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Markets Live: ASX breaks 5700 in catch-up rally

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The local sharemarket nudges 5700 points, with gains in banks offsetting big slumps in gold miners, following Wall Street's record run that pushed the Dow above 20,000 points, but optimism was tempered a bit by Trump's spat with Mexico over the financing of the planned border wall.

That's all for this week - thanks for reading this blog and posting your comments.

We'll be back Monday from around 9am.

Have a good weekend.

market close

Shares have ended the first week of the Trump administration higher, as investors looked past the new President's protectionist rhetoric to focus on pro-growth initiatives such as tax and regulation cuts as well as the approval of a controversial pipeline project.

The business-friendly moves lit a fire under stocks on Wall Street, pushing the Dow Jones index above 20,000 points. The local ASX 200 was buoyed by the rally and ended 0.75 per cent higher for the day at 5714, up 1.05 per cent for the week.

While the materials sector was the big winner of the week, rising 2.6 per cent as commodity prices continued to advance, on Friday mining stocks took a breather.

BHP was the biggest drag on the index, falling 1.3 per cent, but gold miners were the real losers of the week as the precious metal retreated back below the $US1200 mark.

Newcrest slid 2.7 per cent, Evolution Mining fell 2.7 per cent and Northern Star Resources dropped 5.1 per cent.

It was the other way around for financials, which had an average week, nudging up just 0.1 per cent, but a strong Friday session, led by the big banks.

Westpac gained 1.8 per cent, CBA was up 0.9 per cnt, NAB added 1.4 per cent and ANZ rose 1 per cent.

Fairmont Equities managing director Michael Gable said some traders had feared the markets would end their bull run after Donald Trump's inauguration. "The fact that they've done the opposite and made new high s has given our market a short-term boost," he said. 

"But I think that will start to evaporate over the next week as we start to concentrate on our local reporting season. As we saw with the Brambles profit warning a few days ago we need to be a little cautious holding stocks at elevated levels coming into reporting season.

"The last couple of weeks on the market have mostly been built on all these external factors - Trump and the US market - but we will need to start focusing more domestically. Reporting season is often a minefield of disappointments and misses, and we're starting to see that already." 

The week's biggest winners and losers.
The week's biggest winners and losers. 
eye

Farewell the Monkey, hail the Rooster. Lunar New Year is tomorrow and that should bring us a good year for markets, at least if past performance is any indicator.

Rooster years have historically been good for stocks, but volatile, says CMC which has crunched the numbers.

"The long-term average returns for Rooster years have generally been very positive with stock markets around the world gaining well in excess of 10 per cent in Rooster years, way above their 8 per cent long-term average return," chief market strategist Colin Cieszynski says.

That being said, a more in-depth analysis shows that Rooster years can really go either way, he adds.

The local sharemarket had its best Rooster year in 1994, when it soared more than 50 per cent, while in 1982 it slumped 16.5 per cent. Overall, it adds up to a tidy 13.7 per cent average return, according to CMC.

shares down

High-flying Domino's Pizza Enterprises insists a recent fall in its share price is not connected to the introduction of a 10 per cent surcharge on orders placed on Sunday.

Domino's is one of the ASX's most expensive stocks but it has dipped on concerns the surcharge, introduced on January 8, will slow demand among its price-sensitive customers.

Domino's introduced the surcharge in early January to help pay for a 25 per cent loading for drivers and store staff working on Sundays.

These workers had missed out on penalty rates thanks to an old deal with the Shop, Distributive and Allied Employees Association (SDA). The deal, struck in 2009 and but expiring in 2013, left staff with overall pay rates well below the current legal minimum.

Domino's is now negotiating a new deal with the SDA, and is still waiting on a separate ruling from the industrial watchdog on weekend penalty rates.

Domino's increased pay for workers in August, meaning adult drivers were paid $21.18 an hour plus $2.27 per delivery (with average deliveries of between three and five an hour), and an adult instore is paid $24.53 an hour.

Domino's did not answer whether it would increase pay again this month, as flagged by its chief executive in September.

The sharemarket darling attracted scrutiny in July when investment bank Deutsche Bank suggested Domino's workers were missing out on penalty rates worth at least $32 million. 

"We believe penalty rates will need to be paid at some point, which could have a significant impact on [Domino's] profitability," retail analyst Michael Simotas said, tipping pay rises would slash the Domino's profit by nearly 25 per cent.

"It pays a lower base than competitors and doesn't pay the weekend penalty rates stipulated in the award."

Domino's told the market on Friday that it had seen "no evidence to support comments from unnamed analysts in the press in relation to a link between share price and the recent introduction of a Sunday surcharge."

Shares are up 0.7 per cent at $61.04 today, but have dropped nearly 6 per cent over the week.

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Not whetting investor appetite this week.
Not whetting investor appetite this week. Photo: Glenn Hunt
shares up

Paladin Energy has surged nearly 40 per cent to 13.5 cents in heavy trading but the uranium miner says it's as baffled as anyone about the jump.

The company said there is no pending announcement and it's not aware if any of its earlier announcements may have caused the trading uptick. It added that uranium market conditions continue to improve.

The uranium spot price hovered around $US24 per pound, up about 7 per cent from last week's levels and 39 per cent higher than its recent low in mid-December.

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gold

Gold is stuck near two-week lows hit in the previous session as the US dollar regains ground, with selling ahead of the Lunar New Year holidays adding pressure and leaving the metal on track to record its first weekly loss since late December.

Spot gold prices are down 0.4 per cent at $US1184 per ounce, their lowest since January 11.

"A combination of things including a strong US dollar, thin volumes ahead of the Chinese New Year and weak longs is putting pressure on the market," said Ronald Leung, chief dealer at Lee Cheong Gold Dealers in Hong Kong. "Most of Asia is already off for the holidays, which is a good time for many to short the metal ... You can see the bids are very weak, which shows the demand right now," he said.

The week-long holiday that many in Asia take for the Lunar New Year is likely to keep the markets quiet, traders said. The US dollar edged up on Friday, rebounding from a seven-week low on optimism over the US economic outlook and corporate earnings, although US President Donald Trump's protectionist policies raised uncertainties for global trade.

"The government will publish its first estimate of fourth-quarter GDP on Friday, expected to come in around 2.2 per cent," said INTL FCStone analyst Edward Meir. "We suspect the number will likely be stronger, leading to a stronger dollar and exerting more pressure on gold before Trump possibly comes to the rescue with another market surprise."

The slide in gold prices has put the stocks of local gold miners under pressure, with the All Ordinaries gold index down 4.4 per cent, its biggest slide in more than a month.

Gold miners are under pressure today.
Gold miners are under pressure today. Photo: Ryan Stuart
ASX

Here's a recap of today's session: banks are leading gains on the stock market, while miners have been dragged down by lower base metal and gold prices.

With the market closed for Australia Day yesterday, investors are playing catch-up after the Dow Jones topped 20,000 for the first time on Wednesday, putting the ASX on track to rise 1 per cent for the week.

"We are catching up with that respectable rally of Wall Street," said Paterson Securities economist Tony Farnham.

The big four banks have given back some of their early strong gains but are still up by around 1 per cent, with NAB and Westpac leading the charge, up 1.6  and 1.7 per cent respectively.

Local banks have rallied since Donald Trump's election victory, with investors betting fiscal stimulus and deregulation will trigger inflation and stoke a rise in interest rates.

"Combination of local investors less nervous about the outlook for banks... and offshore interests from a currency perspective who have to find some way to invest those funds is pushing up local financials," Farnham said.

Gold stocks lost as much as 6.0 per cent to hit their lowest since January 5, as a strengthening US dollar and improving appetite for risk assets dragged it to a two-week low.

Newcrest Mining, Northern Star Resources and Evolution Mining are among the worst performers.

Miners are also suffering from declines in most base metal prices, especially copper. BHP Billiton has shed 1.3 per cent, but Rio is up 1 per cent.

"People are worried about what is happening with global trade, particularly with Mexico, and what could potentially happen to China," said Mathan Somasundaram, market portfolio strategist at Blue Ocean Equities.

The White House on Thursday floated the idea of a border tax on goods from Mexico to pay for a wall on the US border, deepening tensions between the neighbours.

I

Today's export/import price data means Australia's terms of trade spiked 12.2 per cent in the fourth quarter, the largest quarterly rise since 2010 - but that's about as good as it will get, says JPMorgan.

The pop higher in export prices (+12.4 per cent) was broadly expected and came on the back of the striking rally in iron ore and coal prices from mid-2016, economist Tom Kennedy said.

"The surprise relative to our forecast was on the import side (+0.2%), where the strength in petroleum import prices was largely offset by broad-based weakness in the remaining sub-components."

Kennedy expects Australia's terms of trade to move lower in coming quarters as prices for key export commodities normalise.

Hard coking coal spot prices are already more than 40 per cent below last quarter's peak and will be a drag on aggregate price growth in the first quarter of 2017.

JPMorgan commodity analysts expect iron ore spot prices to decline in coming months as more supply comes on line. On the other side of the ledger, Brent crude prices so far in January are tracking above the 4Q average, and will likely buoy import prices in 1Q.

"Given these dynamics, our base case is for Australia's ToT to move lower from early 2017," Kennedy says.

But before then it's worth adding that the terms of trade - through the commodities bonanza - is delivering the biggest boost to national income in 6-1/2 years.

"If export prices are outpacing the price of imports, this indicates a broad-based lift to incomes in Australia. The lift in export prices – especially iron ore and coal – also serve to benefit the bottom line of the government accounts," says CommSec .

The yield on the Australian 10-year

Get ready for an inflation surge, the AFR's Chris Joye writes:

It is curious to think that we do not know with certainty the current state of economic affairs, let alone that which might materialise 12 or 24 months hence.

The RBA was slashing rates last year because it was worried that Australia's weak inflation pulse would pull down consumer expectations for future price growth that could make achieving its official 2 per cent to 3 per cent inflation target hard.

And yet the latest ANZ/Roy Morgan survey reports that consumer inflation expectations hit a five-year peak of 4.8 per cent in January, miles above the top of the RBA's target band. The Melbourne Institute's measure likewise jumped to 4.3 per cent in January, its loftiest level since 2012.

Commsec's Savanth Sebastian says that "inflation expectations have now held above 4 per cent for the past six months", opining that "there is no doubt that inflationary pressures have bottomed out and are starting to lift".

HSBC's Paul Bloxham and Goldman Sachs' Tim Toohey agree. Both argued that the December quarter inflation data published this week implied that price pressures had "troughed" with domestically produced, or "non-tradeables", inflation accelerating from 1.6 per cent over the year to June to 2.1 per cent in December.

"The platform is now set for inflation to surprise RBA forecasts to the upside through 2017," Toohey surmised.

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need2know

Some of hedge fund billionaire George Soros's short positions dating back to 2012 were published on the Dutch financial market regulator's website this week due to "human error", according to the regulator AFM.

The short positions, bets on a stock declining, were "between 0.2 per cent and 0.5 per cent," of shares outstanding in the companies shorted, AFM spokesman Ward Snijders said. The Dutch regulator publishes shorts of 0.5 per cent or higher on its website on a daily basis. The smaller amounts were posted by mistake, he said.

The Financial Times earlier reported that some of the positions, including bets against Dutch banks, including ING Groep, appeared briefly on the website on Tuesday evening. ING declined to comment on Thursday.

Soros, whose fortune is estimated at $US25.2 billion by the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, is in the same league as Warren Buffett when it comes to investors copying their trades as they try to ride the coattails of the super successful. Short positions, which are typically closely guarded, in Deutsche Bank jumped when it was revealed in June that Soros had bet that the stock would fall after the UK voted to leave the European Union. The German bank fell 14 per cent on the first day after the ballot.

The 86-year-old investor lost about $US1 billion by betting against the market after the election of US President Donald Trump, according to the Wall Street Journal this month. The hiring of a chief investment officer may reduce Soros's role, the paper reported.

Luckily, Soros exited many of his bearish bets late last year, avoiding further losses.
Luckily, Soros exited many of his bearish bets late last year, avoiding further losses. Photo: Simon Dawson
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money

Google parent Alphabet has posted fourth-quarter profit below analysts' estimates, hurt by a higher tax rate, but analysts cheered the company's progress in diversifying its business beyond advertising.

While advertising still accounts for the lion's share of Google's revenue, rising 17.4 per cent to $US22.4 billion in the quarter, Alphabet chief financial officer Ruth Porat underscored that the company is broadening its business - pointing to growth in hardware, app sales and the cloud business.

The company's other revenue, which captures such businesses, climbed 62 per cent to $3.4 billion.

The results were met with a mixed reaction from Wall Street, which sent shares down 2.2 per cent to $US838 in extended trade after closing at $US856.98 on Nasdaq. Google faced a higher tax rate of 22 per cent, compared to 19 per cent for the year overall, contributing to the dent in profitability.

"If you look above that, it's business as usual," said analyst James Wang of ARK Investment Management. "There has been no margin compression in the actual business."

Eventually, investors' worst fears about Google may come true. Just not yet, says Bloomberg's Shira Ovide:

"Essentially the world's second-most valuable company is a one-trick pony - although it is perhaps the best pony ever created. And if the pony ever goes lame, so does Google.

"The horror story about Google's end days plays out something like this: As more people surf smartphones and not computers, they won't need to search on Google for a new winter coat, a hotel room in Hawaii or the winner of the 1984 Super Bowl. They'll simply go directly to Amazon, Expedia or ask Siri for the answer. If the zeal to Google things slowly ebbs, that will allow Facebook and others to chip away at Google's commanding share of the $US200 billion global market for online advertisements.

"Despite the earnings miss, it's tough to find evidence that the pony is anywhere close to be putting out to pasture."

Google remains a one-trick pony, but one that's unlikely to be put out to pasture anytime soon.
Google remains a one-trick pony, but one that's unlikely to be put out to pasture anytime soon. Photo: PAUL SAKUMA

Former Billabong CEO Matthew Perrin has been sentenced to eight years' imprisonment after he was found guilty of faking his ex-wife's signature to get a $13.5 million loan.

The 43-year-old was convicted of three counts of fraud and six of forgery after a week-long trial in Brisbane District Court in December last year. The jury had been unable to decide on three further forgery charges.

Crown prosecutor Glenn Cash told the court approximately $4 million had been recovered to the Commonwealth Bank after it was defrauded of the $13.5 million. 

Perrin was sentenced to eight years for three counts of fraud, six years for four counts of forgery and seven years for two further counts of forgery.

Ex-Billabong chief Matthew Perrin was found guilty of forging his wife's signature on mortgage documents.
Ex-Billabong chief Matthew Perrin was found guilty of forging his wife's signature on mortgage documents.  Photo: Glenn Hunt
eco news

Some second-tier eco data out today: 

  1. Producer prices rose 0.5 per cent over the fourth quarter, picking up from a 0.3 per cent growth rate in the previous three months, and 0.7 per cent over the year, from 0.5 per cent. Similarly to consumer prices, which were published on Wednesday, it looks like PPI has bottomed, but there's also no price surge in sight.
  2. Export prices soared 12.4 per cent in the fourth quarter, their biggest jump in six years, profiting strongly from big rises in key commodities iron ore and coal. The jump will provide a massive boost to Australia's terms of trade as import prices edged up just 0.2 per cent. In the previous quarter export prices had gained 3.5 per cent, while import prices slipped 1 per cent.

The Aussie dollar shrugged off the data and remains stuck at around US75.35¢.

japan

It's not only Australia where inflation remains weak. Consumer prices in Japan dropped for a 10th straight month, though the pace of decline eased, supporting expectations for a return to inflation later this year.

A weaker yen and pickup in oil prices are likely to drive up inflation this year, though questions remain on whether the expected gains in CPI will be sustainable, given poor growth in wages and lackluster consumer spending. The central bank isn't expected to change policy when board members meet January 30-31, but there is some prospect it could upgrade its forecasts for economic growth, or even inflation.

Even if consumer prices reach 1 per cent this year, BoJ, officials would rather be late than early when it comes to raising their 10-year bond yield target from zero per cent, according to people familiar with the central bank's discussions.

"It's fair to say that Japan's inflation has bottomed out, thanks to a weak yen and oil prices," Yoshimasa Maruyama, chief market economist at SMBC Nikko Securities, said. "But we're not where the BoJ can has its inflation target in sight, so the best it can do now is to keep policy unchanged to stimulate the economy."

"Hitting the bottom is just a baby step compared with what the BOJ is trying to deliver," Yasuhide Yajima, chief economist at NLI Research Institute, said. "Achieving 2 per cent inflation remains unrealistic."

US news

In a bid to fill the empty air time that is the trading world in January, news outlets have trumpeted the closure of the Dow Jones at 20,000 points for the second day in a row.

But very few fund managers or investors care much for the milestone, pointing out the Dow Jones is a collection of unsystematic companies, indexed by share price rather than market capitalisation and is far more random than the S&P 500, which is a 500-stock index based on share market value rather than share price.

"Look, it does not matter what Dow Jones does at all," says Randal Jenneke, head of Australian equities at T. Rowe Price. "It's an ancient relic."

Established in 1896, before computers existed, the Dow Jones is not designed to calculate total returns, meaning it's impossible to compare the price gains or losses plus reinvested dividends with any of the other indices. 

Instead, the Dow Jones industrial average is a 30-stock average based on stock prices and includes heavyweights such as Goldman Sachs, Microsoft, Walt Disney and McDonald's. 

Goldman Sachs has largely been the driving force behind the Dow's crusade to 20,000 points, contributing 36.6 per cent to the Dow's post-election rally of 1600 points. 

And while there are other American stocks that have performed much better than Goldman Sachs, because the stock itself is the most expensive in the Dow Jones pool it has the most influence on the price-weighted index. At around $US240 a share, Goldman Sachs is worth nearly eight times more than "cheap" Dow stocks like General Electric. 

"The index itself is a product of history and its construction is highly unusual." says Tom King, portfolio manager at Nanuk Asset Manager. "As such the technical 20,000 level is kind of meaningless."

But the risk-on sentiment that has swept through financial markets and sent them soaring higher is likely to continue giving Australian stocks a boost, say fund managers, pointing to Australia's proliferation of resource, financial and global cyclical stocks as beneficiaries.

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market open

Shares have bounced in early trade as the local sharemarket plays catch-up following the Australia Day holiday, with gains in banks offsetting losses in miners.

The ASX is nudging 5700 points, up 0.5 per cent, despite  a 1.3 per cent slide in the materials sub-index.

The big four banks are all up more than 1 per cent, with NAB's 2 per cent gain leading the charge.

Woolies and Wesfarmers are also in demand, rising 2.1 per cnt at 1.3 per cent respectively.

On the other side, BHP has dropped 1.6 per cent, Rio is down 0.5 per cent and South32 has fallen 0.7 per cent.

But the real carnage is among gold miners, which are all deep in the red after the precious metal's price slid back below $US1200 an ounce.

Newcrest has plunged 5 per cent, Northern Star Resources is down 9.1 per cent and Evolution Mining has shed 6.6 per cent.

 

IG

SPONSORED POST

The markets seem to have decided that 'Trumponomics' is back on and after a period of reflection, we can see that the reflation trade is back on, says IG's Chris Weston:

There has been some hesitation to push markets higher in the overnight US session, though, with most of the moves taking place on Wednesday night. The US 10-year treasury is back at 2.50%, moving up from 2.30% on 12 January and eyeing a move into 2.63%. The S&P 500 has broken out of the recent consolidation pattern and even poked its head above 2300, and on the weekly chart is looking ominously poised to print a bullish outside week reversal (where price traded below last week's low and closes above last week's high). US banks are finding buyers, amid the move higher in bond yields (and the translation effect of higher net interest margins).

Of course, the Dow breaking 20,000 has been widely noted and the deafening sounds of households staging a Dow 20k party were heard amid yesterday's Australia Day celebrations. Hardly…it is merely a round number, and market participants exposed to US equities are going to celebrate anything it would be the S&P 500 at all-time highs and the fact is the bulls are in control here. As mentioned before a market trading at all-time highs is undeniably bullish and must be traded as such. US earnings have been generally supportive and a nice tailwind to the optimism that perhaps Trump can generate higher nominal growth. Some 30% of S&P 500 corporate having released numbers and we can see 75% have beaten on the earnings line and 52% on sales.

The leads for Asian markets are clearly positive, with SPI futures 0.7% higher than the ASX 200 close on Wednesday. Our call then for the ASX 200 sits at 5700 (+29 points). One should expect support for the banks, but the open for mining stocks will be interesting with BHP down for the past two sessions in London and the ADR suggesting an open 2.4% weaker.

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need2know

Here's the overview how global markets performed overnight:

  • SPI futures down 2 points to 5649 (but up 0.7% from Wednesday)
  • AUD -0.5% to 75.32 US cents
  • On Wall St, Dow +0.2%, S&P 500 -0.1%, Nasdaq flat
  • In New York, BHP -1.3%, Rio -2.4%
  • In Europe, Stoxx 50 -0.2%, FTSE flat, CAC -0.2%, DAX +0.4%
  • Spot gold -0.8% to $US1191 an ounce
  • Brent crude +1.9% to $US56.15 a barrel
  • Iron ore +1% to $US83.34 a tonne
  • Steam coal -0.1% to $US83.60, Met coal +0.0% to $US185.00
  • LME aluminium -0.7% to $US1820 a tonne
  • LME copper -1.4% to $US5858
  • 10-year bond yield: US 2.50%; Germany 0.48%; Australia 2.73%
shares down

President Donald Trump has endorsed a plan by Republican lawmakers to make Mexico pay for his border wall by imposing a 20 per cent tax on all imports into the United States from Mexico, raising billions of dollars that would cover the cost of the new barrier.

The proposal, which Sean Spicer, the White House press secretary, said the President discussed privately with congressional Republicans before giving remarks at a party retreat in Philadelphia, would be a major new economic proposal that could have far-reaching implications for consumers, manufacturers and relations between the two governments.

President Trump had previously criticised the proposal as too complicated.

"When you look at the plan that's taking shape now, using comprehensive tax reform as a means to tax imports from countries that we have a trade deficit from, like Mexico, if you tax that $US50 billion at 20 per cent of imports," Spicer said, "by doing that we can do $US10 billion a year and easily pay for the wall just through that mechanism alone. "

Spicer said the tax would easily pay for a border wall that is estimated to cost between $US8 billion and $US20 billion. The value of imported goods from Mexico in 2015 was $US296 billion. Spicer said taxing imports is something that 160 other countries already do.

The new tax would be imposed on Mexico as part of a tax overhaul that Trump intends to pursue with the Republican Congress. Mr Spicer said the tax initially would apply only to Mexico, but that the President supports imposing a 20 per cent tax on all imports.

Later, Spicer summoned reporters to his office and said the tax was only one idea to finance the wall, and that its economic impact would have to be examined. Trump would need new legislation to enact such a comprehensive tax on Mexican imports.

The cross-border sparring prompted a drop in the Mexican peso, which fell 0.7 per cent to trade at 21.2149 per US dollar following Pena Nieto's announcement. Mexico's currency has plunged almost 14 per cent since Trump's election on concern that Trump will renegotiate or scrap the North American Free Trade Agreement.

After Pena Nieto said in an address Wednesday that his country would refuse to pay for a barrier on the US southern border, Trump blasted him with a tweet Thursday morning. "If Mexico is unwilling to pay for the badly needed wall, then it would be better to cancel the upcoming meeting," Trump wrote.

Pena Nieto, who was to meet with Trump January 31, responded a few hours later with his own tweet: "This morning we've informed the White House that I won't attend the working meeting scheduled for next Tuesday with @Potus."

Mexico doesn't pay for the wall," said Jared Bernstein, a senior fellow at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. "American consumers who shop at places that import, like Walmart and Target, pay for the wall, making it a regressive tax supporting a dumb, wasteful idea."

US news

US stocks were little changed overnight as investors paused following a two-day rally that pushed the Dow Jones above the 20,000 mark, while the latest wave of earnings rolled in.

The post-election rally reignited this week following a solid start to earnings season and optimism over US President Donald Trump's pro-growth initiatives, giving the benchmark S&P 500 its best two-day performance in seven weeks and catapulting the Dow above 20,000 for the first time.

Trump's business-friendly decisions since taking office on Friday include signing executive orders to reduce regulatory burden on domestic manufacturers and clearing the way for the construction of two oil pipelines.

The S&P 500 and the Nasdaq Composite edged higher at the open to hit record levels but finished the day little changed.

Qualcomm weighed on both the S&P 500 and Nasdaq as the chipmaker fell 5.0 per cent to $US54.05 after posting a lower-than-expected rise in quarterly revenue.

Early fourth-quarter US corporate earnings have boosted sentiment and are expected to show growth of 7 per cent, their biggest increase in two years.

"If all the economic data is good, if the earnings are good and the market doesn't really seem to think anything (Trump) says or does is negative, I don't see any downside," said Randy Frederick, vice president of trading and derivatives for Charles Schwab.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 32.4 points, or 0.16 per cent, to end at 20,100.91, the S&P 500 lost 1.69 points, or 0.07 percent, to close at 2,296.68 and the Nasdaq Composite dropped 1.16 points, or 0.02 percent, to finish at 5,655.18.

European shares climbed to a one-year high supported by merger and acquisition-related optimism. Johnson & Johnson's $US30-billion deal to buy Actelion lifted shares in the Swiss biotech firm. Europe's broad FTSEurofirst 300 index closed up 0.21 per cent at 1,451.12.

The US dollar rebounded from its slide in recent weeks, but gains were tempered by persistent uncertainty surrounding Trump's leanings toward protectionist trade policy.

Still, investors believed the US dollar could make up some lost ground in the next few weeks, with the Federal Reserve holding its first policy meeting this year on February 1.

"Although the Fed is not expected to raise rates further at that meeting, the central bank is likely to provide a clearer outlook for rate hikes in 2017, especially in view of the projected US inflation trajectory under Trump's proposed fiscal stimulus plans," said James Chen, head of research at Forex.com.

The Mexican peso weakened 0.7 per cent after the White House said Trump wants a 20 percent tax on imports from Mexico to pay for a wall on their shared border, deepening a crisis after a planned summit between the countries' leaders fell through.

Wall Street has  been smashing all-time highs in recent weeks.
Wall Street has been smashing all-time highs in recent weeks.  Photo: AP
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