Donald Trump has returned to the White House with his inauguration speech promising to usher in a “golden age" of America.
The US president pledged to declare a national emergency at the southern border with Mexico to curb illegal immigration and a national energy emergency to encourage the nation to “drill baby drill”. He also talked about plans to curb domestic inflation and pledged to establish an External Revenue Service to collect tariffs and taxes to fill US government coffers.
The greenback was broadly weaker after a report in the Wall Street Journal indicated the new administration will take a more measured approach to introducing tariffs than previously feared, with officials expected to be told to evaluate US trading relationships with China, Canada and Mexico rather than the wholesale imposition of a steep tariff regime from day one.
“Given market fears of Trump’s trade policies and positioning in anticipation of the imposition of widespread tariffs, the article drove down the US dollar while US equity futures and Treasury prices rallied,” Bank of New Zealand senior markets strategist Jason Wong said in a note.
The kiwi climbed to 56.55 US cents at 7am in Auckland from 56.12 cents yesterday, and Wong noted some short positions in the kiwi had been closed.
Liquid gold
Brent crude oil prices were weaker heading into the inauguration speech and down 1% at US$80 a barrel at 7am in Auckland. Trump’s national energy emergency aims to fill strategic reserves and stoke US exports.
European stock markets were also stronger on the tariff reports, with the UK’s FTSE 100 up 0.2% and Germany’s DAX advancing 0.4%. US markets were closed for the Martin Luther King Jr day public holiday.
Australian futures are pointing to a 0.2% increase for the S&P/ASX 200 index, while domestic data releases today include the BNZ-Business NZ performance of services index and Statistics New Zealand’s December spending on credit and debit cards.
Across the Tasman, the Australian Financial Review reported Optus is considering selling its sports streaming platform to Nine Entertainment, which would add English Premier League rights to the Stan platform.
Streaming sports broadcasting is set for a shake-up in Australia after DAZN bought Foxtel from News Corp and Telstra, while New Zealand’s Sky Network Television continues to be talked of as a potential takeover target.
