SHARE PRICES AND MARKET ANALYSIS

A snapshot of motorcycle and ATV industry share performance across key manufacturers and major global markets at the trading week closure on Friday 26 May 2023. BDN financial editor Roger Willis reports.

As the deadline for agreeing a deal to avoid the US debt ceiling issue grew closer, with President Biden trying to get Republican Congressional Speaker Kevin McCarthy to behave like an adult, share indices reflected panic spreading through markets. As the long weekend to celebrate America’s Memorial Day approached, a solution was on the table — but it has yet to be voted on by the Republican-controlled Senate.

Although the blue-chip S&P 500 managed to close marginally positive by 0.3%, both S&P’s MidCap 400 and the Dow Jones Industrial Average sank into negative territory, respectively 0.5% and 1% down. However, the tech-heavy NASDAQ Composite was on a different planet, rising by 2.5% thanks to a muscular rally for stocks related to potentially lucrative artificial intelligence (AI) propositions.

Data showing that the eurozone’s biggest economy in Germany had indeed shrunk for a second consecutive quarter in the first three months of 2023, therefore falling into the official definition of a full-blown recession, upset the European applecart big-style. Frankfurt’s Dax Performance index covering its key Xetra share-trading platform fell by 1.8%.

Contagion quickly spread to indices in adjacent industrial nations with motorcycle-related interests. Austria’s Wiener Börse ATX fell by 2.3% and the FTSE MIB in Milan finished an even worse 2.9% lower. Ducati owner Volkswagen, KTM parent Pierer and Piaggio were among the losers.

Signs that Japanese recovery from recession had an inflationary kiss-off element provoked potentially punitive samurai sword-rattling from new Bank of Japan governor Kazuo Ueda. The Nikkei 225 index in Tokyo promptly lost almost all of its previous week’s record gain, closing just 0.4% up. But apart from Suzuki, indigenous motorcycle manufacturers blithely bucked this trend.

A better trance of government statistics intimating economic upticks overwhelmed Mumbai’s BSE Sensex gloom and the index recovered by 1.3%. Without exception, every listed motorcycle producer regained value.

The downward curve for investor sentiment in China continued, as US moves to block access to more sophisticated semiconductor supplies emerged, hindering Chinese export recovery further. Leading market indices pointedly fell, with respective 2.2% and 2.4% weekly losses for Shanghai’s all-share SSE Composite and the blue-chip CSI 300. Seven of the eleven Chinese biker listings saw their share prices retreating.