The ASX isn’t rallying as hard as Wall Street because of our safe-haven status protected us from the worst of tariff pain. But stocks look expensive again, and FOMO is dangerous.
On Wall Street, they partied like it was 1999 after US President Donald Trump announced a 90-day pause on Chinese tariffs. In Australia, the celebrations were much more restrained: the ASX 200 rose just 0.4 per cent on Tuesday, compared with the 3.6 per cent surge for the S&P 500.
The main reason for the muted reaction was that Australian stocks have run very hard, jumping 12.8 per cent from their recent trough on April 7; the ASX 200 is now 4.4 per cent above where it sat on April 2, before Trump announced his liberation day tariff announcement.
Source: https://www.afr.com/chanticleer/why-the-tariff-pause-leaves-aussie-investors-with-an-agonising-call-20250513-p5lytc