Supreme Court Strikes Down Trump Tariffs; Global Markets Mixed During Taiwan Holiday

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled 6-3 on February 20 that President Trump's global tariffs under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) were unconstitutional, potentially triggering $175 billion in corporate refunds. Trump immediately signed an executive order imposing a 10% global tariff effective February 24, with USMCA-compliant goods exempt. U.S. stocks declined during the Taiwan market closure, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average falling 5.11% to 47,625.97, while the S&P 500 slipped 0.47% and Nasdaq dropped 0.93%. The Philadelphia Semiconductor Index gained 1.89%. European markets rose, with Germany's DAX up 1.63% and France's CAC 40 climbing 2.43%. Asian markets fell, with Hong Kong's Hang Seng dropping 3.13% and Japan's Nikkei declining 1.86%. Bitcoin rose 1.15%. Berkshire Hathaway reduced its Apple stake by 4.3% to $61.96 billion and initiated a $351.7 million position in The New York Times. Amazon surpassed Walmart as the world's top-revenue company, reporting $717 billion versus Walmart's $713.2 billion, driven largely by AWS cloud computing growth.