced “death, death, death, horrible death.”
Trump had already cut all U.S. assistance to South Africa and welcomed several dozen white South African farmers to the U.S. as refugees as he pressed the case that a “genocide” is underway in the country.
The U.S. president has launched a series of accusations at South Africa’s Black-led government, claiming it is seizing land from white farmers, enforcing anti-white policies and pursuing an anti-American foreign policy.
Experts in South Africa say there is no evidence of whites being targeted, although farmers of all races are victims of violent home invasions in a country that suffers from a very high crime rate.
“People are fleeing South Africa for their own safety," Trump said. “Their land is being confiscated and in many cases they’re being killed.”
Ramaphosa pushed back against Trump’s accusation. The South African leader had sought to use the meeting to set the record straight and salvage his country’s relationship with the United States. The bilateral relationship is at its lowest point since South Africa enforced its apartheid system of racial segregation, which ended in 1994.
“We are completely opposed to that,” Ramaphosa said of the behavior alleged by Trump in their exchange. He added, “that is not government policy” and “our government policy is completely, completely against what he was saying.”
Trump was unmoved.
“When they take the land, they kill the white farmer,” he said.
“The president is a truly respected man in many, many circles,” Trump said of the South African president at the start of the Oval Office meeting. "And in some circles he’s considered a little controversial.”
Ramaphosa said it was time to “recalibrate” the relationship, and went out of his way to thank Trump for welcoming him to the White House for the talks.
“We are essentially here to reset the relationship between the United States and South Africa,” he said.
Trump issued an executive order in February cutting all funding to South Africa over some of its domestic and foreign policies. The order criticized the South African government on multiple fronts, saying it is pursuing anti-white policies at home and supporting “bad actors” in the world like the Palestinian militant group Hamas and Iran.
Trump has falsely accused the South African government of a rights violation against white Afrikaner farmers by seizing their land through a new expropriation law. No land has been seized and the South African government has pushed back, saying U.S. criticism is driven by misinformation.
The Trump administration’s references to the Afrikaner people — who are descendants of Dutch and other European settlers — have also elevated previous claims made by Trump’s South African-born adviser Elon Musk and some conservative U.S. commentators that the South African government is allowing attacks on white farmers in what amounts to a genocide.
That has been disputed by experts in South Africa, who say there is no evidence of whites being targeted, although farmers of all races are victims of violent home invasions in a country that suffers from a very high crime rate.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Tuesday said Trump remains ready to “reset” relations with South Africa, but noted that the administration's concerns about South African policies cut even deeper then the concerns about white farmers.
South Africa has also angered the Trump White House over its move to bring charges at the International Court of Justice accused Israel of committing genocide against Palestinians in Gaza. Ramaphosa has also faced scrutiny in Washington for his past connections to MTN Group, Iran’s second-largest telecom provider. It owns nearly half of Irancell, a joint venture linked with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. Ramaphosa served as board chair of MTN from 2002 to 2013.
“When one country is consistently unaligned with the United States on issue after issue after issue after issue, now you become -- you have to make conclusions about it,” Rubio told Senate Foreign Relation Committee members at a Tuesday hearing.
With the deep differences, Ramaphosa appeared to be taking steps to avoid the sort of contentious engagement that Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy experienced during his late February Oval Office visit, when the Ukrainian leader found himself being berated by Trump and Vice President JD Vance. That disastrous meeting with White House officials asking Zelenskyy and his delegation to leave the White House grounds.
The South African president's delegation includes golfers Ernie Els and Retief Goosen in his delegation, a gesture to the golf obsessed U.S. president. Luxury goods tycoon and Afrikaner Johann Rupert was also included as part of the delegation to help ease Trump's concerns about land being seized from white farmers.
Musk also attended Wednesday's talks.
Musk has been at the forefront of the criticism of his homeland, casting its affirmative action laws as racist against whites.
Musk has said on social media that his Starlink satellite internet service isn’t able to get a license to operate in South Africa because he is not Black.
South African authorities say Starlink hasn’t formally applied. It can, but it would be bound by affirmative action laws in the communications sector that require foreign companies to allow 30% of their South African subsidiaries to be owned by shareholders who are Black or from other racial groups disadvantaged under apartheid.
The South African government says its long-standing affirmative action laws are a cornerstone of its efforts to right the injustices of the white minority rule of apartheid, which denied opportunities to Blacks and other racial groups.
Imray reported from Johannesburg. AP writers Seung Min Kim, Chris Megerian and Darlene Superville contributed reporting.
President Donald Trump meets South African President Cyril Ramaphosa in the Oval Office of the White House, Wednesday, May 21, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
President Donald Trump meets South African President Cyril Ramaphosa in the Oval Office of the White House, Wednesday, May 21, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
President Donald Trump speaks as he meets with South African President Cyril Ramaphosa in the Oval Office of the White House, Wednesday, May 21, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
President Donald Trump greets South African President Cyril Ramaphosa at the White House, Wednesday, May 21, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)
President Donald Trump greets South African President Cyril Ramaphosa at the White House, Wednesday, May 21, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)
President Donald Trump greets South African President Cyril Ramaphosa at the White House, Wednesday, May 21, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)
President Donald Trump greets South African President Cyril Ramaphosa at the White House, Wednesday, May 21, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)
President Donald Trump greets South African President Cyril Ramaphosa at the White House, Wednesday, May 21, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)
