US open: Stocks weaker over Trump concerns, dollar loses ground

US stocks opened weaker on Monday as investors mulled President Donald Trump’s policies, while the dollar continued to lose ground against major rivals.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average was fell 0.25% to 19,778.30, the S&P 500 was down 0.28% to 2,265.04, and the Nasdaq declined 0.19% to 5,544.53 at 1522 GMT.

The dollar remained under pressure, having fallen on Friday after Trump’s speech revealed his protectionist agenda. The greenback was down 0.82% against the pound to 0.8017, 0.39% versus the euro to 0.9309 and 1.07% against the yen to 113.39.

Trump said he planned to put “America first” and highlighted his intention to “buy American and hire American”.

Michael Hewson, chief market analyst at CMC Markets, said: “The dollar’s weakness that was starting to manifest itself last week has accelerated today in the aftermath of Friday’s populist Presidential inauguration speech prompted further weakness, due to a lack of detail on what fiscal measures the new administration would undertake to boost the economy. The dollar index has slid to its lowest levels since the 8 December, just before the Federal Reserve raised rates.”

David Page, senior economist at Axa Investment Managers, said there “is only so much that we can take from such moments of soaring rhetoric”.

He said: “To our minds, Trump’s speech echoed campaign trail protectionism, and although it referred to infrastructure activity, there was much less focus on the prospect of tax cuts or stimulus that has dominated market thinking since the election. As Trump discussed the ‘hour of action’, the prospects for policy in the first 100 days continue to include the risks that we have flagged over the possibility of tariffs or other trade protectionism, with the coincident risk of retaliatory measures elsewhere around the globe. If these risks materialise, markets may lose some of the optimism that has characterised the last two months.”

On Sunday, he said he intends to renegotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement with Canada and Mexico and ditch the Trans-Pacific Partnership. The former property tycoon will also host Prime Minister Theresa May on Friday to discuss a trade deal once Britain leaves the EU.

Meanwhile, oil prices fell despite Saudi Arabia’s energy minister, Khalid al-Falih, saying that the 20 countries that agreed to slash production are showing “very good compliance”, at a weekend meeting of producers in Vienna.

Brent crude was down 0.72% to $55.09 a barrel and West Texas Intermediate shaved off 1.06% to $52.66.

Elsewhere, the earnings season continued and according to Fundstrat, 74% of the 54 companies that have reported so far beat earnings forecasts by an average of 5%.

Halliburton shares fell 3.78% as the oil-field-services company reported that its fourth quarter losses widened and that revenue fell.

McDonald’s was down 0.88% after the fast-food giant posted better-than-expected quarterly worldwide same-store sales, although US revenue dipped.

Taiwan’s Foxconn rose 3.07% on news that it might build a display-panel manufacturing facility in the US with Apple.

Qualcomm tumbled 12.71% after Apple, which was down 0.27%, filed a suit against the company, alleging that it sought onerous terms in a chip deal.

Yahoo’s earnings are due after the closing bell. Shares in Yahoo were flat after a report said that the US Securities and Exchange Commission has opened a probe into whether the tech company should have reported its two big data breaches to investors sooner.