A snapshot of motorcycle and ATV industry share performance across key manufacturers and major global markets at the trading week closure on Friday 6 June 2025. BDN financial editor Roger Willis reports.
USA — FERTILISER HITS THE FAN
The long-anticipated and absolutely spectacular rift between US President Donald Trump and his “best buddie” billionaire Elon Musk dominated headlines for most of the past week, as accusations and abuse flew between them like daggers. Leading Republican senators begged for apologies all round between the pair, as their behaviour grew increasingly juvenile, but reconciliation attempts fell on stony ground.
At one point, shares in Musk’s huge Tesla electric car enterprise plunged by more than 14%, after Trump said he would withdraw a whole range of lucrative government contracts in Musk’s businesses. But like many Trump threats, that menace quickly unravelled.
If anything, this White House ding-dong had a curiously calming effect on Wall Street, with market indices remaining steadily positive. At the finishing NYSE bell on Friday, the blue-chip S&P 500 and Dow Jones Industrial Average closed respectively 1.5% and 1.2% higher. S&P’s MidCap 400 had risen by 1.7% and the tech-heavy NASDAQ Composite ended 2.2% up. Among MidCap biker stocks, Polaris made the most satisfactory advance. Harley-Davidson’s main listing improved slightly but was still struggling to escape the 24-buck slot in which it has been languishing for some time. Harley’s LiveWire electric motorcycle spin-off continued to recover at pace, though, value-added thanks to “buy the dip” speculators.
| Currency: dollar | Price | Week | Month |
| Harley-Davidson | 24.54 | +2% | +5.6% |
| Polaris Industries | 41.05 | +4.7% | +12.9% |
| Niu Technologies | 3.45 | -3.6% | +3% |
| LiveWire | 5.94 | +14.5% | +44.8% |
EUROPE — SNIGGERING BEHIND HANDS
The utterly childish Trump-Musk playground combat in Washington was seen as highly amusing throughout the eurozone, relieving stress from repeated waves of US tariff threats. Leading European market indices reflected this relaxation. The Xetra Dax in Frankfurt and Milan’s FTSE MIB rose in unison by 1.3%. However, motorcycle-related automotive stocks, including full-on biker buys, weren’t so jolly and continued to lurk in territory that will eventually be on the sharp end of excruciating steel and aluminium export levies.
| Currency: euro | Price | Week | Month |
| BMW | 76.68 | -1.8% | -3.8% |
| Volkswagen | 93.20 | -3.9% | -8.6% |
| Pierer Mobility | 17.70 | -1.7% | +35.1% |
| Piaggio Group | 1.77 | -2.8% | +7.3% |
JAPAN — PRESSURE POINTS
The Tokyo and Osaka Nikkei 225 market index continued to go up and down like the proverbial geisha girl’s knickers, abandoning the previous week’s 2.2% gain to fall by 0.6% instead. The latest reason was increasing US pressure for BoJ central bankers to inflate the yen’s value — a move that will be deeply unpopular among export-eager Japanese industrialists, particularly those with automotive connections. No surprise, then, that Honda, Yamaha and Suzuki share prices lost value.
| Currency: yen | Price | Week | Month |
| Honda | 1402 | -4.5% | -5.4% |
| Yamaha | 1078 | -2.9% | -5.9% |
| Suzuki | 1680 | -9.3% | -6.4% |
| Kawasaki | 10725 | +5.6% | +29.6% |
INDIA — HEAD DOWN AND HOPE
The S&P BSE Sensex 30 and NSE Nifty 50 market indices in Mumbai posted respective returns to 0.9% and 1% positivity, as India managed to distance itself from mayhem engulfing the US and hang onto the possibility of softening tariff walls. Nevertheless, motorcycle manufacturer shares struggled for consistent positivity. As is often the case, Mahindra stood out, because most of its turnover is dependent on being the world’s biggest source of agricultural tractors, and its bike business is a side line.
| Currency: rupee | Price | Week | Month |
| Hero MotoCorp | 4268.00 | -1% | +10.7% |
| Bajaj Auto | 8637.00 | +0.3% | +12.4% |
| TVS Motor | 2747.80 | -1.2% | +3.2% |
| Eicher Motors | 5394.00 | +1.1% | +1.3% |
| Mahindra | 3106.50 | +4.4% | +4.2% |
CHINA — HANGING ON THE TELEPHONE
Amazingly, given his current distractions, Donald Trump managed to pick up a phone and dial the right number to get Chinese leader Xi Jinping on the other end. Their conversation concluded with an agreement to launch another round of high-level trade talks, bolstering optimism that mutual trade tensions are easing. Cynics would factor in a recent Chinese move to cut off the supply of crucial “rare earth” metals, of which China has a virtual monopoly and upon which Western automotive manufacturers are utterly dependent. Of course, a blossoming friendship between Trump and Xi could be the real reason — or perhaps not…
| Currency: yuan | Price | Week | Month |
| Qianjiang | 15.80 | +5.5% | +0.5% |
| Zongshen | 22.06 | -1.4% | -7.5% |
| Sundiro | 4.53 | -0.9% | +1.8% |
| CETC (Jialing) | 12.25 | +3.5% | +0.8% |
| Qianli (Lifan) | 8.39 | +1.3% | -6.9% |
| Loncin | 14.22 | +8.7% | +8.1% |
| Linhai | 10.53 | -0.1% | +2.4% |
| Guangzhou Auto Group | 7.66 | -0.8% | -4.4% |
| CFMoto | 196.14 | +7.5% | +16.1% |
| Xinri E-Vehicle | 11.57 | +1% | +0.9% |