Harbour Outlook: Trumps Liberation Day Tariffs Reshape Global Markets

 

Key market movements

Global equities were again lower in unhedged New Zealand dollar terms in April, with the MSCI All Country World Index (ACWI) declining 3.7%. With the NZD strengthening against the USD, returns in hedged terms were -0.4% for the month.

Locally, the New Zealand equity market continued its poor start to the year with the S&P/NZX 50 Gross Index (including imputation credits) down a further 3.0% in April. In contrast, Australian equities performed well with the S&P/ASX 200 Index up 3.6% (1.6% in NZD terms).

NZ bond returns were positive in April (+1.1%), measured by the Bloomberg NZ Bond Composite 0+ Yr Index. Global bonds also provided positive performance with the Bloomberg Global Aggregate Bond Index (NZD-hedged) returning 0.9%. At the end of the month US 10-year Treasury yields had only declined 4 bps to 4.16%, despite a rollercoaster month where the mark saw highs of 4.49% and lows of 3.99%.