If Monday was all black, then this Thursday’s trade is white (and green) as can be, with Australian shares to surge as much as +6.7% higher at open today.

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In a historic reversal, Trump conceded to growing sentiments around his aggressive tariffs campaign and paused the rollout for 90 days. The S&P 500 immediately leapt 9.5% on the most shares ever traded on U.S. exchanges.

Brokers on Wall Street even stood and applauded after the news.

Trump then called it “the biggest day in financial history” as tickers soared.

China was omitted, however: Beijing had just imposed 84% tariffs on the U.S. overnight, and Trump responded in kind by lifting the levies to 125%.

That, Trump said, was due to the Red Dragon’s “lack of respect” early in the trade war.

Back home, the RBA has warned ASX Limited (ASX:ASX) it’s “lost confidence” in the exchange’s infrastructure management, mainly due to the market-halting settlement and clearances collapse in December 2024.

Elsewhere, Duketon Mining (ASX:DKM) has signed an optional deal for 100% of the Killarney Gold Project near Mount Magnet. The miner paid $50K upfront for the buy option.

Delorean Corporation (ASX:DEL) has landed a “key” agreement with AGNL which will now see the company’s SA1 Salisbury Bioenergy project – which is still being built – hooked into the gas network to export its biomethane.

Key economic data is coming out of China too amid the trade war salvos; markets will closely watch China’s March CPI and PPI data, releasing at 11.30am.

We’ll be getting consumer inflation expectation figures at midday today too.

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The forex also enjoyed a Trump bump, with the Aussie dollar now buying 61.5 US cents.

In commodities, which are in the greenback,

Iron Ore failed to fire, dropping another 1% to $93.75 a tonne in Singapore,

Brent Crude traded 5.3% up at $66.16,

Gold is trading higher at $3,096 per ounce, and, 

US natgas futures are at $3.72 per gigajoule after a 7.6% spike.

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