While you were sleeping: Wall St mixed as US Treasury secretary talks down dollar

The US dollar dropped and Wall Street was mixed as the benchmark stock indexes retreated from record highs earlier in the day.

This came after US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin encouraged a weaker greenback.

"Obviously a weaker dollar is good for us as it relates to trade and opportunities," he told reporters in Davos, Bloomberg reported. The currency's short term value is "not a concern of ours at all," he added.

"Longer term, the strength of the dollar is a reflection of the strength of the US economy and the fact that it is and will continue to be the primary currency in terms of the reserve currency."

The greenback slid to the lowest level in three years.

"I don't ever recall a Treasury official commenting openly like this – verbal intervention aimed at making a weak currency even weaker," Gluskin Sheff & Associates' chief economist and strategist David Rosenberg said in a note, Bloomberg reported.

"He just put a bull's-eye on the forehead of the beleaguered greenback in the hope that this currency depreciation, like all the hikes in tariffs and import duties under this administration, will bring jobs back to America."

Protectionist fears rise
Meanwhile, comments from US Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross signalled further moves by the Trump administration toward protectionist polices.

At the close of trading in New York, the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 41.31 points, or 0.16%, to 25,252.12. The Nasdaq Composite Index dropped 0.6% to 7415.06 and the Standard & Poor's 500 Index eased 0.06% to 2837.54.

Earlier in the session the Dow touched a record high of 26,387, as did the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq.

Company earning announcements also contributed some of the biggest individual stock moves.

United Continental Holdings fell 11% after investors worried that the airline’s expansion plans threatened profit margins and could spark a price war among its rivals.

Shares of four other airlines due to report earnings on Thursday slipped as well, including Southwest Airlines and American Airlines Group.

Texas Instruments tumbled 9.4% after the chip maker said a one-time charge related to the tax law cut into short-term earnings, contributing to a 0.7% decline among tech companies in the S&P 500. Intel fell 1.3%, while Apple shed 1.6%.

Cannabis merger
In the latest deal news, shares of CanniMed soared, trading 15.6% in Toronto, after Canada's Aurora Cannabis agreed to buy its rival in a deal valued at about $C1.1 billion ($US852 million), concluding protracted takeover negotiations.

"We are very pleased to have come to terms with CanniMed on this powerful strategic combination that will establish a best-in-class cannabis company with operations across Canada and around the world," Terry Booth, CEO of Aurora, said in a statement.

Aurora Cannabis traded 1.4% weaker.

"The action is where the medical cannabis export markets are, which are much larger than Canada," Chris Damas, editor of the BCMI Cannabis Report, told Reuters.

"CanniMed has patents, they have relationships with different universities, research and clinical trials, and export relations with other countries, and Aurora wants to add to their own relationships in Europe."

In Europe, the Stoxx 600 Index ended 0.5% lower. The UK's FTSE 100 index dropped 1.1%, Germany's DAX Index also shed 1.1% and France's CAC40 Index fell 0.7%.

(BusinessDesk)