Global markets greeted Donald Trump’s U.S. presidency with apprehension in moves that were highly sensitive to headlines over his plans for trade relations and tariffs in particular.

Wall Street futures pointed higher after markets were closed yesterday for the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday.

TSX futures were marginally lower ahead of the release of December’s inflation numbers.

On Wall Street, markets are watching earnings from Netflix Inc., Capital One Financial Corp., Charles Schwab Corp., Interactive Brokers Group Inc., United Airlines Holdings Inc., Prologis Inc. and 3M Co.

“The first few hours of the Trump administration have underscored that the policy environment will be dynamic once again and markets should brace for volatility,” said Charu Chanana, Saxo’s chief investment strategist.

“Clearly, the markets celebrated too soon with tariff threats missing at the outset in Trump’s inaugural speech.”

Overseas, the pan-European STOXX 600 was up 0.07 per cent in morning trading. Britain’s FTSE 100 was flat, Germany’s DAX gave back 0.11 per cent and France’s CAC 40 gained 0.06 per cent.

In Asia, Japan’s Nikkei closed 0.32 per cent higher, while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng gained 0.91 per cent.

Oil prices fell as investors assessed U.S. President Donald Trump’s plans to apply new tariffs later than expected while boosting oil and gas production in the United States.

Brent crude futures were down 0.81 per cent to US$79.5 a barrel. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures slid 1.48 per cent to US$76.73.

“The initial sense of relief that trade measures weren’t an immediate focus on Trump’s ‘Day 1’ was quickly offset by reports of 25-per-cent tariffs on Mexico and Canada as early as February, which saw risk sentiments turn,” said Yeap Jun Rong, market strategist at IG.

In other commodities, spot gold climbed 0.6 per cent to $US2,722.83 an ounce, reaching its highest level since Nov. 6 and nearing the all-time high of US$2,790.15 set in October. U.S. gold futures declined 0.5 per cent to US$2,734.20.

The Canadian dollar weakened against its U.S. counterpart.

The day range on the loonie was 68.88 US cents to 69.98 US cents in early trading. The Canadian dollar was down about 0.57 per cent against the greenback over the past month.

The U.S. dollar index, which weighs the greenback against a group of currencies, slid 0.57 per cent to 108.73.

The euro fell 0.62 per cent to US$1.0353. The British pound dropped 0.69 per cent to US$1.2244.

In bonds, the yield on the U.S. 10-year note was last down at 4.587 per cent ahead of the North American opening bell.

Economic news

Germany ZEW Survey

U.K. employment

(8:30 a.m. ET) Canadian CPI for December. The Street expects a decline of 0.4 per cent from November but a rise of 1.8 per cent year-over-year.

With Reuters and The Canadian Press