US pre-open: Stocks to edge lower amid Trump concerns

US futures pointed to a slightly weaker open on Wall Street as the dollar lost ground against major rivals following President Donald Trump’s inauguration speech last week.

At 1120 GMT, Dow Jones Industrial Average futures were down 0.1%, with S&P 500 and Nasdaq futures 0.2% lower. Meanwhile, oil prices edged lower, with West Texas Intermediate down 1.5% to $52.45 a barrel and Brent crude off 1.2% at $54.81.

The dollar remained under pressure, having fallen on Friday after Trump’s speech revealed his protectionist agenda. The greenback was down 0.7% against the pound, 0.3% versus the euro and 0.8% against the yen.

Trump said on Friday that he planned to put America first, highlighting his intention to “buy American and hire American”. Meanwhile, on Sunday, he said he intends to renegotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement and ditch the Trans-Pacific Partnership deal.

Remo Fritschi, institutional sales manager at ADS Securities, said: “Donald Trump’s inauguration speech on Friday may have been light on economic policy details, but we’re starting to see more of this emerge, with the White House website having been busy over the weekend. However the confirmation that the US would walk away from the Trans-Pacific Partnership certainly isn’t impressing markets.

“Further political announcements will be expected in the coming days and should bring with them a slug of market volatility. Economic news is however thin on the ground today, whilst earnings season rolls on with McDonalds and Yahoo two stand-outs on the day, although with the latter having agreed to a close on $5bn takeover – and this being priced in – the potential for shares to move much of the back of the numbers is limited.”

On the corporate front, Halliburton and McDonald’s were among the companies slated to report ahead of the open, while Yahoo earnings are due after the closing bell.

Shares in Yahoo were a touch weaker in pre-market trade following a report that the Securities and Exchange Commission opened a probe into whether the company should have reported its two big data breaches to investors sooner.

Foxconn was on the front foot on news it might build a display-panel manufacturing facility in the US with Apple.

Apple was also likely to be in focus after it filed a suit against Qualcomm late on Friday alleging that the company sought onerous terms in a chip deal.

There are no major US data releases due.