Wall Street has opened higher at the start of trading in New York, as shares in steel makers rally.

The Dow Jones industrial average and the broader S&P 500 have both jumped over 0.5% at the open, with the Dow up 246 points at 44,550 points.

Cleveland-Cliffs, North America’s largest flat-rolled steel producer, have surged by 16% at the open.

Nucor Corporation, the Charlotte, North Carolina-based steelmaker, is up 6%.

New tariffs can help the US steel industry in two ways – either by driving away steel made overseas, or by allowing the American industry to raise its prices (because foreign-made steel will be more expensive).

Five former US Treasury secretaries have attacked the actions of Elon Musk’s new Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), warning that America’s financial ccredibility is at risk.

Robert Rubin, Lawrence Summers, Timothy Geithner, Jacob Lew and Janet Yellen – collectively the 70th, 71st, 75th, 76th and 78th secretaries of the Treasury – have warned that the tradition that America’s payment system has historically been operated by a very small group of nonpartisan career civil servants has been upended, after Musk’s Doge team was granted ‘full access’ to the federal payment system.

Writing in the New York Times today, the distinguished quintet warn that the political actors at DOGE have not been subject to the same rigorous ethics rules as civil servants, and lack the training and experience to handle private, personal data.

They say:

While significant data privacy, cybersecurity and national security threats are gravely concerning, the constitutional issues are perhaps even more alarming.

We take the extraordinary step of writing this piece because we are alarmed about the risks of arbitrary and capricious political control of federal payments, which would be unlawful and corrosive to our democracy.

They point out that it is up to Congress to decide how US. federal dollars are spent, saying:

During our collective 18 years at the helm of the Treasury, we never were asked to stop congressionally appropriated funds from being paid out in full. Not since the Nixon administration has this type of executive action been contemplated. At that time, the Supreme Court ruled unanimously that the president did not have the power to withhold federal funds that Congress had authorized.

The federal payments system controls more than $6tn of federal cashflow each year, with millions of Americans depending on it for social security and Medicare benefits.

Rubin, Summers. Geithner, Lew and Yellen explain:

People often rely on these funds for survival, making any risk of their cutoff or delay existential. But even more than the importance of making good on particular commitments is the importance of making good on the principles that this country stands for.

We have during our service in the Treasury Department faced moments of crisis, when the specter of an American default loomed. Any hint of the selective suspension of congressionally authorized payments will be a breach of trust and ultimately, a form of default. And our credibility, once lost, will prove difficult to regain.

Britain’s blue-chip share index has just hit a new alltime high, despite trade war worries.

UPDATED: The FTSE 100 index has touched 8,770.08 points, three point above the previous intraday high set last week when the Bank of England cut interest rates.

The rally is being driven by BP, whose shares are up over 7% after activist investor Elliott Investment Management took a stake in the UK oil company.

Fast food giant McDonalds has reported a drop in sales in the US.

Like-for-like sales at American stores fell by 1.4% in the last quarter of 2024, the company reports.

The drop in sales is due to customers buying less at the till.

McDonalds says:

Comparable sales results for the quarter reflect a decline in average check, partly offset by slightly positive comparable guest counts

Global comparable sales increased by 0.4%, despite a fall in sales in some markets, “led by the UK”.