Wall Street caps Trump-induced stocks sell-off as dollar ticks up
NEW YORK (Reuters) – Stocks rose on Wall Street on Thursday, capping a wave of declines in major world equity markets triggered by uncertainty over US President Donald Trump’s agenda, with the US dollar also recovering slightly after five days of losses.
Reports that Trump had tried to intervene in an investigation into alleged Russian meddling in last year’s US presidential election, and that his aides had numerous undisclosed contacts with Russian officials, kept market tensions high a day after the S&P 500 posted its largest drop since September.
Adding to market jitters across the Americas, Brazilian stocks triggered a 30-minute circuit breaker after the benchmark Bovespa index fell 10% following a report President Michel Temer gave his blessing to an attempt to pay to silence a potential witness in the country’s biggest-ever graft probe.
The iShares MSCI Brazil ETF tumbled 15.6% in 6.5 times the average volume over the past 10 trading days.
US-traded shares of mining giant Vale and Brazilian state-controlled oil company Petrobras tumbled 6.4% and 15.3%, respectively.
The Brazilian real weakened about 7.3% against the US dollar.
On Wall Street, stocks recovered mildly after a nearly 2% sell-off on Wednesday on the S&P 500. The string of news headlines from the White House, however, kept traders on edge.
In early afternoon trading, the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 21.16 points, or 0.1%, to 20,628.09, the S&P 500 gained 4.9 points, or 0.21%, to 2,361.93, and the Nasdaq Composite added 29.25 points, or 0.49%, to 6,040.49.
The pan-European FTSEurofirst 300 index lost 0.51%, and MSCI’s gauge of stocks across the globe shed 0.36%.
Emerging-market stocks lost 1.87%. MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan closed 0.88% lower, while Japan’s Nikkei lost 1.32%.
Treasury yields were barely changed after a sharp drop on Wednesday. The benchmark yield near its 2017 low hit in April was an indication that the selling in stocks may not be over.
Benchmark 10-year notes last fell 1/32 in price to yield 2.2173%, from 2.216% late on Wednesday.
Spot gold dropped 0.5% to $1,254.10 an ounce. US gold futures fell 0.36% to $1,254.20 an ounce.
The US dollar reversed early losses against a basket of major currencies after new applications for US jobless benefits unexpectedly fell last week and factory activity in the mid-Atlantic region accelerated sharply.
The dollar index rose 0.02%, with the euro down 0.29% to $1.1126.
The Japanese yen weakened 0.08% versus the greenback to 110.90 per dollar, while Sterling was last trading at $1.3005, up 0.28% on the day.
In commodities markets, US crude rose 0.49% to $49.31 per barrel, and Brent was last at $52.43, up 0.42% on the day.
Copper lost 0.52% to $5,581.00 a ton.