Equities
Global markets greeted Donald Trump’s U.S. presidency with apprehension in moves that were highly sensitive to headlines over his plans for trade relations and tariffs in particular.
Wall Street’s main indexes opened higher. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.09 per cent to 43,528.65, the S&P 500 gained 0.29 per cent to 6,014.12, and the Nasdaq Composite advanced 0.53 per cent to 19,734.391 at the bell.
The Toronto Stock Exchange’s S&P/TSX composite opened flat at 25,171 as investors assessed December’s inflation numbers. Consumer prices continued to climb up at a soft pace last month, helped by the sales tax break, to an annual 1.8 per cent, down slightly from 1.9 per cent in November.
On Wall Street, markets are watching earnings from Netflix Inc., Capital One Financial Corp., Charles Schwab Corp., Interactive Brokers Group Inc., United Airlines Holdings Inc., Prologis Inc. and 3M Co.
“The first few hours of the Trump administration have underscored that the policy environment will be dynamic once again and markets should brace for volatility,” said Charu Chanana, Saxo’s chief investment strategist.
“Clearly, the markets celebrated too soon with tariff threats missing at the outset in Trump’s inaugural speech.”
Overseas, the pan-European STOXX 600 was flat in morning trading. Britain’s FTSE 100 was little changed, Germany’s DAX gave back 0.11 per cent and France’s CAC 40 gained 0.08 per cent.
In Asia, Japan’s Nikkei closed 0.32 per cent higher, while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng gained 0.91 per cent.
Commodities
Oil prices fell as investors assessed U.S. President Donald Trump’s plans to apply new tariffs later than expected while boosting oil and gas production in the United States.
Brent crude futures were down 1.9 per cent to US$78.63 a barrel. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures slid 2.8 per cent to US$75.74.
“The initial sense of relief that trade measures weren’t an immediate focus on Trump’s ‘Day 1’ was quickly offset by reports of 25-per-cent tariffs on Mexico and Canada as early as February, which saw risk sentiments turn,” said Yeap Jun Rong, market strategist at IG.
In other commodities, spot gold climbed 0.4 per cent to $US2,719.52 an ounce, reaching its highest level since Nov. 6. U.S. gold futures declined 0.6 per cent to US$2,732.60.
Currencies and bonds
The Canadian dollar weakened against its U.S. counterpart.
The day range on the loonie was 68.88 US cents to 69.98 US cents in early trading. The Canadian dollar was down about 0.57 per cent against the greenback over the past month.
The U.S. dollar index, which weighs the greenback against a group of currencies, slid 0.57 per cent to 108.73.
The euro fell 0.62 per cent to US$1.0353. The British pound dropped 0.69 per cent to US$1.2244.
In bonds, the yield on the U.S. 10-year note was last down at 4.587 per cent.
Other corporate news
U.S. industrial conglomerate 3M has reported fourth-quarter adjusted profit above estimates, driven by higher sales of industrial adhesives, tapes and electronics.
Economic news
Germany ZEW Survey
U.K. employment
(8:30 a.m. ET) Canadian CPI for December. The data matched the Street expectations of a decline of 0.4 per cent from November but a rise of 1.8 per cent year-over-year.
With Reuters and The Canadian Press