A snapshot of motorcycle and ATV industry share performance across key manufacturers and major global markets at the trading week closure on Friday 25 April 2025. BDN financial editor Roger Willis reports.
USA — TARIFF PAUSE FEIGNS NORMALITY
US Federal Reserve chairman Jerome Powell, America’s key central banker, didn’t get the bullet (which the president had been threatening) — as many commentators had expected. And Trump’s barrage of temporarily suspended “reciprocal” tariffs mostly languished on the back burner, without any meaningful negotiations versus their victims taking place. An audible sigh of relief could be heard from Wall Street investors, who piled in to buy the dip, pushing stocks back into positive territory.
With no exceptions, market indices reflected this calm before the next storm. The blue-chip S&P 500 climbed to close 4.6% up by Friday. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose by 2.5% and S&P’s MidCap 400 blossomed by 3.2%. Tech-heavy NASDAQ Composite stocks did best, stacking on 6.7% However, Trump’s trade-war rhetoric aimed at the Chinese was uninterrupted. US container port operators and air freight groups signalled a sharp drop in cargo currently heading their way from China as the 145% tariff wall beckons. MidCap US biker stocks achieved slight recoveries but were still rattling along on the bottom rung of recent stock prices.
| Currency: dollar | Price | Week | Month |
| Harley-Davidson | 23.50 | +4.4% | -6.5% |
| Polaris Industries | 34.36 | +3.6% | -17% |
| Textron | 68.42 | +3.6% | -5.6% |
| Niu Technologies | 3.52 | +20.9% | -21.8% |
| LiveWire | 2.10 | +1% | N/A |
EUROPE — BOUNCE BACK UNABATED
EU Commission supremo Ursula Von Der Leyen continued her stance of avoiding anti-US tariff retaliation, while biker-related German automotive giants BMW and Volkswagen basked in the benefits they accrue from being net vehicle exporters from their US plants. Both enjoyed substantial share price rises during the week, reflected by market indices right across the eurozone. Frankfurt’s Xetra Dax surged by 4.9% and the FTSE MIB in Milan put on 3.8%. That boost was primarily helped by the Stellantis Fiat-Chrysler Group’s similar automotive manufacturing presence in North America.
Biker stocks weren’t so lucky, though. While the the Wiener Börse ATX in Austria was 3.7% higher, ATX-listed Pierer Mobility shares slumped after the recently revived KTM plant in Mattighofen was forced to cease production, because its components supply chain dried up. Italian scooter giant Piaggio was also on the back foot, its shares down by 2.2% on a weekly basis and 10.7% adrift on the rolling month.
| Currency: euro | Price | Week | Month |
| BMW | 76.32 | +8.6% | +0.5% |
| Volkswagen | 100.30 | +9.7% | +1.1% |
| Pierer Mobility | 12.92 | -2% | -29.4% |
| Piaggio Group | 1.75 | -2.2% | -10.7% |
JAPAN — TALKING TO THE AMERICANS
Tokyo and Osaka’s key Nikkei 225 stock index added 2.8% to the previous week’s 3.4% gain, as the Japanese government proceeded with as yet fruitless face-to-face talks with US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, trying to strike a deal on Trump’s punitively expensive “reciprocal” tariffs. At stake are potential sanctions on Japan’s huge automotive exports into the US market, which also includes relatively large numbers of motorcycles.
For the time being, indigenous investor confidence remains strong, indicated by fairly positive share price movements for all four big-name biker brands and parallel automotives.
| Currency: yen | Price | Week | Month |
| Honda | 1442.5 | +3.4% | +4.2% |
| Yamaha | 1128.5 | +2.6% | -8.6% |
| Suzuki | 1690.5 | +1.1% | -9.9% |
| Kawasaki | 8379 | +4.9% | -10.5% |
INDIA — FIRST BITE OF THE APPLE (OR CHERRY?)
Apple has formally announced that it intends to shift assembly of more than 60 million iPhones sold annually into the US market to India, pivoting most of its manufacturing out of China by the end of 2026. But however initially attractive this prospect might seem to the Indians; they have begun to realise that there will be other “reciprocal” tariff issues raised by the move. Mumbai investors immediately started to get cold feet. S&P’s BSE Sensex 30 and the NSE Nifty 50 market indices both struggled in unison, gaining only 0.8% — a mere fraction of the previous week’s celebration. And some of these worries soon impacted the popularity of leading Indian biker stocks.
| Currency: rupee | Price | Week | Month |
| Hero MotoCorp | 3895.50 | +3.3% | +4.6% |
| Bajaj Auto | 8034.00 | +0.2% | +2% |
| TVS Motor | 2737.90 | +2.2% | +13.1% |
| Eicher Motors | 5575.50 | -1.8% | +4.3% |
| Mahindra | 2864.20 | +6.9% | +7.4% |
CHINA — HARDENS ITS BATTLE STANCE
China has told the US that it must completely cancel all the unilateral tariff measures it has imposed, if it wants trade talks. The Beijing government has also explicitly denied that any economic or trade negotiations of any description have taken place, despite repeated claims from Donald Trump that the two sides were talking. So the gloves are off, and the bullshit has stopped. Quite what happens next is anybody’s guess. The smart bets are on a global recession — for which China is probably far better equipped than the MAGA nutcases currently running America.
While Trump has been unleashing absolute chaos in western equities markets, robbing investors of value right, left and centre, the Chinese have been quietly getting on with business. Once again, in the past week, Shanghai’s SSE Composite market index was mildly positive, rising by 0.6%. Of the ten listed Chinese motorcycle manufacturers we track, six of them advanced in value.
| Currency: yuan | Price | Week | Month |
| Qianjiang | 15.64 | -4.7% | -13% |
| Zongshen | 20.85 | +7.1% | -5% |
| Sundiro | 4.05 | -1.7% | -10.2% |
| CETC (Jialing) | 11.86 | -1.1% | -7.1% |
| Qianli (Lifan) | 8.33 | -2.9% | +1.3% |
| Loncin | 12.61 | +6.2% | +10.5% |
| Linhai | 10.04 | +5.6% | +6.5% |
| Guangzhou Auto Group | 8.04 | +0.5% | -5.3% |
| CFMoto | 167.83 | +11.3% | -8.5% |
| Xinri E-Vehicle | 10.10 | +3.3% | -6.8% |