Global markets were volatile while the dollar rebounded on Tuesday, following Donald Trump’s second inauguration as the President of the United States.
During his speech, Trump talked about implementing many of his campaign pledges, including on immigration, energy, the military and the federal workforce.
In his first few hours in office, he rescinded as many as 78 Biden-era orders, declared a national emergency in the border with Mexico, paused legal action against TikTok for 75 days, pardoned nearly all people with criminal charges related to the storming of the US Capitol on January 6, 2021, signed an order to end birthright citizenship, and withdrew the US again from the Paris Agreement and the World Health Organization (WHO).
“With these actions, we will begin the complete restoration of America and the revolution of common sense,” Trump said in his inaugural address.
Although tariffs were absent from the speech, the President later told reporters he planned to impose tariffs of as much as 25% on both Mexico and Canada, stating “I think we’ll do it February 1.” Nonetheless, Trump backed away from the idea of imposing a universal tariff, saying “we’re not ready for that yet”.
Following the US president’s remarks, the dollar jumped against most major currencies, with Bloomberg’s dollar gauge rising as much as 0.7%, the most since December 18. The Canadian dollar and Mexican peso fell more than 1% on the back of the news.
On Tuesday morning, futures tied to the S&P 500 were up 0.11%. Dow Jones Industrial Average futures were up 0.24% and Nasdaq 100 futures were flat.
The price of Bitcoin remained below its overnight high of $109,071 following the speech, at about $102,000, amid some disappointment regarding the lack of crypto announcements.
During his election campaign, Trump vowed to impose tariffs of 10% to 20% on global imports into the US and 60% on goods from China.
