Morning Briefing: World stocks slip as corporate issues dominate

World stocks slip as corporate issues dominate
Regional earnings and other corporate issues are dominating the markets so far Friday. Meanwhile, oil is down around 0.5 per cent on rising US inventories but gold has gained around 0.5 per cent on Trump policy concerns.

Asian market closed mostly lower with a new development in the South Korean influence scandal with two executives from Samsung offering to resign. Tokyo was under pressure from a stronger yen but Shanghai managed to see a slim gain.

European indexes are trending lower amid weaker-than-hoped corporate earnings and recent data. Banking and media stocks are among the weaker performers.

Wall Street and Toronto are expected to open mixed. Canadian GDP data and US new home sales figures are due.
 

	Latest	1 month ago	1 year ago
North America (previous session)
US Dow Jones	20,810.32 (+0.17 per cent)	+4.51 per cent	+26.24 per cent
TSX Composite	15,781.20 (-0.31 per cent)	+1.09 per cent	+23.87 per cent
Europe (at 5.00am ET)
UK FTSE	7,251.28 (-0.28 per cent)	+1.41 per cent	+23.59 per cent
German DAX	11,897.81 (-0.64 per cent)	+2.38 per cent	+29.49 per cent
Asia (at close)
China CSI 300	3,473.85 (+0.02 per cent)	+3.25 per cent	+11.72 per cent
Japan Nikkei	19,283.54 (-0.45 per cent)	+2.64 per cent	+21.16 per cent
Other Data (at 5.00am ET)
Oil (Brent)	Oil (WTI)	Gold	Can. Dollar
56.25 (-0.58 per cent)	54.16 (-0.53 per cent)	1257.00 (+0.45 per cent)	U$0.7637
			Aus. Dollar
			U$0.7705

Border tax would be good for US jobs says Trump
President Trump said Thursday that a republican-backed border tax would lead to “a lot more jobs in the United States.”

Speaking to Reuters, the president appeared to be firming his opinion on the idea, which he had previously said could be an option but also called “too complicated.”

He also repeated his call for US companies to return back to the States, warning that he supported a 35 per cent tax on those that move abroad to more favourable tax regimes.

Reuters reports that talk of a border tax is dividing businesses with retailers’ stocks losing ground Thursday.