Awaiting inauguration of Donald Trump in US - 20.1.2017

US stocks lower ahead of Trump’s inauguration

US stocks retreated on Thursday ahead of inauguration of Donald Trump in US continuing to pull back from post-election rally in November. US dollar advanced on Thursday together with treasury yields thanks to positive economic data. US dollar index, a measure of a greenback’s value against a basket of six major currencies, added 0.25% to 101.170. Dow Jones industrial average dipped for 5th straight day. It fell 0.37% to 19,732.4 while Nasdaq composite lost 0.28% to 5,540.08. S&P 500 index declined 0.4% to 2,263.69 with utilities, real estate and energy leading sectoral losses. S&P financials slumped 0.6%. Financials were advancing after the November elections on promises to add economic stimulus but have started edging down since the New Year. Nevertheless, the benchmark S&P 500 is 5.8% up since elections. Investors cannot wait to find out to which extent Donald Trump will fulfill its promises on economic policy after his inauguration. Trading volume was just a bit above the 20-day average of 6.1bn at 6.3bn shares. Today in US the Presidential inauguration speech is expected at 15:00 CET. AT 19:00 CET the Baker Hughes oil rigs data will come out.

Europeans shares dip

European stocks eased on Friday ahead of Trump’s inaugurations in US with STOXX EUROPE 600 down 0.1% on weak performance of mining sector. At the same time, eurozone bond yields hit one-month high. The data on German producer prices for December came out in line with expectations today in eurozone. In Great Britain retail sales data came out far below expectations which pulled British FTSE 100 index lower. No more significant economic data were released today in eurozone.

Asian stocks upbeat on Friday

Asian stocks were mostly on the rise on Friday with trading subdued ahead of Trump’s inauguration in US. Japanese stocks looked up on Friday as investors were covering shorts but they remained cautious ahead of inauguration of Donald Trump. Nikkei advanced 0.3% to 19,137.91 on Friday but ended the week 0.8% lower. Broader Topix index rose 0.4% to 1,533.46. USDJPY fell 0.2% to 114.64 yen. In China, blue-chip CSI 300 index rose 0.8% ending the week 1% higher. Chinese stocks advanced on positive data that the economy expanded 6.7% in 2016 which was in line with forecasts while the Q4 GDP was 6.8% due to higher government spending. Australian shares retreated on Friday following Wall Street ahead of Trump’s inauguration. S&P/ASX 200 index fell 0.7% to 5,654.80 on Friday and 1.2% this week most on weak performance on financial sector. Miners were also among decliners: Rio Tinto stocks lost 1.9% while BHP Biliton Ltd fell 1.3%.

Oil on the rise

Oil futures prices advanced on expectations of tighter supply and reports of record demand from China. Brent crude futures added 29 cents to $54.45 while WTI futures advanced 31 cents to $51.68 a barrel.

Gold fell ahead of Trump’s inauguration

Gold prices slid on Friday as investors expect Donald Trump to calm the markets and shed light on planned economic stimulus in its inauguration speech. What is more, gold is sensitive to rising interest rates and Janet Yellen has promised several hikes in coming years recently. Improved US jobs, housing and factory data also raise chances for the Fed rate hike. Spot gold lost 0.2% to $1,202.45 an ounce while US gold futures lost 0.1% to $1,202.20. Speaking of other precious metals, silver fell 0.5% to $16.93 an ounce while platinum lost 0.5% to $953.

Copper dipped on Friday hit by strong US dollar and concerns about demand from China. Today in the morning copper lost 0.3% to %5,721 a tonne on London Metal Exchange. Janet Yellen said this week that several interest rate hikes are probable each year till 2019 which gave support to US dollar thus making dollar-denominated commodities suffer from subdued demand.