A snapshot of motorcycle and ATV industry share performance across key manufacturers and major global markets at the trading week closure on Friday 4 April 2025. BDN financial editor Roger Willis reports.
USA — TRUMP WRECKS THE GLOBAL ECONOMY
By unleashing a worldwide wave of ill-conceived “reciprocal” tariffs on imports into the US, Donald Trump has taken a recessionary risk that could be greater than the Great Depression, according to many economists. During the two days of panic-stricken investor activity on Wall Street following his announcement of a comprehensive global trade war in the White House Rose Garden on Wednesday afternoon, dubbed “Liberation Day”, more than five trillion dollars were wiped off the value of US equities. Internationally, some stock exchanges simply shut their doors and halted trading to avoid losses on a similar scale.
By the weekend, key American market indices had been murdered. The blue-chip S&P 500 closed 9.1% down and S&P’s MidCap 400 was also 9.1% in arrears. The Dow Jones Industrial Average had fallen by 7.9% and, worst of all, the tech-heavy NASDAQ Composite plunged by 10%. The values of MidCap biker stocks had all been hammered too.
| Currency: dollar | Price | Week | Month |
| Harley-Davidson | 22.98 | -8.6% | -9.7% |
| Polaris Industries | 36.71 | -11.3% | -22.7% |
| Textron | 60.72 | -16.2% | -19.5% |
| Niu Technologies | 3.20 | -28.9% | N/A |
| LiveWire | 1.91 | -9% | -4.5% |
EUROPE — TRUMP TRADE WAR HITS HARD
Inevitably, Trump singled out the EU as a ripe reciprocal tariff target, immediately preparing to challenge his threat with increasingly severe counter-measures. Eurozone market indices had promptly plummeted after his Rose Garden revelations. In Germany, Frankfurt’s Xetra Dax finished 7.6% lower and the FTSE MIB in Milan had sunk sharply by 10.1%. In Austria, the Wiener Börse ATX dived by 10.2%. Automotive and biker-related stocks with US shipment relationships were punished by harsh sell-offs. Among them was Pierer Mobility, which has only just got its KTM Mattighofen assembly plant back on stream, to immediately face exaggerated US import tariffs.
| Currency: euro | Price | Week | Month |
| BMW | 67.96 | -10.5% | -18.7% |
| Volkswagen | 90.05 | -9.3% | -18.9% |
| Pierer Mobility | 14.50 | -20.8% | -27.9% |
| Piaggio Group | 1.83 | -6.6% | -8.5% |
JAPAN — PANIC ATTACK
Responding to an unexpectedly large 24% reciprocal tariff from Trump, shocked Japanese prime minister Shigeru Ishiba declared a “national crisis”. Over the following two days, Tokyo and Osaka’s key Nikkei 225 stock index plummeted by 9%. Share prices for all four indigenous biker brands, tied to varying degrees of US import commitments, were subjected to panic spanking sell-offs.
| Currency: yen | Price | Week | Month |
| Honda | 1257 | -9.2% | -12.2% |
| Yamaha | 1046.5 | -15.2% | -13.9% |
| Suzuki | 1703.5 | -9.2% | -15.5% |
| Kawasaki | 7400 | -21% | -15.3% |
INDIA — DODGING THE BULLET
A massive Indian import imbalance with the US didn’t escape Trump’s beady eyes. But management at Mumbai’s BSE and NSE stock trading floors was quick off the mark, slamming their doors shut to declare a pause in operations. So the S&P BSE Sensex 30 and NSE Nifty 50 market indices both froze on 2.6% gains at close of play on Wednesday afternoon and no subsequent sell-off ensued in what had suddenly become a holiday.
| Currency: rupee | Price | Week | Month |
| Hero MotoCorp | 3659.20 | -1.7% | +0.2% |
| Bajaj Auto | 7685.10 | -2.5% | +1.5% |
| TVS Motor | 2464.95 | +1.9% | +5.6% |
| Eicher Motors | 5247.90 | -1.9% | +2.9% |
| Mahindra | 2596.55 | -2.6% | -4.8% |
CHINA — LIGHTNING RETALIATION
Not only did the Chinese deftly block equities market activity in Shanghai and Shenzhen, to successfully avoid a share rout, but the Beijing government was ready to return fire. Trump added a further 34% to tariffs already targeting Chinese imports arriving in the US, only to be on the receiving end of identical new tariffs collapsing US exports to China. These will be predominantly agricultural products — soya beans and pork — and the tariffs should satisfactorily impoverish thousands of US farmers previously selling into China. And to really rub Trump’s nose in fertiliser hitting the fan, China has chosen to radically reduce the quantities of crucial “rare earth” metals it sells to the US, thereby throwing a serious spanner into the works of America’s micro-chip and related electronics industries.
| Currency: yuan | Price | Week | Month |
| Qianjiang | 17.15 | -4.6% | -6.4% |
| Zongshen | 21.23 | -3.2% | -12.3% |
| Sundiro | 4.26 | -5.5% | +7.8% |
| CETC (Jialing) | 12.49 | -2.1% | -3.3% |
| Qianli (Lifan) | 8.33 | +1.3% | -8.6% |
| Loncin | 10.96 | -3.9% | +6.5% |
| Linhai | 9.81 | +4% | +1.8% |
| Guangzhou Auto Group | 8.31 | -2.1% | -5% |
| CFMoto | 172.17 | -6.2% | +1.3% |
| Xinri E-Vehicle | 10.69 | -1.4% | -2.2% |