US stocks cut gains at midday after Trump speech
Wall Street stocks gave up some of their early gains around midday Friday after Donald Trump was inaugurated as the president of the USA.
New York: Wall Street stocks gave up some of their early gains around midday Friday after Donald Trump was inaugurated as the 45th president of the United States and Barack Obama left office.
Around 12:50 pm (1750 GMT), the Dow Jones Industrial Average was at 19,780.45, up 0.2 percent, but about 60 points below its session high.
The broad-based S&P 500 dipped 0.2 percent to 2,267.76, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index added 0.1 percent at 5,547.65.
In a staunchly populist and sometimes angry speech, Trump blasted international trade deals and promised to put America first.
"From this day forward, a new vision will govern our land. From this day forward, it's going to be only America first," he said.
"Together we will make America strong again. We will make America wealthy again. We will make America proud again. We will make America safe again. And, yes, together, we will make America great again."
Trump vowed to build bridges, roads, airports and railways, and get people back to work, aspects of is agenda that have cheered investors.
However, the speech was likely to raise concerns he will take a protectionist bent on trade, a stance that worries the market.
"The market wasn't wild about it, perhaps a bit of a negative tone taken rather than a positive tone," said JJ Kinahan, chief market strategist at TD Ameritrade.
Kinahan said the market is waiting for concrete progress on tax reform and other key growth measures after rallying aggressively after the election in anticipation of major change.
"The market is always 'What's next?'" he said. "Until we see some implementation plan, we're going to continue with this nervousness."
Briefing.com analyst Patrick O'Hare said the "America first" theme of Trump's speech was not a surprise. He also viewed the market's pullback as reflective of impatience at concrete action in Washington, but said it also reflects anxiety about how things could change under Trump.
"It maybe serves as a sobering reminder that things under this administration could be quite different than America and the world has grown accustomed to," O'Hare said.