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US stocks, dollar fall ahead of Trump inauguration

New York - US stocks retreated and the dollar fell against most currencies on Thursday in the final session before the inauguration of President-elect Donald Trump.

Equities elsewhere were mixed, with Japan's Nikkei climbing on a weaker yen, while European equities fell modestly after the European Central Bank (ECB) kept interest rates low and adopted a generally dovish stance on monetary policy.

Some analysts described heightened uncertainty about Trump among investors in the US, including over his comments this week that the US dollar was too high.

Others said investors are simply adopting a more realistic view to the pace of likely changes in Washington after expectations of speedy tax cuts and other reforms sparked a massive post-election rally.

"The market is coming to the realization that post-election we had a pretty significant run," said Art Hogan of Wunderlich Securities.

"There's the realistion we may well see pro- growth and pro-business policies moving forward, but it's going to take time."

The dollar also finished the day lower against the euro and the pound.

"With less than 24 hours to go before Donald Trump becomes the president of the United States, investors are dumping dollars ahead of the inauguration as they worry about the new president's trade and currency policies," said Kathy Lien of BK Asset Management.

"In the past week we've heard from a senior Trump advisor, the big man himself and today, the Treasury Secretary nominee Steve Mnuchin," Lien said.

"All of them seem to agree that the strong dollar is a problem but Mnuchin tried to downplay Trump's comment by saying they were not meant to be long term as the long term strength of the dollar is important."

The euro tumbled initially on the ECB, but later stabilised. Near 22:00 GMT, the euro was at $1.0633, up slightly from the day-ago level of $1.0629 after falling as low as $1.059 on the ECB news.

As predicted, at its first policy meeting of 2017 the ECB kept interest rates at record lows and made no changes to its asset-purchasing scheme, which is designed to encourage spending and investment in a bid to drive up growth and inflation.

However, recent data have shown that inflation in the eurozone shot up to 1.1% in December, up from 0.6% in November, prompting critics to say the time for an exit from stimulus is approaching.

But ECB chief Mario Draghi stressed the jump was mainly down to rising oil prices, and that core inflation - which excludes volatile energy and food prices - remained weak and there was still reason to continue the stimulus measures.

"I am pretty sure that it will come the time, (and) then we will have to have a very deep, very careful discussion and analysis of the situation. But we are not there," Draghi told reporters at a Frankfurt press conference.

He emphasized that "risks coming from global uncertainty" could weigh on the region's fragile recovery, confirming the need "for a continued very substantial degree of monetary accommodation."

Draghi added that the ECB was ready to increase asset purchases if necessary.

The CAC 40 in Paris shed 0.3% while Frankfurt's DAX was stable.

London's FTSE 100 fell 0.5%, penalised by the gains in the pound.

In Asia on Thursday, a weaker yen pushed up Japanese share prices, with optimism buoyed by remarks from US Federal Reserve boss Janet Yellen on the economy - although traders moved cautiously before Trump's inauguration on Friday.

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