FX.co ★ New Zealand Stocks End Week Lower

On Friday, New Zealand's S&P/NZX 50 index fell by 0.6%, concluding the day at 12,687. This decline, marking the third in a row, nullified earlier gains as renewed concerns regarding U.S. trade policy affected market sentiment. On Thursday, President Donald Trump announced the U.S. plan to implement comprehensive tariffs of 15% or 20% on most other trading partners. This strategy poses additional challenges for New Zealand, which was previously subject to a 10% tariff. Domestically, although New Zealand's manufacturing sector demonstrated slight improvement in June, it remained in contraction, hindered by ongoing issues such as weak demand, high living costs, and economic uncertainty. Among corporate leaders, major losses were seen with Fisher & Paykel (-1.6%), Meridian Energy (-1.9%), Spark NZ (-1.4%), Mainfreight (-1.8%), and Contact Energy (-0.8%), all performing poorly in this session. Overall, the NZX 50 saw a weekly downturn of 0.6%, ending a three-week period of gains.