Wall Street opened in the green ahead of Donald Trump’s return to the White House on Monday.
President-elect Trump’s inauguration is Monday, and his first days are expected to be filled with a flurry of executive orders on day one.
“Reports suggest 100 or more,” wrote Morgan Stanley analysts in a report. Any signals of how Trump’s proposed tariffs would be implemented would be carefully watched, they said.
Morgan Stanley economists still think the Federal Reserve could lower interest rates at its March policy meeting after cooler inflation data earlier this week, but noted “sooner and higher-than-expected tariffs can take March off of the table.”
Bitcoin gained 4% to decisively trade above the key $100,000 mark in anticipation of a possible first day order by Trump. It was last at $103,989.20 on reports that Trump could release an executive order making crypto a national priority as soon as his new term begins.
Around 10:30 AM ET, the broad S&P 500 index was up 0.79% at 5,984.34; the blue-chip Dow gained 0.7%, rising to 43,455.49; and the tech-heavy Nasdaq jumped 1.1% to 19,550.96. The benchmark 10-year Treasury yield slipped further to 4.595%.
Sizing up markets heading into inauguration Monday
If U.S. stocks hold onto their gains on Friday, they will be headed to their first weekly gain this year, with the S&P 500 and Dow looking set to log their biggest weekly gains since November. The Nasdaq could log its best week since December.
“The U.S. macro backdrop at the moment, at least per December’s data, is one that points to the ‘best of all worlds’ – higher employment, falling core inflation (which excludes the volatile food and energy sectors), and a strong consumer,” said Michael Brown, senior research strategist at Pepperstone, which offers trading services. “Not a bad inheritance for President-elect Trump to pick up on Monday.”
On Friday morning, December industrial production and capacity utilization both easily beat expectations. Industrial production, which measures factory output, rose 0.9% and capacity utilization, which measures how efficiently resources are used, improved to 77.6%.
On a technical basis, stocks also look bullish, said Larry Tentarelli, chief technical strategist for Blue Chip Daily Trend Report.
So-called sentiment indicators — bullish or bearish — at extreme levels are “fairly reliable contrarian indicators,” Tentarelli said, and bullish sentiment for stocks currently is at the lowest level since the November 2023 major S&P 500 lows in November 2023. This should bode well for stocks, he said.
“Investors tend to be most bullish at market highs and most bearish near market lows,” he said.
Corporate news
Investor are also keeping an eye on corporate news, including:
- The Supreme Court upheld a law that would ban TikTok on Sunday, the day before Trump’s inauguration, if its parent company ByteDance doesn’t sell it. A Trump adviser said Trump would stop the ban, and reports say Presdent Joe Biden will not enforce a ban on Sunday.
- Schlumberger stock gained 7.06% to rise to $43.99 after the oil giant beat fourth-quarter profit forecasts, benefiting from higher demand for its drilling equipment and technology in North America and international markets.
- Truist Financial shares rose more than 5% after the company said its fourth-quarter profit rose as it earned more in interest payments.
- Trump Media shares added 2.95%, rising to $42.21 ahead of Trump’s inauguration.
- Novo Nordisk stock fell nearly 3% after the drug maker’s weight-loss drug Wegovy and diabetes medicine Ozempic landed on Medicare’s list of the next 15 drugs to face price negotiations.
Medora Lee is a money, markets, and personal finance reporter at USA TODAY. You can reach her at mjlee@usatoday.com and subscribe to our free Daily Money newsletter for personal finance tips and business news every Monday through Friday morning.
