Welcome to this week’s edition of top stock market highlights.
Trump’s tariffs
The saga over Trump’s raft of reciprocal tariffs took another surprising turn this week as a US federal court blocked them from going into effect.
The court ruled that the US President had overstepped his authority by imposing these wide-ranging duties.
A permanent injunction was issued on the blanket tariff announcement, putting these taxes in limbo for now.
The three-judge panel relied on a 1977 law called the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) that limits Trump’s authority to issue such widespread tariffs.
The decision looks set to block the imposition of some of the tariffs and to invalidate the President’s orders.
The White House administration immediately filed a notice with the court stating that it planned to appeal this decision.
The tariffs had been challenged by several small American businesses as well as 11 state attorney generals.
With the appeal, this matter could end up in the hands of the US Court of Appeals, and if this fails, it could eventually reach the Supreme Court.
Trump’s “Liberation Day” tariffs of 10%, along with higher tariffs that were paused for 90 days, are subject to this limitation.
At least five other legal challenges to the tariffs are pending, so it might be a long road for Trump’s administration to undo these legal battles.
Though Trump has claimed authority to impose tariffs under the IEEPA, this law has historically been used to impose sanctions on the US’s enemies or freeze their assets.
Latest update: A US Court of Appeal has allowed Trump’s tariffs to stay temporarily in effect, in what is the latest surprise twist to this saga.
Nvidia (NASDAQ: NVDA)
Nvidia released its much-anticipated results for the first quarter of fiscal 2026 (1Q FY2026) ending 27 April 2025.
Revenue surged 69.2% year on year to US$44.1 billion while operating profit increased by 28% year on year to US$21.6 billion.
Net profit came in at US$18.8 billion, up 26.2% year on year.
The company was informed by the US government that a licence was needed to export its H20 products in China.
As a result, Nvidia took a US$4.5 billion impairment charge in 1Q FY2026 because of excess inventory as demand for H20 fell.
Sales of this product amounted to US$4.6 billion for the quarter, but Nvidia was unable to recognise an additional US$2.5 billion of sales.
CEO and founder Jensen Huang reiterated that global demand for the company’s AI infrastructure remains “incredibly strong”, and its Blackwell NVL72 AI supercomputer is now in full-scale production to meet this demand.
The GPU-maker also saw its free cash flow surge nearly 75% year on year to US$26.2 billion for 1Q FY2026.
The business will pay a dividend of US$0.01 per share for the quarter.
For its 2Q FY2026 outlook, Nvidia expects revenue of around US$45 billion, which will represent a year-on-year growth of around 50% from 2Q FY2025’s US$30 billion.
CapitaLand Ascendas REIT (SGX: A17U)
CapitaLand Ascendas REIT, or CLAR, announced the acquisition of two prime properties in Singapore for a total purchase consideration of around S$700.2 million.
The first, 9 Tai Seng Drive, is a Tier III colocation data centre with a net property income (NPI) yield of 7.2%.
The second property, located at 5 Science Park Drive, is a premium business space property with an NPI yield of 6.1%.
Both properties enjoy full occupancy.
These acquisitions serve to increase CLAR’s data centre footprint and will enhance the quality of the industrial REIT’s portfolio.
9 Tai Seng Drive is occupied by digital, e-commerce, and financial services tenants, while 5 Science Park Drive is occupied by Shopee, a unit of Sea Limited (NYSE: SE).
These acquisitions are yield-accretive, adding a total of 1.36% to CLAR’s distribution per unit (DPU).
After accounting for positive rental reversions and deferred consideration for 5 Science Park Drive, the industrial REIT could see an additional 0.25% accretion to DPU.
Both assets also offer organic growth potential.
9 Tai Seng Drive should see rental uplifts as market colocation retail rates are 30% higher than those of the asset.
The manager can also convert the unutilised space into data halls, with the data centre showing good potential for capacity expansion.
For 5 Science Park Drive, the existing rent is 15% below comparable market rents, thus assuring the REIT of positive rental reversions once the lease is renewed after one and a half years.
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Disclosure: Royston Yang does not own shares in any of the companies mentioned.
