Global stocks gain as Wall Street eyes Trump inaugurati

NEW YORK: Most major stock indices posted gains on Wednesday while Wall Street appeared to have little steam, with the vaunted Dow finishing lower for a fourth straight trading session.The US dollar recovered against its major peers after taking a battering the previous day, while the pound fell back having surged on the UK’s Brexit plans.New December economic data in the United States, including an uptick in industrial production and gains in consumer prices, failed to move investors in any direction.Chris Low of FTN Financial said investors were likely waiting to see what they can learn from Friday’s inaugural address by President-elect Donald Trump, who has not so far provided any specifics about an anticipated economic stimulus package.”It seems to be pretty sleepy,” he said of the US stock market.The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.1 percent while Frankfurt saw strong gains and London, which had been moving in opposite directions from the pound, rose 0.4 percent, recouping some of the previous day’s losses following Prime Minister Theresa May said she was readying Britain to leave the EU’s single market.”We view the move in the British pound following the Prime Minister’s speech as a game-changer and as such don’t anticipate a near-term resumption of the record winning streak for the FTSE 100,” he said.Paris posted a slight loss at the close.The greenback’s recovery came after a sharp fall Tuesday following comments from the US president-elect in an interview that it was too strong and that a weak Chinese yuan was “killing us,” fueling concerns of a possible currency war.The Dollar Index, which measures the dollar’s value against basket of peers, stood at 101.230, up sharply from 100.330 on Tuesday.In Asia, Hong Kong rallied 1.1 percent, boosted by a flood of mainland Chinese investors picking up stocks considered cheap compared with those north of the border, while a pick-up in the yuan eased fears about the mainland economy.Oil slipped after OPEC reported that its output inched lower in December but not by as much as the cartel promised in a landmark production cut deal reached the previous month.