After trading at record levels post Donald Trump's US presidential election win, the US stock markets opened with little change on Friday. The main Wall Street indices, which have sustained the highs logged in the previous two sessions, were likely headed towards their best week of the year.
The broader index, S&P 500, opened 0.06% higher at 5,976.76. The 30-stock Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 0.09% at 43,729.34 at the opening bell.
The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite opened lower by around 14 points at 19,255.14, but ticked fractionally higher minutes into the trade.
Among the S&P 500 sectoral indices, eight were trading in the positive territory, and three were in the red. The gains were led by financials, industrials and consumer staples, whereas materials and telecom were among the drags.
The dollar, which has been strengthening since the increasing odds of Trump's victory followed by the decisive mandate in his favour, firmed up further on Friday. The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index rose 0.3% after the markets opened. The 10-year treasury yield, however, declined by two basis points to 4.3%.
Gold, which shares an inverse relationship with dollar, slid after the Wall Street opened. It fell 0.4% to $2,696.53 an ounce.
Bitcoin, the world's largest traded cryptocurrency, rose 0.3% to $76,186.46. The rate of Bitcoin gained momentum in the run-up to the elections, and rose sharply following Trump's win as he is expected to ease the regulations around cryptocurrency. In July, he had told a gathering of cryptocurrency supporters that he intends to make the US the "crypto capital of the world".
Before the Wall Street opened, some of the key Asian markets settled on a low note. China's Shanghai Composite Index closed 0.53% lower, and Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index was down 1.07% at the closing bell. India's NSE Nifty 50 also settled with a 0.21% decline, but Japan's Nikkei 225 closed 0.3% higher.
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