Morning Briefing: Markets await Trump tax plans

Markets await Trump tax plans

President Trump is expected to set out his plans for reforming America’s tax regime Wednesday and markets are betting on it being good news for business.

The big one is whether than 15 per cent rate for corporates that was proposed during his election campaign will feature – and how the lost revenue will be found.

Asian markets closed higher on the wave of optimism from Wall Street which saw a strong performance in the previous session. Earnings were also in focus along with Australian consumer price data which was up from the previous reading but lower than expected.

European indexes are generally lower so far though, as regional earnings take centre stage. Geopolitics are less of a concern currently for the markets but are likely to re-emerge in the region as the second round of French elections draw nearer.
Wall Street and Toronto are expected to open flat. US oil data is due.
 

	Latest	1 month ago	1 year ago
North America (previous session)
US Dow Jones	20,996.12 (+1.12 per cent)	+1.94 per cent	+16.71 per cent
TSX Composite	15,745.19 (+0.21 per cent)	+1.96 per cent	+14.02 per cent
Europe (at 5.00am ET)
UK FTSE	7,277.52 (+0.03 per cent)	-0.81 per cent	+15.80 per cent
German DAX	12,464.36 (-0.02 per cent)	+3.32 per cent	+21.49 per cent
Asia (at close)
China CSI 300	3,445.78 (+0.13 per cent)	-1.26 per cent	+8.39 per cent
Japan Nikkei	19,289.43 (+1.10 per cent)	+0.14 per cent	+11.16 per cent
Other Data (at 5.00am ET)
Oil (Brent)	Oil (WTI)	Gold	Can. Dollar
52.00 (-0.19 per cent)	49.46 (-0.20 per cent)	1267.30 (+0.01 per cent)	U$0.7368
			Aus. Dollar
			U$0.7503

South Africa’s nuclear energy plan scuppered

South Africa was intending to roll out a nuclear energy program and had signed deals with Russia and the US among others to make it a reality.

That plan in now shelved following a Cape Town court’s ruling that the government had not complied with the rules by failing to hold public consultations and parliamentary debates.

Two civil-society groups brought the legal action claiming that the government’s handling of the program was unconstitutional.