Nvidia and Trumpytariffs

Two words have dominated markets this week. Nvidia and tariffs.

Markets judge Nvidia to the highest of standards. They are a bit like a Russian gymnastics coach, watching someone execute a backwards triple whizzy-wozzy on the bars and then land on their head, only to say, “Niet. Try harder Olga”.

Despite reporting sales, which were up by 78% over a year to nearly $40 billion in just 3 months, the shares fell by over 8% on Thursday, wiping out a cool $273 billion of value. So far this year, the shares are down by about 10% as investors express concerns about tariffs, slowing growth and potentially more efficient artificial intelligence models emerging.

When a share is this expensive, there is no tolerance for anything not fully shiny and perfect.

As for Trump Tariffs, the president has said he will go ahead with tariffs on Canada and Mexico and has also threatened to impose a 25% levy on the European Union. On his campaign trail, Trump also complained that Taiwan ‘stole’ the US’ chip business and threatened tariffs here too. Guess where many of Nvidia’s advanced AI chips are made... Yup, Taiwan.

At the moment, it’s a bit of an uncomfortable guessing game as we try to sift the rhetoric from reality. But markets don’t like uncertainty and they don’t like trade wars and as I write on Friday morning, my MSCI World Tracker Fund (that just means my lazy way to buy and own the 1,000ish biggest shares in the world in one hit) is down about 1%.

Potentially the easiest way to improve your financial position…

Closer to home, a reminder for anyone who has not worked an uninterrupted 9 to 5 for all of their life and who is aged between about 40 and 73(ish). Self-employed people, mothers, carers, people who have lived abroad – you're likely to be more affected by this. If you have gaps in your National Insurance (NI) contribution record – and this currently goes back to 2006 – you can buy them back in exchange for more State Pension. This is eligible for men born after 5 April 1951 and women born after 5 April 1953. However, as at 6 April this year, you will only be able to plug gaps going back six tax years. So you need to get on with this!

"God, Holly", you say. That is a very boring comment. Not so! It could mean £1,000s for you. Filling gaps in your NI record will cost you approximately £824 for a missing year. For each year you fill, you get an extra 1/35th of the State Pension every year that you claim it for - which works out at an extra £328 more pension for as long as you live. So, to reduce our lives to crude numbers, if you can live for three years or more after the State Pension age, this will be financially worth doing.

You can find out more here, as well as info on how to get a State Pension forecast. Much more fun than anything else you can have planned for a Friday evening. It’s worth everyone doing a check, because the State Pension is the foundation of retirement income for us all – and this is the starting block when building your personal plan for the future.

Have a great weekend everyone. My favourite thing of this week (top tip) are the videos on Instagram of cats strutting down the cat walk. Guaranteed to cheer anyone up. No wonder we’re using so many chips! It’s the best use case for AI out there.

Holly