The first half of 2025 may have been turbulent, but investors just have to keep their cool for the second half.The first half of 2025 may have been turbulent, but investors just have to keep their cool for the second half.
Taken from CNBC’s Daily Open, our international markets newsletter — Subscribe today
What a first half of the year it has been.
In the first six months, the world saw a (not so) new U.S. president in the Oval Office, said president upend the global trade landscape, and a president in South Korea removed from office.
Conflicts also broke out between India and Pakistan, as well as Israel and Iran (along with a U.S. airstrike thrown into the mix.)
Chinese AI startup DeepSeek made its debut, stealing ChatGPT’s thunder for a while, and elections took place around the world, including in Germany, Australia, and even right here in sunny Singapore.
We might just have to call Billy Joel and get him to write a whole new version of “We Didn’t Start the Fire.”
Despite such a rollercoaster ride so far, market investors, in response to most developments, seem to have adopted the U.K.’s mantra as it prepared for war in 1939: Keep calm and carry on.
If we take a longer-term view, markets have delivered a respectable performance despite a volatile first half. Just a few stats: the S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite closed at fresh all-time highs Monday and are up about 5% year to date.
In Europe, the Stoxx 600 is up 6.7%, and in Asia, most major markets are in positive territory, with Hong Kong and South Korea posting a whopping 20% gain year to date.
Keep calm and carry on into the second half of the year, investors.
— Lim Hui Jie
What you need to know today
S&P and Nasdaq touch fresh highs. On Monday, the S&P 500 gained 0.52% and posted another record close, ending at 6,204.95, while the Nasdaq Composite advanced 0.47% and reached a fresh all-time high of 20,369.73. The Stoxx Europe 600 slipped 0.42%, walking back some of last week’s gains.
White House claims Canada ‘caves’ on trade. The White House said that Canada “caved” to President Donald Trump by hastily rescinding its digital services tax after the president threatened to shut down trade negotiations between the two major trading partners.
Meta shares notch record high. Shares of tech giant Meta climbed to a record intraday of $747.90 as investors took notice of the company’s newly created Superintelligence Labs that will be led by artificial intelligence luminaries hired by CEO Mark Zuckerberg.
Elon Musk calls Trump bill “DEBT SLAVERY.” The Tesla and SpaceX CEO is doubling down on his critisisms to kill Trump’s signature megabill. Musk also called for a “new political party,” and vowed that any fiscal conservatives who vote for the bill will “lose their primary next year.”
[PRO] Can Europe’s rally continue? European shares surged in the first half of the year, massively outperforming stocks on Wall Street — but market watchers are divided on the potential for the trend to continue.
And finally…
Trump takes aim at AT&T service weeks after Trump Mobile licensing deal announced
President Donald Trump criticized AT&T in consecutive Truth Social posts Monday, writing that the country’s third-largest wireless carrier “ought to get its act together.”
The president wrote that he was trying to hold a conference call with “faith leaders,” but that “AT&T is totally unable to make their equipment work properly.”
The back-to-back posts came two weeks after the Trump Organization announced it had licensed the Trump name to a new wireless phone service, Trump Mobile, that also sells a $499 smartphone.
— Erin Doherty
