Shane Solly: Harbour Asset Management spokesperson on what the tech tariff exemptions did to the market

The Trump administration's tariff announcements have left a notable impact on financial markets - and experts fear we may not be out of the woods yet.

Smartphones, computers and some other electronics from China will face 20 percent tariffs, rather than the 145 percent imposed on other Chinese goods.

The White House says the exemption is not permanent.

Harbour Asset Management's Shane Solly explains further.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Time for a look at the market. We've got Shane
Solely from Harbor Asset Management. We've been out a Shane.

Speaker 2 (00:05):
Good a Heather, how are you and very well?

Speaker 1 (00:07):
Thank you? Now what did you make? Oh mate, thank you,
it's good to talk to you too. What did you
make at this exemption for the smartphones and the computers
and the electronics and stuff from Trump? Is this a
good news sign?

Speaker 2 (00:16):
Yeah, it is, but you know, you've got to step back.
We've had a policy induced skier to grow, so and
you think that with Jesus policy rest that's helpful. So
this ninety day reprieve, and we're going to be careful
about this. It is a reprieve to tech tariffs is
helpful go back. We are a little bit worried as
a capital market. This is a bit of a go
and no go situation that pushed out tariffs. But the

(00:37):
administration saying, hey, look we're going to launch some new
investigations into semiconductor chips and that may actually capture a
bunch of tech applications. So it's helpful. It's in the
right direction, but we've got to heck up and we
are perhaps past peak tariff noise, but there's a lot
of uncertained to Heather, and that's going to continue to
keep pressure on consumers and businesses and markets.

Speaker 1 (00:59):
I see it is saying it's willing to get involved.
What exactly does that mean?

Speaker 2 (01:04):
Yes, so soon as in Collins, she's the head of
at Boston SEE and she's a member of the FED
Open Market Committee. She told the Financial Times that the
US Central Bank, the FED is absolutely preard to step
in and stabilize financial markets of conditions become disorderly. And
so what we saw last week was some disruptions to
government bond years, government bond markets, and that's what she's

(01:25):
talking about, disruption. What she's saying is we think markets
are still functioning well, we're not seeing liquidity issues, but
we're ready to step in. It's really important. It's important
to give people confidence that US government bonds they are
a safe asset and by definition, other government bonds, including
our own, are safe.

Speaker 1 (01:43):
And so what's been the reaction locally to both the
tariffs that tech tariffs and the and the FED comments.

Speaker 2 (01:49):
Yeah, look the bond yields, and they are important. They
are pretty flat. The tenure government bond youars flat at
four point seventy five. They're quite a long way up
from where they started the year, but they've stopped going up.
That's important. The New Zealand dollar back to just under
fifty nine cents fifty eight sixty against the US dollar.
That's about US dollar weakness. So one of the things
we've seen through this last few weeks is the US

(02:11):
dollar has been falling and the New Zealand shear market
was about point seventy percent, so less than one percent
more than a half, led by defensive growth companies like
infratill'm already and Fish and Park where alk and ebos.
So yeah, not a bad day, but not super exciting.

Speaker 1 (02:25):
Okay, what's coming up this week that the investors should
keep an eye out for.

Speaker 2 (02:29):
Yeah, Busy Weeks said that the probably key one locally
is on Thursday, we've got this New Zealand consumer price
inflation from March to March quarter. I should give the
Reserve Bank of New Zealand a green light to keep
cutting official rates. We're seeing certainly businesses and surveys saying hey,
look the inflation conditions a form, so that should give
us a green light for more cuts. Tuesday night, we've

(02:51):
also got mister Powell, who's the cheer of the US
federal is there talking about economic outlook. He's probably going
to be a little bit weary. We've also got the
European Central Bank potentially cutting and and then later in
the week we've got a large number of US companies
delivering profit results and then it'll give the real tone
for where we should expect the markets to go on.

(03:11):
Of course, we're closed for Easter Friday, so sing to
be a little to focus on East Eggs on over
the weekend.

Speaker 1 (03:19):
Shane, thanks very much, Looking forward to chatting to you
next week. Is Shane Soli Harba, Asset Management.

Speaker 2 (03:23):
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