A snapshot of motorcycle and ATV industry share performance across key manufacturers and major global markets at the trading week closure on Friday 9 May 2025. BDN financial editor Roger Willis reports.
USA — NO RESPITE IN SIGHT
Trump’s wildly erratic tariff policies, characterised by his administration playing infantile games with entire industrial sectors, kept Wall Street investors on their toes, with no sign of consistently rational directions in sight.
Market indices continued to veer all over the place, nailed to the stripper’s knickers flag pole, and most ended the week in losses. The blue-chip S&P 500 and Dow Jones Industrial Average finished respectively 0.5% and 0.2% down. Only S&P’s MidCap 400 managed a modest gain, rising by 0.5%, given reliance on presently less-troubled domestic income streams. The tech-heavy NASDAQ Composite, where the well-being of many stocks are tied to sourcing from China, fell by 0.3%.
However some MidCap powersports stocks are definitely feeling the strain. Harley-Davidson’s share price is dribbling value steadily, as its board desperately seeks a new chief executive to replace discredited incumbent Jochen Zeitz. Worse, shares in Harley’s increasingly moribund electric bike spin-off are now worth only a solitary dollar. Aircraft, helicopter and specialist vehicle manufacturer Textron has just fallen off our powersports listing altogether, having sold its ATV, ORV and snowmobile business to a private buyer. And NASDAQ-listed electric delivery scooter giant Niu, which manufactures its wares in China and ships them mainly into the US, has started to feel the impact of tariffs on its sales and — inevitably — share price.
| Currency: dollar | Price | Week | Month |
| Harley-Davidson | 23.24 | -1.1% | +3.6% |
| Polaris Industries | 36.37 | +4.4% | +7.7% |
| Niu Technologies | 3.35 | -5.4% | +22.3% |
| LiveWire | 1.00 | -29.6% | -57.8% |
EUROPE — HAPPY MOTORING?
With some temporary tariff respite for international automotive industry players which can honestly claim to manufacture and assemble much of their products in the USA, both BMW and Volkswagen basked in a substantial degree of stock price recovery, as did Italian component suppliers. Market indices responded accordingly. Frankfurt’s Xetra Dax cheered the Germans, rising by 1.8%, the FTSE MIB in Milan stacked on 2.7% and the Wiener Börse ATX in Austria climbed by 4.6%. Even struggling Austrian KTM parent Pierer Mobility was a beneficiary, earning a really decent share-price boost. Sadly, Piaggio missed the Italian boat, its stock taking a painful dive…
| Currency: euro | Price | Week | Month |
| BMW | 79.68 | +6.5% | +20.1% |
| Volkswagen | 102.00 | +3.4% | +16.4% |
| Pierer Mobility | 13.10 | +9.2% | -9.3% |
| Piaggio Group | 1.65 | -7.8% | N/A |
JAPAN — FEAR FACTOR
Although the Nikkei 225 index illuminating stock exchanges in Tokyo and Osaka continued its upwards creep, adding a further advance of 1.8% in the past week, the Japanese are no nearer to concluding a deal with the US on tariff mitigation. On the contrary, Toyota published a dire profit warning on the likely consequences. Full-year financial reports from Honda and Suzuki — both big-league exporting car producers — due in the coming week, should cast some light on their respective positions.
| Currency: yen | Price | Week | Month |
| Honda | 1482.5 | -0.1% | +12.7% |
| Yamaha | 1145.5 | +0.1% | +7% |
| Suzuki | 1794 | +0.7% | +14.3% |
| Kawasaki | 8273 | -1.9% | +9.1% |
INDIA — GOOD NEIGHBOURLY WARFARE
Indian prime minister Narendra Modi sat back for several days in his bunker, as Indian and Pakistani armed forces pulverised each other’s airbases with ballistic missiles. Panic-stricken investors ran for cover in Mumbai. The BSE and NSE market indices respectively fell by 1.3% and 1.4% before they stopped further listing. And over-imaginative citizens in both countries wondered when the red buttons to unleash nukes would be pressed. Needless to say, there wasn’t much interest in buying motorcycle manufacturing equities while this was going on. Fortunately, good sense prevailed and a rapidly written cease-fire agreement was reached.
| Currency: rupee | Price | Week | Month |
| Hero MotoCorp | 3853.90 | +3% | +5.1% |
| Bajaj Auto | 7682.50 | -2% | -1.1% |
| TVS Motor | 2663.70 | -1.8% | +6% |
| Eicher Motors | 5324.00 | -2.1% | -0.5% |
| Mahindra | 2982.10 | +1.9% | +15.6% |
CHINA — THE TRUMP FACE-OFF BEGINS
The dial-down between Trump’s minions and the inscrutable Beijing government was scheduled for a meeting in Zurich. But remarks posted on his Truth Social network, that an 80% tariff on China would “seem right”, signalled a potentially less generous cut in the punitive tariff levies than investors had anticipated, knocking momentum of global stocks as the weekend approached.
Surprisingly, though, Chinese market indices remained robust and both Shanghai’s SSE Composite and the CSI 300 closed positive, respectively 1.9% and 2% up. China’s listed biker stocks expressed tough love too with almost all making gains. Only Honda Wu Yang affiliate Guangzhou Auto failed to perform, its share price static.
| Currency: yuan | Price | Week | Month |
| Qianjiang | 15.72 | +3.8% | -3.9% |
| Zongshen | 23.84 | +13.3% | +24% |
| Sundiro | 4.45 | +3.2% | +12.9% |
| CETC (Jialing) | 12.15 | +1.3% | -0.7% |
| Qianli (Lifan) | 9.01 | +1.7% | +10.8% |
| Loncin | 13.16 | +5.7% | +17.5% |
| Linhai | 10.28 | +1.4% | +13.5% |
| Guangzhou Auto Group | 8.01 | N/A | +0.5% |
| CFMoto | 168.91 | +1.8% | +5.4% |
| Xinri E-Vehicle | 11.47 | +4.7% | +20.1% |