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Brambles led the ASX's decline to a one-month low on the first trading day following Donald Trump's inauguration.

Sharp losses in financial markets on Monday reveal just how tense traders are as they await clarity on President Trump's impending economic and trade policies.

Shares in Brambles sunk this morning after the supply chain logistics group said it will not meet its full-year profit guidance due to revenue and cost pressures in North America.

• COMMENT

If there is one word that encapsulated the mood at Davos this year, it is uncertainty. At one event, when asked to describe how his fellow executives were feeling, a glum senior City figure simply replied "despondent". According to Meg Whitman, boss of Hewlett Packard, there had never been anything like the current climate before. "The chickens have come home to roost," she said. Another talked about "a shock to the system".

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The weekend news flow has centred on Donald Trump's inauguration, Sean Spicer's rather angry press conference and the administration's strategy of withdrawing from TPP.

• COMMENT

​In announcing the appointment of Carl Icahn as his new adviser on regulatory reform, President-elect Donald Trump characterised the Wall Street legend as "one of the world's great businessmen." By Trump standards, it was a minor mischaracterisation, one that confused the Main Street world of business, where value-adding goods and services are created and sold, with the trading, dealmaking world of finance on Wall Street.