Live: Key US earnings data moves markets ahead of local inflation data

To bring you up to speed with events from yesterday and overnight, the Australian Securities Exchange has said it will review shareholder approval requirements for large corporate buyouts by listed companies, after investors questioned James Hardie Industries’ $8.7 billion deal for for U.S. builder AZEK

The ASX had given the fibre-cement maker a waiver to avoid a shareholder vote on the deal, angering investors who had campaigned against it.

In a statement it acknowledged the choice:

“ASX acknowledges that Australian institutional investors are concerned that the current settings for shareholder approval requirements may not provide them with enough of a voice” .

A group of investors, including some of Australia’s largest superannuation funds, had called for a review of listing rules, arguing it was unfair that companies could issue a large amount of shares for acquisitions without shareholder approval.

The investors said James Hardie’s AZEK deal would dilute existing shareholders’ interests and change their rights without any vote.

James Hardie also plans to shift its primary listing to New York after the deal which shareholders said could reduce their ability to hold management accountable.

James Hardie said in a statement on Monday it would hold a shareholder vote to approve the shift to New York as its primary listing. The AZEK transaction and the share issuance will still proceed without the need for shareholder approval.

Some James Hardie investors have argued the Australian-listed company has agreed to pay too much for AZEK at a time when the U.S housing market is weak/

– with Reuters

China has again denied that it is in talks with Washington to resolve its trade war with the US.

President Donald Trump says negotiations are happening to deal with an escalating dispute kicked off by the US leader when he imposed sweeping tariffs (taxes on imports).

But in a press conference Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Guo Jiakun said there are no talks.

“Let me make it clear one more time that China and the US are not engaged in any consultation or negotiation on tariffs.”

After the April tariff announcement on so-called ‘Liberation Day’ the world’s two largest economies – the US is bigger – then began a back and forth, threatening larger and larger imposts on the trade between them.

With interlinked supply chains making things the US needs, it’s unsurprising there was an attempt at de-escalation, but there’s no clarity at the moment about how it’s going.

That the US says there are talks and China says there is not is probably not a great sign.

Hello, I’m Daniel Ziffer from the ABC business team and I’ll be taking you through the morning on our business, finance and economics blog.

Overnight, Wall Street indices were mixed: up, flat, down.

The blue-chip Dow Jones of 30 mega-companies like Boeing and Visa was +0.3% to 40,227 points.

The broader S&P 500 that covers 500 of the largest listed companies in the US was flat, +0.06% to 5,528 points.

The tech-heavy Nasdaq fell lower, -0.1% to 17,366 points.

These numbers are live, and trading is continuing, we’ll update you when there’s a firm closing price.

Our market is set to fall, with the ASX 200 futures index tipping a slide of -0.7% of 53 points to 7,980 points.

There’s lots to get to, all of it news, analysis and information and none of it financial advice.

Let’s get started!

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