Asian stock markets take a hop after Supreme Court tariffs blow

Asian stocks mostly rose and the dollar fell on Monday after the US Supreme Court struck down a large part of President Donald Trump’s tariffs policy that had sent shockwaves through the global economy last year.

The rally was led by tech firms, which have been at the forefront of regional gains this year as traders turn away from Wall Street to seek out cheaper investments amid concerns about extended valuations.

Trump’s trade agenda was dealt a hefty blow Friday when the country’s top court ruled that the International Emergency Economic Powers Act used by the White House to impose sweeping levies in April “does not authorise the president to impose tariffs”.

A furious president immediately vowed to impose a global tariff of 10 per cent under a separate authority, before raising it to 15 per cent on Saturday.

However, the development fanned a fresh round of uncertainty, with calls growing for the government to repay cash taken under the scheme and analysts warning officials would likely pursue other ways of imposing his tolls.

“The first observation to make is that IEEPA tariffs may be dead, but Trump’s trade regime isn’t,” wrote Rodrigo Catril at National Australia Bank.

“The administration has several avenues it can pursue, these are likely to be litigated over several years, but there is no sign President Trump is planning to back down.

“Another conclusion is that the tariff landscape is now more uncertain than before, uncertainty is not good news for any economy or market.

“Unless commonsense prevails, we could be entering a circular process where new tariffs are announced, then potentially overturned, only for new tariffs to be announced, and we do the dance again.” The decision also raised questions about trade deals Washington has signed.

European leaders had been due to approve the EU-US deal on Tuesday but the head of the European Parliament’s trade committee said he would call Monday for putting “legislative work on hold until we have a proper legal assessment and clear commitments from the US side”.

And Bloomberg reported that Indian trade officials will postpone a trip to the United States aimed at finalising their interim agreement.

Still, Asian investors welcomed the news, which is seen benefiting China and India, with tech firms the best performers.

Hong Kong rose more than two per cent, with ecommerce titans Alibaba and JD.com surging more than three per cent, while Seoul hit another record high thanks to big advances for chipmakers Samsung Electronics and SK hynix.

Singapore, Wellington, Taipei and Manila also rose, though Sydney dipped. Tokyo and Shanghai were closed for holidays.

The strong start to the week followed gains on Wall Street, where the tariff ruling overshadowed data showing the US economy grew much slower than expected in the fourth quarter of 2025, when it was hit by the extended government shutdown.

The uncertainty also weighed on the dollar, which was well down against the yen, pound and euro.

And oil prices dropped more than one per cent amid hopes for an Iran nuclear deal.

That has tempered last week’s concerns about a possible US strike on the country after Trump warned “bad things happen”, as he deployed warships, fighter jets and other military hardware to the Middle East.

Copper prices pulled back on Monday as inventories extended their rise and investors ‌puzzled over the future of US tariffs and Chinese trading ahead ​of reopening after a holiday.

Benchmark three-month copper on the London Metal Exchange ‌was little changed at $12,965.50 ‌a metric tone by 1020 GMT, after hitting a more than one-week high of $13,050 earlier in the session.

LME copper has rebounded about 4% over ‌the past four sessions, but is still well below a record peak of $14,527.50 hit on January 29.

“The fact that there are more visible inventories outside of the US is a bit of a dampener, that may indicate a bit of softness in demand,” said Nitesh Shah, commodity strategist at WisdomTree. “But it’s always hard knowing whether it’s inventory that’s going from off-exchange (warehouses) ​to exchange or simply just a weakening of overall demand.” Copper stocks ‌in LME-approved warehouses rose 6,675 tonnes to 241,825 tonnes, data showed on Monday, the highest since March 2025, having surged 70% so far this year. Metals along with the dollar and equity markets were hit by uncertainty after the US Supreme Court struck down President Donald Trump’s emergency tariffs on Friday, ​leading ‌him to quickly announce a new temporary tariff of 15% on US ‌imports from all countries.

Traders were also waiting for the Shanghai Futures Exchange, which has been closed for the Lunar New Year holiday, to reopen on Tuesday.

“A ‌big thing is ‌what the Chinese are going to do when they come back in, whether there’s going ‌to be some extra domestic demand, because that’s been lacking. We’ll have to wait and see on that one,” said Robert Montefusco at Sucden Financial.

Agencies