US open: Stocks little changed as investors shrug off Trump North Korea comments

US equity markets little changed on Monday as investors looked towards the second quarterly earnings season and shrugged off Trump’s comments on North Korea.

At 1521 BST, Dow Jones Industrial, the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq were all flat.

Meanwhile, oil prices retreated as investors kept an eye on exports after Iraq told Opec that it would meet the terms of agreement to reduce oil production. Last year the cartel, along with Russia, agreed to curb supply in a bid to increase pieces.

West Texas Intermediate was down 0.27% to $50.46 per barrel and Brent crude fell 0.26% to $53.39.

In currency markets, the dollar was up 0.43% against the pound to 0.8002, was flat against the euro at 0.9378 and down 0.33% versus the yen at 111.02.

Investors are also watching out for Chinese president Xi Jinping’s visit to Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago golf resort in Florida on Thursday, which Trump tweeted that it could “very difficult”.

Recently, Trump told the Financial Times that he might use trade as leverage to encourage China to rein in North Korea and if China does not, the US would “solve” the North’s nuclear weapons programme itself.

FXTM chief market Strategist Hussein Sayed: “According to the White House, the meeting will be focused on global, regional, and bilateral issues of mutual concern. In fact, the meeting will more likely be focused on the US trade deficits with China.

"What makes this summit more complicated is the US president’s intention to penalise currency manipulators, which China likely to be on the top of the list. If tensions escalated between the both presidents, we’re likely to experience a wave of risk aversion, which will not only hurt the dollar but even global equities.”

Looking ahead, investors are also looking out for speeches by several Federal Reserve officials, publication on Wednesday of the minutes of last month’s FOMC meeting when the central bank raised interest rates and the non-farm payrolls report on Friday

Later on in the day, Philadelphia Fed president Patrick Harker will speak at 2000 BST, and Richmond Fed president Jeffrey Lacker at 2200 BST.

There was a slew of data released on Monday with Markit’s manufacturing purchasing managers’ index falling to 53.3 in March from 53.4 the month earlier and slightly below the 53.5 predicted.

The ISM manufacturing index dipped to 57.2 in March in line with the consensus forecast, from 57.7 in February.

US construction spending rose 0.8% in February, a little below the 1% consensus forecast. January’s spending was revised up by 0.6%, but the net revision was only up 0.3%.

Meanwhile, auto stocks were on the back foot after carmakers reported a slump in first quarter sales, pointing to a slowdown in the US new vehicle market.

Ford Motors, Fiat Chrysler, General Motors were down 2.45%, 3.98% and 3.79%, respectively.

Whereas Tesla gained 5.17% after the electric car maker said on Sunday that it delivered a record 25,000 vehicles in the first quarter, an increase of 60% from last year.

In other corporate news, Coty fell 1.46% after British fashion house Burberry said that it would transfer its beauty business to Coty for around $225m.

Drug company Mylan slipped 0.37% after extending the recall of its EpiPen allergy treatment to outside the US.