US: Stocks join global markets down after Trump travel

[NEW YORK] Wall Street stocks retreated early Monday, joining other major markets that have fallen after President Donald Trump's controversial ban on people from seven predominantly Muslim countries entering the United States.

Analysts said Mr Trump's executive order late Friday, which suspended the arrival of refugees and legal US residents, sowed uncertainty about the outlook for other Trump agenda items that have propelled the market, such as tax cuts.

The order prompted mass demonstrations at many major US airports and drew criticism from leading American companies, including Goldman Sachs and Apple, which hailed the importance of staff diversity and imported talent to their business performance.

About 10 minutes into trading, the Dow Jones Industrial Average stood at 20,006.49, down 0.4 per cent.

The broad-based S&P 500 dropped 0.5 per cent to 2,282.00, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index fell 0.8 per cent to 5,127.64.

"The nagging issue for the capital markets is that the order, and the heightened response to it by protesters, has stirred the pot of uncertainty with respect to the global economic outlook as it has fed concerns about protectionist policies taking root," said Briefing.com analyst Patrick O'Hare.

Monday's calendar is relatively light as far as major economic news, but activity picks up considerably in the coming days.

The US Federal Reserve holds its first monetary policy meeting of the year this week, which also features the December US jobs report and earnings from Apple, Amazon, ExxonMobil and others.

AFP