Jan 17, 2017
BNN's Daily Chase: Trump talks down the dollar; May maps out her Brexit plan
By Andrew Bell
Just three days before the dawn of the Trump presidency, BNN brings you markets that are quivering at the unknown.
At 9:35 a.m. ET, we’ll hear from Timothy Edwards, an index investment strategist at S&P Dow Jones Indices, who says the 18 per cent surge in U.S. financial stocks since the Nov. 8 Trump election victory may have further to run. He tells segment producer Adena Ali that the sector is still “relatively cheap” but in the broader market, “valuations are high, so [there’s] little room for error.”
CURRENCY CONCERN
The U.S. currency has slipped this morning - with the US Dollar Index trading barely above 100, down from almost 104 in late December - after Trump told the Wall Street Journal that U.S. companies can’t compete with China "because our currency is too strong. And it's killing us".
MAY MAPS OUT BREXIT STRATEGY
The British Pound is surging this morning against the U.S. dollar after U.K. Prime Minister Theresa May mapped out her strategy for a hard break from the European Union. She’s vowing not “to hold on to bits of membership” with the EU. She also said she’ll put the final Brexit deal to a vote in parliament. As one London-based FX analyst told us, markets like the clarity that May delivered today.
TALKING TAX
A potential U.S. swing toward protectionism raises threats for the Canadian economy and we’ll be joined National Bank chief economist Stéfane Marion at 2 p.m. ET. His shop is warning that a possible border tax is “not a pretty story, with Canada’s non-petroleum goods exports to the U.S. at risk of a double-digit drop.” Ontario and New Brunswick are most vulnerable, the bank reckons.
THE FUTURE OF OIL & GAS
Finally, Tara Weber is reporting from the Future of Oil & Gas 2017 conference in Calgary, which is aimed at exploring ways in which the Canadian sector “can reinvent itself and emerge as a global energy leader in the new low-carbon economy”
At 11:20 a.m. ET, she’s slated to talk to Stewart Beck, president and CEO of the Asia Pacific Foundation of Canada. One of themes we’ll explore is the contrasting approach to China taken by Canada and the United States. And at 12:30 p.m. ET, we’ll get the take of Alberta Innovates Director Gordon Lambert, a former Suncor (SU.TO) exec who was a force behind the creation of the Canada's Oil Sands Innovation Alliance, aimed at reducing environmental damage by the sector.