Stocks set for strong weekly gain, US yields slip as markets eye Trump policies

By Chibuike Oguh

NEW YORK (Reuters) –Global stocks were set for a strong weekly gain on Friday while U.S. yields slipped as markets eyed the future policies of President-elect Donald Trump and its impact on the U.S. economy, even as bitcoin traded near the $100,000 threshold.

Traders are bracing for Trump’s agenda after he takes office in January, which is expected to include tariffs, tax cuts and deregulation. Trump has been nominating senior officials in his administration, and markets are awaiting his pick for Treasury secretary.

Benchmark S&P 500 and the Dow were advancing and set to finish the week higher. Consumer discretionary, industrials, consumer staples, and financials stocks were driving gains while communication services and technology equities were the biggest losers. The Nasdaq was down in choppy trading although it was set for a weekly gain.

Nvidia, the world’s most valuable company, was down 2.5% after the artificial intelligence chipmaker reported strong quarterly results but issued lacklustre sales forecasts.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.51% to 44,093.82, the S&P 500 rose 0.10% to 5,954.64 and the Nasdaq Composite fell 0.18% to 18,938.67.

Europe’s Stoxx 600 share index ended the week 1% higher, snapping four straight weeks of losses. MSCI’s gauge of stocks across the globe rose 0.16% to 852.80.

“The earnings of Nvidia were really solid and the market traded off a little bit but I don’t think it was a major event that it could have been,” said Mark Malek, chief investment officer at SiebertNXT in New York. “So we put that behind us and when we look at what else might be driving the market this week … People are starting to think about what has happened to the market since Trump was elected and some of the appointments he’s been making.”

The yield on benchmark U.S. 10-year notes fell 1.8 basis points to 4.414%, as markets reassess future rate cuts from the Federal Reserve given expectations that some of Trump’s policies could be inflationary. The market is now pricing in a 53% probability the Fed will cut rates by 25 basis points in December.

Bets that Trump’s administration will take a lighter-touch approach to regulation also propelled bitcoin to the brink of $100,000 for the first time. The world’s largest cryptocurrency hit a fresh record high after rising above $99,000. It pared those gains and was up 0.63% to $98,698. Ethereum declined 1.45% to $3,300.12.

The euro fell to a two-year low while the dollar gained after gauges of business activity were released in each region. The dollar index, which measures the greenback against a basket of currencies, rose 0.57% to 107.67, with the euro down 0.73% at $1.0397 after falling to $1.0333, its lowest since Nov. 30, 2022.

Oil prices were set for their biggest weekly rise in almost two months driven by the intensifying Russia-Ukraine conflict. Brent crude futures rose 0.92% to $74.91 per barrel. U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude futures rose 1.1% to $70.87 a barrel.

Gold prices breached the $2,700 threshold for the first time in two weeks, on track for their biggest weekly gain in over a year. Spot gold rose 1.21% to $2,701.95 an ounce. U.S. gold futures rose 0.76% to $2,692.30 an ounce.

(Reporting by Chibuike Oguh in New York; Additional reporting by Ankur Banerjee. Editing by Christina Fincher, Mark Potter and Deepa Babington)