London (AFP) – European and Asian stock markets diverged Tuesday and the dollar rallied as Donald Trump wasted no time in starting his second term as US president with a raft of announcements affecting the global economy. Wall Street reopens later after being shut Monday for the Martin Luther King holiday, which coincided with Trump’s inauguration.
Trading was mixed “as we enter a new four-year period of Trumpenomics,” said Scope Markets analyst Joshua Mahony. “Once again, Trump appears to care little for who are perceived to be allies or foes, with Canadian and Mexican currencies hit hard off the back of his claim that the US may impose a 25 percent tariff of their exports.”
However, the Chinese markets clearly felt more optimistic, with Trump’s decision to reinstate TikTok followed up by a lack of any mention around tariffs on Chinese imports. Trump gave social media app TikTok 75 days to find a buyer for its US business, after it missed a deadline Saturday ordering its Chinese owners ByteDance to sell its US subsidiary to non-Chinese buyers or be banned.
A top Chinese official warned Tuesday that no country would emerge victorious from a trade war. “Protectionism leads nowhere, and there are no winners in a trade war,” Vice Premier Ding Xuexiang said in a speech at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. On becoming president, Trump signed a slew of executive orders that indicated he could resume his hardball approach to global diplomacy and trade, including pulling out of the Paris climate accord and the World Health Organization.
Tech billionaires including Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg, and Jeff Bezos were given prime positions at the inauguration, an unprecedented demonstration of their power and influence on US politics. Oil prices slid Tuesday after Trump said the United States would significantly expand drilling in the world’s top oil and gas producer. “We will ‘drill, baby, drill!'” the president said during his inauguration speech.
Hong Kong’s stock market closed up nearly one percent, with embattled Chinese developer Country Garden surging 17.5 percent as trading of the stock resumed after a nine-month suspension.
– Key figures around 1045 GMT –
London – FTSE 100: UP 0.1 percent at 8,526.64 points
Paris – CAC 40: UP 0.1 percent at 7,744.32
Frankfurt – DAX: DOWN 0.1 percent at 20,975.30
Tokyo – Nikkei 225: UP 0.3 percent at 39,027.98 (close)
Hong Kong – Hang Seng Index: UP 0.9 percent at 20,106.55 (close)
Shanghai – Composite: DOWN 0.1 percent at 3,242.62 (close)
New York – Dow: Closed for public holiday
Euro/dollar: DOWN at $1.0351 from $1.0404 on Monday
Pound/dollar: DOWN at $1.2248 from $1.2302
Dollar/yen: UP at 155.97 yen from 155.67 yen
Euro/pound: DOWN at 84.51 pence from 84.56 pence
West Texas Intermediate: DOWN 2.2 percent at $75.69 per barrel
Brent North Sea Crude: DOWN 1.3 percent at $79.09 per barrel
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© 2024 AFP
