A snapshot of motorcycle and ATV industry share performance across key manufacturers and major global markets at the trading week closure on Friday 20 June 2025. BDN financial editor Roger Willis reports.
USA — FROM WIMP TO WARMONGER
Against a background of escalating conflict in the Middle East, President Trump dithered around for a while, lining up all the toys in his pram, and Wall Street investors didn’t know whether they were coming or going. New York market indices initially rose on hopes of some sort of resolution to the Israel-Iran conflict coming from Trump’s two-week negotiation deadline. But they surrendered those gains as the weekend approached.
The blue-chip S&P 500 and Dow Jones Industrial Average respectively closed 1.3% and 1.8% down and NASDAQ’S Composite was 0.4% in arrears. Only the S&P MidCap 400 held its head above water by 0.8%. However, leading MidCap biker stocks — Harley-Davidson, Polaris and Harley’s electric spin-off LiveWire — all incurred losses. Harley’s woes included yet another significant product recall. NASDAQ-listed Chinese interloper Niu, protected by Trump’s recent relaxation of tariffs on China, escaped punishment.
Meanwhile in Washington, Trump promptly reduced his extended negotiation deadline with Iran from a fortnight to just two days, and then unleashed a huge aerial assault on Iran’s key uranium enrichment facilities, contrary to his previous peace-keeping promises. This included a wave of B-2 stealth bombers dropping 30,000lb “bunker buster” GBU-57 MOP bombs on Iran’s underground Fondo enrichment plant. Trump later claimed that Fondo, along with other plants, had been “completely obliterated” — without evidence to back it up, of course. He also threatened to keep on bombing until Iran unconditionally capitulated.
| Currency: dollar | Price | Week | Month |
| Harley-Davidson | 23.30 | -3.7% | -3.1% |
| Polaris Industries | 39.29 | -3% | +0.2% |
| Niu Technologies | 3.51 | +11.4% | -2% |
| LiveWire | 5.49 | -2.7% | +33.9% |
EUROPE — GUARDING ITS OWN CORNER
As the Middle East was descending into a state of total warfare provoked by Trump and his Israeli stooge Benjamin Netanyahu, an imminent European NATO summit conference fortifying opposition to Russia and a calming approach to Tehran faced jeopardy. Key euro-zone market indices had inevitably turned negative as the week progressed. Frankfurt’s Xetra Dax in Germany finished 0.7% down, while the FTSE MIB in Italy and the Wiener Börse ATX in Austria respectively dropped by 0.4% and 0.2%. Military manufacturing began to accelerate everywhere.
| Currency: euro | Price | Week | Month |
| BMW | 72.00 | -4% | -7.8% |
| Volkswagen | 88.80 | -1.8% | -8.5% |
| Pierer Mobility | 15.80 | +5.3% | -12.2% |
| Piaggio Group | 1.76 | N/A | -3.3% |
JAPAN — TUGGING FORELOCKS
Almost surprisingly given the erratic global context, Tokyo and Osaka’s Nikkei 225 market index snapped out of the previous week’s negativity to rise by 1.7%. Motivation came from Japanese business necessity to fall in line with abject obedience to US requirements. Among Japan’s biker-related industrial giants, Honda, Yamaha and Suzuki stocks made modest gains. The Kawasaki Heavy Industries conglomerate failed to follow suit, probably because its interests are so diverse.
| Currency: yen | Price | Week | Month |
| Honda | 1423.5 | +1.9% | -3% |
| Yamaha | 1081 | +0.6% | -2.6% |
| Suzuki | 1696.5 | +0.7% | -8.4% |
| Kawasaki | 10330 | -2% | +1.7% |
INDIA — AVOIDING THE ISSUE
With the haze of warfare growing, a most striking note came from Indian premier Narendra Modi, who categorically denied that the USA — and specifically President Trump — had played any role whatsoever in settlement of the recent violent conflict between India and Pakistan. Why he would suddenly stress this fact is unclear, but may be an expression of both Asian nations’ desire to steer well clear of involvement in Middle Eastern aggression.
Otherwise, it was very much business as usual in Mumbai. The S&P BSE Sensex 30 and NSE Nifty 50 market indices posted identical 1.6% gains and almost all indigenous motorcycle manufacturers benefited from share price advances. The exception was Baja Auto, where its recent big bucks bail-out of KTM may not be entirely acceptable to investors.
| Currency: rupee | Price | Week | Month |
| Hero MotoCorp | 4338.50 | +0.1% | +0.6% |
| Bajaj Auto | 8371.00 | -1.3% | -2.7% |
| TVS Motor | 2812.10 | +2.5% | +1.1% |
| Eicher Motors | 5525.00 | +3.9% | +3.6% |
| Mahindra | 3184.40 | +5.9% | +6.9% |
CHINA — NO LONGER HEADLINE NEWS
The dramatic new focus on events in the Middle East has undoubtedly reduced attention on a distrustful interface between the USA and China. So the weakening Chinese economy has become more apparent, as expressed by cooling investor commitment. In the past week, Shanghai’s all-share SSE Composite and blue-chip CSI 300 market indices declined in unison by 0.5%. More pertinent to the biker firmament we monitor, every single quoted Chinese motorcycle manufacturer, without exception, lost value within this timespan.
| Currency: yuan | Price | Week | Month |
| Qianjiang | 14.87 | -1.8% | -0.7% |
| Zongshen | 20.30 | -4.1% | -9.3% |
| Sundiro | 4.51 | -0.4% | -1.3% |
| CETC (Jialing) | 11.86 | -0.5% | +0.2% |
| Qianli (Lifan) | 8.29 | -1.7% | +0.2% |
| Loncin | 12.24 | -11.9% | -6.4% |
| Linhai | 9.95 | -3.5% | -5.6% |
| Guangzhou Auto Group | 7.43 | -2.6% | -3.8% |
| CFMoto | 212.40 | -3.7% | +16.5% |
| Xinri E-Vehicle | 11.77 | -15.9% | +2.8% |