While uncertainty remains high as US president Donald Trump’s fast-moving tariff agenda has prompted big moves in stock markets, Barclays (BARC.L) analysts have highlighted six UK stock ideas for the second quarter.
Trump’s unveiling of sweeping global tariffs, including higher custom levies on certain countries, on 2 April sparked a sell-off in global markets. The president’s announcement a week later of a 90-day pause on most higher tariffs — effectively a U-turn on the duties — drove historic gains for US stocks.
Even as Trump hit pause on many higher tariff rates, trade tensions between the US and China have escalated, with a back-and-forth raising of duties in retaliation.
Bloomberg reported on Wednesday that China would be open to trade talks on certain conditions, though concerns about the economic fallout of tariffs remain in focus for investors.
Barclays European analysts said: “The Trump 2.0 global order reset has brought chaos to global economies and markets. Reciprocal tariffs and retaliation are recessionary, protracted policy uncertainty will likely keep downward pressure on equities until Trump backs off.”
At the same time, the analysts said that they had an “overweight” view on the UK market, “with a preference for FTSE 100 (^FTSE) which is defensively-tilted so it can somewhat benefit from stagflation/recession fear, and it remains very cheap”.
“We remain more cautious on the domestically-tilted SMID cap (small and medium-sized) FTSE 250 (^FTMC) as confidence in a domestic recovery has faltered, although bearishness is now quite high, [the] UK is less exposed to tariffs and more BoE (Bank of England) cuts and government re-focus on growth may help,” they added.
With that in mind, the Barclays team highlighted six stock ideas for the second quarter, which they had given an “overweight” rating.