Wall Street on Edge Even Though Trump Calls US Stocks a 'Great Opportunity'

Frankfurt (Dec 26)  Investors are anxiously waiting to see if Wall Street continues its slide Wednesday after the Christmas break, although Tokyo stocks stabilized after a 5% drop Tuesday and President Donald Trump told reporters that it's "a tremendous opportunity to buy."

In premarket trading Wednesday, the S&P was higher by 1.00% to 2365.25, the Dow was up 0.88% to 21,892., and the Nasdaq was higher by 1.04% to 5953.00. This follows Wall Street's huge pullback on Christmas Eve, when the Dow Jones Industrial Average tumbled 653 points (2.9%) to close at 21,792.20 in a holiday-shorted session. The S&P 500 likewise shed 2.71% to finish at 2,351.10, while the Nasdaq Composite gave up 2.21% to end at 6,192.92.

Asian markets were mixed Wednesday. Tokyo's Nikkei 25 index gained 179 points (0.9%) to close at 19,327.06 after tumbling more than 1,000 points Tuesday in response to Wall Street's sell-off.

However, South Korea's Kospi Index lost 0.6% to hit 665.74, while China's Shanghai Composite Index shed 0.26% to 2,498.29. Hong Kong was closed for a holiday, as most European markets will be as well.

Meanwhile, Trump lauded U.S. stocks during remarks to reporters on Christmas Day.

"We have companies -- the greatest in the world, and they're doing really well," the president said. "They have record kinds of numbers. So I think it's a tremendous opportunity to buy. Really a great opportunity to buy."

TheStreet