US open: Stocks mostly down amid uncertainty surrounding Trump's policies

US equity markets were mostly down on Monday as investors exercised caution amid the uncertainty of President Donald Trump’s policies, while the dollar gained.

With no major economic data releases, market participants looked towards the White House for more indications of his economic policies and as a legal confrontation looms over his immigration ban.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average was flat at 20,066.78, the S&P 500 was ticked down 0.18% to 2,293.30 and the Nasdaq shaved off 0.13% to 5,659.43 at 1536 GMT.

Craig Erlam, senior market analyst at Oanda, said: "The new US President has been extremely active since his inauguration which has kept investors on their toes given the combination of market friendly and unfriendly policies that got him elected.

"Deregulation was the latest target for the President which provided a big boost to financial stocks on Friday as he aims to undo some of the regulatory burden created by Dodd-Frank following the financial crisis."

Banking stocks gained on the news that the Trump administration would review the Dodd-Frank act on financial regulations. Goldman Sachs was up 0.73%, JP Morgan Chase & Co rose 0.3%, Morgan Stanley increased 1.06%, Citigroup added 0.78% and Bank of America was up 0.28%.

A group of nearly 100 major technology companies including Apple, Alphabet’s Google, Microsoft and Facebook were getting together to fight Donald Trump’s immigration restrictions.

On Friday, US District Judge James Robart of Seattle granted a temporary ban on Trump’s immigration order, while a federal appeals court on Sunday declined to reinstate the ban quickly.

Michael Hewson, chief markets analyst at CMC Markets, said: “After Friday's post payrolls rebound, US markets have rolled over into the new week, opening lower, as the end of week euphoria that greeted the announcement of a review into Dodd-Frank regulation, is just that, a review, and with no guarantee of making it through Congress.

“While some could argue that a lot of the Volcker Rule and Dodd-Frank could do with some fine tuning, it’s asking a lot to believe that all of it will be rolled back. There are probably enough people on both sides of the political divide of Republicans and Democrats, who will be reluctant to roll back the progress made on making the banking system safer since 2008.”

In currency markets, the dollar was up 0.41% against the pound to 0.8044 and rose 0.59% versus the euro to 0.9327, but was 0.05% weaker against the yen to 112.55.

Hewson said: “Despite a weak wages number on Friday the dollar has experienced a sharp rebound, with one exception, slipping sharply against the Japanese yen to a new two month low at 111.99.

"The slide in US yields in the wake of Friday’s weak wages numbers appears to be weighing on the dollar here, though this Friday’s scheduled meeting between Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and Trump may also be a factor, prompting a paring of positions, given recent US criticism of Japanese monetary policy.”

Meanwhile, West Texas Intermediate was down 0.22% to 53.71 per barrel and Brent crude fell 0.47% to $56.54.

On the other corporate news, Hasbro rallied 15.77% after the toymaker beat quarterly revenue estimates and lifted its dividend, whereas Tyson Foods fell 1.16% despite topping quarterly earnings forecasts.

Tiffany & Co dropped 1.7% following the exit of its chief executive Frederic Cumenal as the board was “disappointed by recent financial results”.

Toyota was down 0.83% after the carmaker lowered its profit guidance for the year.

21st Century Fox slipped 0.51% ahead of its second-quarter figures due after the close.