# Trump Tariff Uncertainty, US Selloff on AI Angst

An episode of [Bloomberg Daybreak: Asia Edition](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/1663863437), 24 Feb 2026, 18 min.

Audio: https://podtrac.com/pts/redirect.mp3/traffic.omny.fm/d/clips/e73c998e-6e60-432f-8610-ae210140c5b1/58e85be7-dbb5-4043-afed-af80014dc0b3/a6f53b74-638f-4b5e-bb7b-b3fb0029e659/audio.mp3?utm_source=Podcast&in_playlist=27143354-63aa-4ac5-965d-af80014dc0d3

Business and finance news from the Asia-Pacific. Asian markets are outperforming the US and Europe, drawing global investors into AI supply-chain names such as chipmakers in South Korea and Taiwan. By contrast, US equities are under pressure as lingering uncertainty over President Donald Trump's tariffs and fears of AI-driven disruption prompt traders to shed shares of companies seen as vulnerable to displacement. For more on the markets, we speak to Lianting Tu, Bloomberg's Managing Editor for Asia Equities. Plus - for additional analysis on the AI trade, we heard from Aoifinn Devitt, Managing Director at Moneta Global Wealth. She spoke to Bloomberg's Haidi Stroud-Watts and Shery Ahn on the 'Asia Trade'. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

## Transcript

[0:02] Speaker 1: Bloomberg Audio Studios, Podcasts, radio News.
[0:10] Speaker 2: Welcome to the Daybreak Asia podcast. I'm Doug Krisner. We
[0:13] Speaker 2: have a new wave of uncertainty after the Supreme Court
[0:17] Speaker 2: struck down President Trump's emergency tariffs. Earlier on truth Social
[0:22] Speaker 2: the President said he will put much higher tariffs on
[0:25] Speaker 2: countries that quote play games with that high Court ruling.
[0:28] Speaker 2: And now we are being told the White House is
[0:31] Speaker 2: working to issue a formal directive to increase the rate
[0:34] Speaker 2: on global tariffs to fifteen percent, but it's not clear
[0:38] Speaker 2: if this order will be finalized before those ten percent
[0:41] Speaker 2: levies are set to go into effect Tuesday at twelve
[0:45] Speaker 2: oh one a m. Eastern time. By the way, Morgan
[0:48] Speaker 2: Stanley is estimating that the average tariff now on goods
[0:51] Speaker 2: from China will drop from a rate that is around
[0:55] Speaker 2: thirty two percent now down to twenty four percent. For
[0:58] Speaker 2: a look at what's happening in the Asia Pacific, I'm
[1:01] Speaker 2: joined by Bloomberg's Leontin II. She is Managing editor for
[1:05] Speaker 2: Asia Equities. Leonting joining from our studios in Singapore. Thank
[1:09] Speaker 2: you so much. There's so much to talk about. I
[1:12] Speaker 2: know that China is back online today. We're seeing a
[1:14] Speaker 2: little bit of positivity in the equity market. How much
[1:17] Speaker 2: of this story do you think is related to the
[1:20] Speaker 2: Supreme Court's ruling on tariffs?
[1:23] Speaker 3: Yeah, I think for China definitely, it is an outstanding
[1:27] Speaker 3: winner out of the Supreme Court ruling, just because China
[1:32] Speaker 3: without that ten percent fentan or tariff, China's now having
[1:36] Speaker 3: the same tariff rate with all the other trading partners
[1:40] Speaker 3: with the US. So you can see yesterday the Hong
[1:43] Speaker 3: Kong stock market rallied pretty hard. I think the biggest
[1:46] Speaker 3: gainer out of Asia on that particular news, and of
[1:50] Speaker 3: course India was also considered part of that winners, part
[1:55] Speaker 3: of the winners, but I think overall people still think
[1:57] Speaker 3: China would hire Beta to be again with its stock market,
[2:01] Speaker 3: so there is more to gain for Chinese stocks.
[2:04] Speaker 2: Maybe we can talk a little bit now about artificial intelligence.
[2:07] Speaker 2: We had a rugged session in the States where equities
[2:10] Speaker 2: retreated on a little bit more anxiety over this AI
[2:14] Speaker 2: disruption theme. We had a report from Satrini Research and
[2:18] Speaker 2: they laid out a couple of different scenarios I want
[2:21] Speaker 2: to focus on too, One where delivery apps like door
[2:25] Speaker 2: Dash and Uber Eats are displaced by chatbot made alternatives
[2:30] Speaker 2: and in another scenario, a case where AI agents try
[2:35] Speaker 2: to save users' money by eliminating transaction fees charged by
[2:40] Speaker 2: payment processing firms like master Card and Visa. I'm curious
[2:43] Speaker 2: ly hunting about the conversation in the Asia Pacific regarding
[2:48] Speaker 2: AI disruption. What's it sound like to you?
[2:51] Speaker 3: Yeah, it does feel very pasimistic, very dystopian when you
[2:57] Speaker 3: read that article. I think traders very much interested in
[3:02] Speaker 3: the kind of scenario and analysis and how you know,
[3:06] Speaker 3: the kind of technology will translate to job losses and
[3:10] Speaker 3: also profit losses for many of the companies, especially the
[3:14] Speaker 3: intermediary companies like the food delivery companies. And you know,
[3:21] Speaker 3: anything that has is aimed to reduce friction is actually
[3:26] Speaker 3: going to be the first to be heard by all
[3:29] Speaker 3: these AI developments in Asia. Though, I think people are
[3:33] Speaker 3: looking for winners, right. We talked about how Asia, a
[3:36] Speaker 3: lot of Asia tech giants are really positioned to be,
[3:40] Speaker 3: you know, the beneficiaries in this AI boom in the
[3:43] Speaker 3: data center build out. Again, we actually saw s Khanis
[3:47] Speaker 3: jumping almost five percent during the period when the treaty.
[3:53] Speaker 3: The report co writer A lap Show was being interviewed
[3:56] Speaker 3: on BTV just now, so as you can see, people
[3:59] Speaker 3: are really tuning into what he has to say and
[4:02] Speaker 3: are really looking for winners. And Taiwan today is another
[4:05] Speaker 3: standout winner. TSMC was almost mentioned, I believe in that
[4:09] Speaker 3: report and TSMC and Taiwan, all these smaller makers today
[4:13] Speaker 3: having a great day, up seven percent or so last
[4:15] Speaker 3: time I checked. So I think in Asia again, that's
[4:18] Speaker 3: reinforced the narrative that biggest winners in this AI trade
[4:23] Speaker 3: are in Asia and of course in the US. You know,
[4:26] Speaker 3: a lot of the intermediaries are listed in the US
[4:30] Speaker 3: and not a lot of those things are listed in Asia.
[4:32] Speaker 3: That also sort of explains why Asia is not considered
[4:36] Speaker 3: a little bit of a haven right now in this
[4:38] Speaker 3: AI scare trade.
[4:39] Speaker 2: I was just looking at a story on the Bloomberg
[4:41] Speaker 2: earlier today describing about something that happened over the holiday
[4:44] Speaker 2: on the mainland where a few Chinese firms showed off
[4:48] Speaker 2: new humanoid robots at the annual Spring Festival gala. Is
[4:53] Speaker 2: there a lot in the way of enthusiasm when it
[4:55] Speaker 2: comes to robotics on the mainland.
[4:58] Speaker 3: Yes, we actually I saw that playing out last year
[5:02] Speaker 3: at around this time after the Spring Festival gala where
[5:06] Speaker 3: robotics are robots, i should say, showed off their dancing skills.
[5:10] Speaker 3: What's different this time around is the moves that you
[5:14] Speaker 3: saw in the performance was a lot more advanced. It
[5:18] Speaker 3: seems the development has really sped up during that one
[5:23] Speaker 3: year period. Uh, these robots were able to play kung fu,
[5:26] Speaker 3: were able to do backflips and land on their feet,
[5:30] Speaker 3: So it does excite investors. Of course, a lot of
[5:34] Speaker 3: people have warned that, you know, the real user case
[5:38] Speaker 3: for those robots. You know, they looked great on TV,
[5:41] Speaker 3: but they don't see a lot of sort of revenue
[5:44] Speaker 3: generation venues as if yet for these robotic companies. And
[5:49] Speaker 3: there's also a lot of competition in this robotic sector
[5:53] Speaker 3: in China, so in terms of long term investment in
[5:57] Speaker 3: that sector, some people have warned that there's not a
[6:00] Speaker 3: lot of visibility on profit generation.
[6:03] Speaker 2: So as long as we're talking about the holiday period,
[6:06] Speaker 2: I'm curious as to whether you've seen any high frequency
[6:09] Speaker 2: data on things like travel and spending that may give
[6:12] Speaker 2: us some sense of how well the consumer was engaged
[6:16] Speaker 2: during the lunar New Year festivities.
[6:19] Speaker 3: Yeah, there have been a slew of data, especially on
[6:22] Speaker 3: travel stats, and they are overwhelmingly positive. One st that
[6:28] Speaker 3: stood out to me was bookings for family trips over
[6:31] Speaker 3: the lunar New Year periods jumped seventy six percent year
[6:35] Speaker 3: over year. That's a big jump. And I was just
[6:37] Speaker 3: talking to some Millan colleagues an hour ago and they
[6:40] Speaker 3: were talking about how packed and crowded those big cities
[6:45] Speaker 3: award during that New Year period with tourists and hotels
[6:50] Speaker 3: apparently were really booked out and hotel rates quadrupled this
[6:54] Speaker 3: time around, but spending was still very strong. So it
[6:58] Speaker 3: does seem like people took advantage of this elongated period
[7:02] Speaker 3: this time nine day I think is the longest Lunar
[7:04] Speaker 3: New Year period ever to really enjoy the time with family,
[7:08] Speaker 3: and they chose to spend in a different city, you know,
[7:11] Speaker 3: have different experience. So I would say that part is
[7:14] Speaker 3: really positive. But on the other side, there's also some
[7:17] Speaker 3: weak data point out of box office. According to City,
[7:21] Speaker 3: the box office data out of this New Year period
[7:24] Speaker 3: was the weakest since twenty eighteen. Seems there wasn't enough
[7:28] Speaker 3: interesting content to draw viewers into the cinema, so that
[7:33] Speaker 3: is considered negative.
[7:34] Speaker 2: Of course, Before I let you go, Leon Tink, maybe
[7:37] Speaker 2: we can talk a little bit about Japan, because I
[7:39] Speaker 2: know we have later in the week data on Tokyo inflation.
[7:43] Speaker 2: Also Japanese retail sales. The equity market has been fairly robust.
[7:48] Speaker 2: We know that Prime Minister Takeiichi is insisting on trying
[7:52] Speaker 2: to provide a little bit of stimulus to the economy,
[7:54] Speaker 2: and I know there is a very very sharp focus
[7:57] Speaker 2: on trying to relieve some of the inflationary pressures here.
[8:01] Speaker 2: What are you hearing with respect to Japan? What are
[8:04] Speaker 2: some of the stories that people are talking about today.
[8:07] Speaker 3: Yeah, two things. One is the Supreme Court ruling implication
[8:11] Speaker 3: on Japan, and the other of courses is AI trade.
[8:14] Speaker 3: I would say for the first one, Japan net net
[8:17] Speaker 3: is considered neutral because Japan had a fifteen percent terriff
[8:21] Speaker 3: deal with the US before, and the US, of course,
[8:23] Speaker 3: Trump has mentioned he's going to have that fifteen percent
[8:27] Speaker 3: teriffun all trading partners. So on that front, I think
[8:31] Speaker 3: we're not seeing a lot of reaction out of japan
[8:33] Speaker 3: auto makers. Last time I checked, we're up. And if
[8:37] Speaker 3: you look at AI, Japan does have some software companies
[8:41] Speaker 3: and payment companies listed and today they are having a
[8:44] Speaker 3: bit of sell off. But There are also a lot
[8:47] Speaker 3: of heavy weighted Japanese companies on the NICKETD to five
[8:51] Speaker 3: that are actually you know, chip equipment makers, so we're
[8:54] Speaker 3: looking at Advantest, Tokyo Electron. All these guys are actually
[8:58] Speaker 3: having a great day. So we talk a lot about
[9:00] Speaker 3: Korea and Taiwan being well positioned in the supply chain.
[9:04] Speaker 3: Japan actually has a lot of these names as well,
[9:07] Speaker 3: so that's why you see Nick turning more and more
[9:09] Speaker 3: positive as a day goes on.
[9:11] Speaker 2: We'll leave it there, Leon ting It's always a pleasure.
[9:14] Speaker 2: Thank you so very much. Leon ting Ti is Managing
[9:16] Speaker 2: editor for Asia Equities, joining from our studios in Singapore
[9:20] Speaker 2: here on the Daybreak Asia podcast. Welcome back to the
[9:30] Speaker 2: Daybreak Asia Podcast. I'm Doug Prisner. In the States, the
[9:34] Speaker 2: equity market retreated on renewed anxiety over the impact of
[9:37] Speaker 2: artificial intelligence as well as uncertainty over US tariff policy,
[9:42] Speaker 2: and that's where we begin our conversation with Ethan Devitt.
[9:46] Speaker 2: Ethan is managing director at Monetic Global Wealth, and she
[9:50] Speaker 2: spoke with Bloomberg TV host Heidi Stroud, Watts and Sherry
[9:53] Speaker 2: on we.
[9:54] Speaker 1: Sort of see this continuation of the momentum driven stock reversal. Right,
[9:59] Speaker 1: what do you make of this in terms of how
[10:01] Speaker 1: you know? Definitely you have to navigate given that I
[10:03] Speaker 1: know that you're still looking for some of those opportunities
[10:05] Speaker 1: within the AI and software spaces.
[10:09] Speaker 4: Well, it's a great question. I'm based in London, but
[10:11] Speaker 4: I've been watching this blizzard going on on the east
[10:14] Speaker 4: coast of the US and this is a blizzard of
[10:15] Speaker 4: information too that we're having to cope with. And it
[10:19] Speaker 4: is extraordinary that we have now had this cascade through
[10:22] Speaker 4: different sectors. Remember we started with the SAS and software
[10:25] Speaker 4: the service sector. It moved into my sector, private wealth,
[10:29] Speaker 4: with concern around the altruist tax preparation software disrupting that,
[10:34] Speaker 4: and now we're moving into just mainstream software areas. And
[10:38] Speaker 4: this is extraordinary that this basically magical thinking, fictitious report
[10:43] Speaker 4: could trigger this kind of concern. What we can see
[10:46] Speaker 4: therefore is just how jittery markets really are, just how
[10:49] Speaker 4: they're they're really selling first, asking questions later.
[10:54] Speaker 1: So when you talk about grid tech picks and shovels
[10:57] Speaker 1: around AI, would you be opportunity opportunistic right now even
[11:01] Speaker 1: with the high degree of uncertainty.
[11:04] Speaker 4: Yes, that has been something that we at Minetta have
[11:06] Speaker 4: been focused on for the past eighteen months, has been really,
[11:09] Speaker 4: as you mentioned, the picks and shovels. What is not
[11:11] Speaker 4: going to change as we have AI momentum come and go.
[11:15] Speaker 4: What is not going to change is the demand for
[11:17] Speaker 4: energy and we know that that is essentially just rising
[11:20] Speaker 4: around the world. We're looking at that coming from both
[11:23] Speaker 4: renewable energy sources, traditional energy sources and finding the picks
[11:27] Speaker 4: and shovels that play into that, and then a new sector,
[11:30] Speaker 4: grid tech, because that's where the uninvestment has been made.
[11:33] Speaker 4: The lack of investment has been in the grids, so
[11:35] Speaker 4: that we believe is sustained. It's perhaps not the momentum
[11:39] Speaker 4: side of markets right now. There's more of a defensive
[11:42] Speaker 4: and even value area, but we see that as been
[11:44] Speaker 4: very much adjacent to the AI story, but having legs
[11:48] Speaker 4: whereas AI is going to be more volatile.
[11:52] Speaker 5: And especially if we're focusing on that infrastructure build on
[11:55] Speaker 5: and video earnings will be so key. What will you
[11:57] Speaker 5: be watching.
[12:00] Speaker 4: We're going to be looking at the sustained demand and
[12:03] Speaker 4: how in Vidia. We know that that is going to
[12:04] Speaker 4: be an outlier that has been a market leader. It
[12:08] Speaker 4: is dominating the US stock market, but good a strong
[12:12] Speaker 4: story of sustained demand there and their outlook will be
[12:15] Speaker 4: critical to I think uplift the shareholders expectations because they
[12:20] Speaker 4: are really quite depressed right now in terms of the
[12:23] Speaker 4: uncertainty around AI. So we're looking for some shoots of
[12:26] Speaker 4: good news at this stage.
[12:29] Speaker 5: A lot of uncertainty also on the trade environment, of course,
[12:32] Speaker 5: with President Trump potentially now according to reports, announcing new
[12:35] Speaker 5: national security tariffs on top of fifteen percent tarts as well.
[12:39] Speaker 5: How do you factor that in when every time we
[12:41] Speaker 5: have a new trade deal with the United States, it
[12:44] Speaker 5: seems to change at any point.
[12:47] Speaker 4: It was interesting, but first it was bitcoin and digital
[12:49] Speaker 4: assets that were the canary and the coal mine for
[12:51] Speaker 4: trade uncertainties. That's long since past because the volatility has
[12:55] Speaker 4: just really enveloped the entire bitcoin area. So now we
[12:59] Speaker 4: have to look at other asset classes risk on which
[13:02] Speaker 4: are showing signs of concern around trade. This was not
[13:05] Speaker 4: the news that markets needed. It initially seemed quite good news.
[13:09] Speaker 4: There could have been a rally in the US economy
[13:11] Speaker 4: if some of these rebates and tariff's uncertainty was removed.
[13:15] Speaker 4: Then the rear guard action by President Trump to really
[13:18] Speaker 4: double down on his tariff policy. That's what seems to
[13:21] Speaker 4: have thrown markets off today. But remember we're looking at
[13:24] Speaker 4: uncertainty from many different areas. Private credit too is having
[13:28] Speaker 4: a difficult spell right now, and this really just does
[13:31] Speaker 4: underscore how much the markets for price for perfection. Up
[13:34] Speaker 4: to now, the resilient economy has confounded expectations over and
[13:38] Speaker 4: over again, and now we can find cracks everywhere, and
[13:42] Speaker 4: that's what markets I think are overreacting to at present.
[13:48] Speaker 5: You're not concerned about the private market issue that you
[13:51] Speaker 5: mentioned because we have the life of Apollo, OKKR blocks
[13:54] Speaker 5: and all investing in this infrastructure build out and at
[13:57] Speaker 5: this point the unstainties of course, as we have discussed,
[14:00] Speaker 5: could actually extend to all of the investment that these
[14:02] Speaker 5: people have made us.
[14:03] Speaker 4: Well, it's a very good point. What we've been looking
[14:06] Speaker 4: at the low volatility in fixed income public fixed income
[14:09] Speaker 4: markets that has been that the tight spreads that we're
[14:12] Speaker 4: seeing there, the move index being so subdued, that is,
[14:15] Speaker 4: it does not cohere with what we're seeing and the
[14:18] Speaker 4: other jitters of markets. So where has the risk moved
[14:21] Speaker 4: to within bonds? It seems to have moved into the
[14:23] Speaker 4: private credit area, and now investors are waking up to
[14:26] Speaker 4: that there definitely is going to be contamination from this
[14:30] Speaker 4: software arena drawback to the private credit area given their exposures.
[14:35] Speaker 4: But time and time again we've heard that this is
[14:38] Speaker 4: we cannot paint the entire private credit area with one rush.
[14:42] Speaker 4: That it is is very much a question of some
[14:45] Speaker 4: firms having the pick of the crops and other firms
[14:48] Speaker 4: in crowded areas with less compelling returns. So we shouldn't
[14:52] Speaker 4: be to sweeping about our outlook for the private credit area.
[14:56] Speaker 4: But it's true that there have perhaps been due diligence
[15:00] Speaker 4: problems if you've seen that time and time again, and
[15:03] Speaker 4: that the default level will rise. But we do expect
[15:06] Speaker 4: that overall private credit is quite sound. But these cockroaches
[15:10] Speaker 4: that Jamie Diamond mentioned are going to start cropping up,
[15:14] Speaker 4: and the question is whether markets overreact to them.
[15:19] Speaker 1: Even we have this situation where time and time again
[15:21] Speaker 1: there's hits coming from usually trade uncertainty or your political uncertainty.
[15:25] Speaker 1: But it feels like the sort of risk and volatility
[15:30] Speaker 1: response can be muted going forward. You raise a question
[15:34] Speaker 1: of where that risk is going to go? Right, What
[15:36] Speaker 1: is your assessment of I guess how that volatility gets
[15:39] Speaker 1: spread in the coming months.
[15:42] Speaker 4: Well, I think we have to remember that when we
[15:44] Speaker 4: do have these pullbacks and markets, they're very short lived
[15:47] Speaker 4: at the moment, and that's because we do have this
[15:49] Speaker 4: strong inclusion of retail investors in all markets everywhere. We
[15:54] Speaker 4: know that the millennials that are priced out of the
[15:55] Speaker 4: real estate market are investing like stocks like never before.
[15:59] Speaker 4: Mainstream is participating in Wall Street like never before. So
[16:02] Speaker 4: that's on the sidelines. This huge amount of money in
[16:05] Speaker 4: money market funds is on the sidelines. They are out
[16:08] Speaker 4: there looking for bargains. And essentially, when we have spreads
[16:12] Speaker 4: in fixed income as low as they are as I mentioned,
[16:15] Speaker 4: and we still have inflation taking away in the background,
[16:18] Speaker 4: nobody is making money owning bonds, so there is still
[16:21] Speaker 4: strong demand for owning equities. So that's why I believe
[16:25] Speaker 4: that these pullbacks will be short lived, and that's why
[16:28] Speaker 4: markets are really somewhat apart from these momentum problems we're
[16:32] Speaker 4: having just now. Markets have been somewhat immune to geopolitical developments.
[16:37] Speaker 4: They have been immune from domestic political developments. They don't
[16:40] Speaker 4: seem to care about the large fiscal budget deficit across
[16:43] Speaker 4: many developed nations because the underlying company earnings have been
[16:47] Speaker 4: so compelling. So that has been the market's ability to
[16:50] Speaker 4: hold two ideas at one time. Now we're seeing some
[16:54] Speaker 4: jitters in that respect, but I don't believe it's fundamental.
[16:59] Speaker 2: That was Ethan Devitt, managing director at Monetta Global Wealth,
[17:02] Speaker 2: speaking with Bloomberg TV host Heidi Stroudwats and Sherry On
[17:06] Speaker 2: bringing you their conversation here on the Daybreak Asia podcast.
[17:11] Speaker 2: Thanks for listening to today's episode of the Bloomberg Daybreak
[17:15] Speaker 2: Asia Edition podcast. Each weekday, we look at the story
[17:18] Speaker 2: shaping markets, finance, and geopolitics in the Asia Pacific. You
[17:23] Speaker 2: can find us on Apple, Spotify, the Bloomberg Podcast YouTube channel,
[17:27] Speaker 2: or anywhere else you listen. Join us again tomorrow for
[17:30] Speaker 2: insight on the market moves from Hong Kong to Singapore
[17:34] Speaker 2: and Australia. I'm Doug Prisner, and this is Bloomberg

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