Dollar retreats as treasuries jump with gold

The dollar fell and Treasuries rallied with gold as asset moves sparked by Donald Trump's election showed signs of faltering ahead of Friday's U.S. jobs report. The greenback weakened a second day after reaching a 14-year high, as China moved to stem capital outflows and investors reconsidered Federal Reserve rate intentions. U.S. stocks recovered from session lows to end little changed, as defensive shares that've been battered during the post-election rally led gains. The yield on 10-year Treasury notes slid below its level prior to the Fed's December rate increase, while emerging-market shares erased post-election losses. The offshore yuan surged and gold reached a four-week high.

Trump assails Toyota in latest shot at car industry

President-elect Donald Trump directed his ire at another automaker Thursday, threatening Toyota Motor Corp. with a border tax for planning to build a factory in Mexico. “Toyota Motor said will build a new plant in Baja, Mexico, to build Corolla cars for U.S.,” Trump tweeted. “NO WAY! Build plant in U.S. or pay big border tax.” Toyota already builds Corollas from a factory in Mississippi and had produced more than 500,000 units as of early 2015. The Corolla plant is slated for Apaseo el Grande, Guanajuato. The company has a factory in Tijuana, a city in Mexico's Baja California state that borders the U.S., building Tacoma pickups.

Services companies saw solid growth in December

WASHINGTON — U.S. services companies grew again in December during the holiday season, maintaining the high pace reached in the previous month. The Institute for Supply Management, a trade organization of purchasing managers, said Thursday that its services index came in at 57.2 in December, matching the November figure. It was the strongest reading since October 2015. Anything above 50 signals growth. The services industry has now grown for 83 straight months. The strength in December reflected in part a strong gain in new orders which rose to a 16-month high of 61.6. Andrew Hunter, an economist at Capital Economics, said the jump in orders was a hopeful sign that activity in services, where most Americans work, will remain strong in coming months. Rob Martin, an economist at Barclays Research, said that the report was “consistent with ongoing solid activity in the non-manufacturing sector.”

The survey said that 11 industries, led by entertainment and recreation and retail trade, reported increased business activity in December. Four industries, including educational services and public administration, reported decreased activity during the month.