A snapshot of motorcycle and ATV industry share performance across key manufacturers and major global markets at the trading week closure on Friday 30 May 2025. BDN financial editor Roger Willis reports.
USA — TRUMP’S TARIFFS DECLARED ILLEGAL
Suddenly out of the blue, a late-night declaration by the US Court of International Trade ruled that President Trump didn’t have the legal authority to impose a massive array of tariffs he had unveiled on “liberation day” at the beginning of April. Worldwide equities surged early on the following day, as investors hoped for some relief in the trade war — particularly those in Asian markets. US stocks also rose at the opening NYSE bell but Wall Street indices subsequently levelled in varying degrees as the weekend approached, after the White House vowed to fight this ruling.
Resultant indices were all positive but some distinctly weaker. The blue-chip S&P 500 and Dow Jones Industrial Average respectively closed 1.9% and 1.6% up, while tech-heavy NASDAQ Composite stocks hung onto a 2% advantage. S&P’s MidCap 400 was the dunce, only 0.8% above the twilight zone. Best MidCap biker stock was Polaris, while Harley-Davidson lost ground. However, its LiveWire electric bike spin-off escaped from the previous week’s plunge into one-dollar misery, as speculators “bought the dip” in spades. These chancers will have probably cashed in their chips sooner rather than later. The share price of NASDAQ-listed electric delivery scooter Niu took yet another hammering, its prospects consistently lacking confidence.
| Currency: dollar | Price | Week | Month |
| Harley-Davidson | 24.05 | -1% | +2.3% |
| Polaris Industries | 39.22 | +3.1% | +12.6% |
| Niu Technologies | 3.58 | -11.6% | +1.1% |
| LiveWire | 4.10 | N/A | N/A |
EUROPE — TAKING ADVANTAGE
The abrupt crumbling of Trump’s tariff imposition comfort zone delivered a welcome boost to eurozone market indices. Germany’s Dax Xetra in Frankfurt and the FTSE MIB in Milan rose in unison by 2.6%. In the former, biker-associated automotives BMW and Volkswagen both made gains and Piaggio recovered from poor Q1 results in Italy. The Wiener Börse ATX in Austria climbed by 3.3% but still-fragile shares in KTM parent Pierer Mobility experienced a sharp sell-off.
| Currency: euro | Price | Week | Month |
| BMW | 78.10 | +3.8% | +4.4% |
| Volkswagen | 97.00 | +1.4% | -1.7% |
| Pierer Mobility | 18.00 | -9.5% | +50% |
| Piaggio Group | 1.82 | +2.2% | +1.7% |
JAPAN — CHEERING QUIETLY
Trump tariff-failure headlines gave Japanese investors a welcome lift. Thrusting away the previous week’s gloom and a 1.1% loss for the Nikkei 225 market index, this time the Nikkei stacked on 2.2%. All four biker-related brands beat the index average, Kawasaki Heavy Industries by a considerable margin.
| Currency: yen | Price | Week | Month |
| Honda | 1468 | +3.3% | -1.1% |
| Yamaha | 1110 | +3.5% | -3% |
| Suzuki | 1852.5 | +4.2% | +4% |
| Kawasaki | 10155 | +10.6% | +20.4% |
INDIA — WHO DO WE BELIEVE?
With tariff certainties now torn up, temporarily of otherwise, India was one of many confused countries unable to decide what the future holds. The S&P BSE Sensex 30 and NSE Nifty 50 market indices in Mumbai expressed these uncertainties with matching minor 0.7% sell-offs. Among the nation’s five major motorcycle manufacturers, share prices either flatlined or fell slightly.
| Currency: rupee | Price | Week | Month |
| Hero MotoCorp | 4309.30 | N/A | +15.2% |
| Bajaj Auto | 8607.00 | -1.5% | +9.8% |
| TVS Motor | 2780.80 | +0.1% | +2.5% |
| Eicher Motors | 5333.50 | -1.2% | -1.9% |
| Mahindra | 2976.80 | N/A | +1.7% |
CHINA — LOOKS THE OTHER WAY
If in doubt, blaming the Chinese seemed to be Trump’s chosen path, after US lawyers tried to insist that he no right to use the emergency powers legislation cited in his tariff demands. His knee-jerk reaction was to ignore the tariff challenge and claim that China had already heinously breached their 90-day agreement with the US.
The Beijing government simply ignored this accusation. Shanghai and Shenzhen market indices barely blinked — the former’s SSE Composite and the latter’s blue-chip CSI 300 respectively declining by 0.6% and 0.2%. Seven of our listed biker stocks failed to prosper.
| Currency: yuan | Price | Week | Month |
| Qianjiang | 14.98 | -3.7% | -1.1% |
| Zongshen | 22.38 | +1.1% | +6.4% |
| Sundiro | 4.57 | +3.6% | +6% |
| CETC (Jialing) | 11.84 | N/A | -1.3% |
| Qianli (Lifan) | 8.28 | -1.3% | -6.5% |
| Loncin | 13.07 | -0.5% | +5% |
| Linhai | 10.54 | -0.5% | +3.9% |
| Guangzhou Auto Group | 7.72 | -4.1% | +3.6% |
| CFMoto | 182.38 | -1.5% | +9.9% |
| Xinri E-Vehicle | 11.45 | +0.4% | +4.6% |