The Dow Jones industrial average was up 0.19 percent at 20,689.24, the S&P 500 was nearly flat, up just 0.06 percent at 2,360.16 and the Nasdaq composite gained 0.07 percent to finish at 5,898.61.
Trump also said that his administration was working on “haircut” for the Dodd-Frank banking regulations, to make it easier for banks to loan money.
In corporate news, Toshiba has appealed to its creditors for a new loan, and offered a stake in its memory chip unit as collateral, Reuters reported. Its semiconductor business is currently in the process of being split off, after the Japanese conglomerate reported a multi-billion dollar loss in its U.S. nuclear power plant construction subsidiary.
On the currency front, the dollar last traded at 100.54 against a basket of currencies at 7:08 am HK/SIN. Against the greenback, the yen was weaker at 110.80, versus levels around 111 seen earlier this week, and the Australian dollar was softer at $0.7560, slipping from the $0.7600 handle it traded at yesterday.
“The move lower in the Australian dollar was sparked by the RBA policy announcement yesterday afternoon,” said Rodrigo Catril, currency strategist at National Australia Bank, in a Wednesday note. The Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) had left policy unchanged at 1.5 percent on Tuesday, on the back of a weaker labor market and rising housing prices.
The Canadian dollar has weakened against the dollar overnight to a three-week low, after it posted an unexpected trade deficit as February exports tumbled. The loonie last traded at C$1.3400 during Asian morning trade.
Crude oil prices on Tuesday U.S. time rose close to a one-month high, after an unplanned production outage in the North Sea and expectations of lower U.S. crude stockpiles.
Global benchmark Brent crude settled up 2 percent at $54.17 a barrel, while U.S. crude jumped 1.6 percent to settle at $51.03.
Ahead, the U.S. is set to report its ADP employment change in March, ISM Services and the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) March meeting minutes.
