Zim Integrated Shipping Services (ZIM -1.50%) stock has been delivering more than cargo to its shareholders over the past few trading days. On positive developments in the China-U.S. trade dispute, investors piled into the stock, sending it to a more than 26% gain week to date as of early Thursday night, according to data compiled by S&P Global Market Intelligence.
A move related to international relations
The most powerful boost to Zim’s stock came on Monday, when the U.S. and China agreed to mutually slash their initially sky-high mutual tariffs. These were initially enacted by the former, as President Trump moved to realign this country’s trading regime with a range of partners.
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Although Trump’s administration had scaled back or exempted several of its tariffs previously, the scale of the modifications with China was notable. As a container shipping company that earns coin running busy Pacific Ocean routes, Zim was shunned by investors in the opening stages of the trade war. Now that this facet of the fight seems to be on the wane, sentiment has improved dramatically.
It’s not only investors who have become far more bullish on the company’s future. On Tuesday, financial services company Jefferies published a fresh analysis reacting to freight companies operating in the Pacific — including Zim.
In its new take, according to reports, Jefferies wrote that demand between the two companies for each other’s products was recovering, while capacity was still limited because of vessel reassignments. That situation positions Zim and its peers quite well for a rally in their business. This will be helped by a recovery in orders from the U.S. retail sector, which is a significant consumer of made-in-China goods.
Full steam ahead?
Zim is an obvious recovery story, although of course it’s not the only boat in the big ocean that is the U.S.-China logistics space. Nevertheless, with the tariff war rapidly losing temperature, it’s certainly time for at least a casual reassessment of the company’s potential.
Eric Volkman has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Jefferies Financial Group. The Motley Fool recommends Zim Integrated Shipping Services. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
