Global stocks fall with U.S. dollar ahead of Trump's speech

By Sinead Carew

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Stocks on major world markets dipped along with the U.S. dollar and U.s. Treasury yields on the last day of the month as investors waited for signals on infrastructure spending and tax cuts in President Donald Trump's Tuesday night Congressional address.

The global MSCI ACWI index has risen more than 8.0 percent since Trump's election in November on expectations for a pro-business administration but was off 0.1 percent on Tuesday morning in New York as investors worried whether Trump would reveal concrete plans to realize his campaign promises.

Wall Street indexes fell slightly after U.S. fourth-quarter gross domestic product growth was unchanged. Some investors had hoped for an upward revision, according to Scott Colyer, chief executive officer of Advisors Asset Management based in Monument, Colorado.

"The markets are very quiet right now waiting for some specifics on how much the President is going to ask for and how much he and his Congress can deliver, which is another story altogether," said Colyer. "It will be clearer tonight than it is today. At least people are anticipating that."

The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 10.35 points, or 0.05 percent, to 20,827.09, the S&P 500 lost 3.58 points, or 0.15 percent, to 2,366.17 and the Nasdaq Composite dropped 23.33 points, or 0.4 percent, to 5,838.57.

In comparison some upbeat company earnings helped in Europe. The FTSEurofirst 300 index of major companies was up 0.18 percent, snapping a three-day dip and consolidating a 2.6 percent gain for the month. [.EU]

The U.S. dollar , was down 0.3 percent against a basket of major peers. It rallied to a 14-year high soon after the U.S. election but is down year-to-day in the absence of specific plans on Trump's key promises.

"Markets are a little bit cautious," said Mark McCormick, North American head of foreign exchange strategy at TD Securities in Toronto. "I think it's a mix of profit-taking ahead of Trump, and also you have month-end rebalancing flows."

Trump met U.S. state governors at the White House on Monday and said he sees "big" infrastructure spending and is seeking a "historic" increase in military spending of more than 9.0 percent.

David Kelly, Chief Global Strategist, JP Morgan Asset Management does not expect highly detailed policy proposals in the speech.

"However, it will be important to see how optimistic the administration is about the economic outlook and how willing it is to boost the deficit in an attempt to fulfill the president's campaign promises," he said.

Yields on benchmark 10-year U.S. Treasury notes were last at 2.347 percent, down two basis points from late Monday as investors were cautious ahead of the speech..

"People need more concrete evidence about the fiscal side of the equation," said Charles Comiskey, head of Treasuries trading at Bank of Nova Scotia in New York. In commodity markets, oil futures dipped with OPEC-led output cuts offset by increasing crude production from the United States. Brent crude was down 0.9 percent at $55.44 a barrel while U.S. crude was down 1 percent at $53.49. [O/R]

Gold steadied and was up 0.4 percent at $1258.04 an ounce. On Monday it had hit a 3-1/2 month high intraday but ended lower.

(Additional reporting by Sam Forgione and Karen Brettell in New York, Marc Jones in London, Lisa Twaronite in Tokyo; Editing by Gareth Jones and Clive McKeef)