Vietnam Insight

Mr. Trump’s threat to raise global tariffs to 15%. US stock futures steadied on Tuesday after the major indexes tumbled in the prior session amid renewed concerns that rapid AI advances could disrupt multiple industries. President Donald Trump’s threat to raise global tariffs to 15% and escalating tensions between the US and Iran further weighed on sentiment. In regular trading on Monday, the Dow fell 1.66%, the S&P 500 slid 1.04% and the Nasdaq Composite dropped 1.13%. Software names and payment companies led the losses on fears of AI displacement, with IBM plunging 13.1% after Anthropic unveiled new coding tools. American Express also sank 7.2% following research flagging the risk of widespread AI-driven job losses. Other notable decliners included CrowdStrike (-9.9%), Oracle (-4.6%), Applovin (-9.1%), Visa (-4.5%) and Mastercard (-5.8%). Investors are now focused on key earnings releases this week from Home Depot, Nvidia, Salesforce and Snowflake, among others.

Heading toward resistance level 1,900. VN-Index closed at 1,860.14 (+36.05 points, 1.98%) with liquidity lower than the average of the last 20 sessions. The market saw 280 gainers and 73 losers. Stocks exerting the most downward pressure on the index were FPT, VPL, and MWG, while VIC, GAS, and VCB provided the strongest support. Foreign investors were net sellers of 1,107 billion VND, with FPT accounting for the bulk of the selling at 1,102 billion VND.

Trading Strategy: Short-term investors should prioritize holding existing positions and be ready to sell according to plan. Temporarily refrain from new purchases and strictly limit margin usage as liquidity tends to decline ahead of the Lunar New Year. For medium-term investors, the power sector continues to show good momentum, while the real estate sector is trading at relatively low price levels.