Market snapshot
- ASX 200 futures: +0.5% to 8,365 points
- Australian dollar: +0.2% 67.06 US cents
- S&P 500 (Friday): +0.4% to 5,865 points
- Nasdaq (Friday): +0.7% to 20,324 points
- FTSE (Friday): -0.3% to 8,358 points
- EuroStoxx (Friday): +0.6% to 516 points
- Spot gold: +1.0% to $US2,720/ounce
- Brent crude: -1.9% to $US73.06/barrel
- Iron ore (Friday): +2.1% to $US101.70/tonne
- Bitcoin: +0.1% to $US68,496
Prices current around 7:30am (AEST)
This week: World’s manufacturing pulse checked
Australia:
Mon – RBA Deputy Governor Andrew Hauser speaks
Thu – PMI (Oct), RBA annual report
International
Mon – China: Loan prime rate decisions
Wed – US: Existing home sales (Sep), Fed’s Beige Book
Thu – US: PMI (Oct), New home sales (Sep)
EU: PMI
Japan: PMI
Fri – US: Durable goods orders (Sep), Consumer sentiment (Oct)
Japan: CPI
It’s a very quiet week data-wise with the Purchasing Managers’ Index compiled by Judo Bank and S&P Global the only key economic release (Thursday).
The PMI fell marginally into contractionary territory in September, largely due to a big fall in the price components of the index.
A repeat of that, or even prices holding at the September level, would support the current “inflation is falling” narrative and bolster the argument for rate cuts sooner rather than later.
Globally, PMIs dominate the data drip with October releases for the US, EU and Japan being published.
Today’s scheduled announcement from the Peoples’ Bank of China on the 1- and 5-year loan prime rates will be worth watching.
The market forecast is for a 20bps cut for both, keeping the current stimulus hot pot simmering.
For a bit of light reading the RBA publishes its annual report on Thursday.
It’s always interesting to check out its profit/loss statement.
Last year it made a $5.9 billion loss and didn’t pay the Commonwealth a dividend.
Treasurer Jim Chalmers will be hoping for a better performance this year.
Another record Wall Street close set to lift ASX
The bull market that’s now been running three years shows little sign of running out of puff at the moment with key Wall Street indices nailing new record highs at Friday’s close.
The S&P 500 rose 0.4% on the day and 0.9% for the week.
The Nasdaq put on 0.6% and the Dow added just 0.1%, but it was still good enough for a new record close.
Futures trading points to a 0.5% gain for the ASX 200 on opening.
The S&P 500 and Nasdaq’s performance was driven by a strong third quarter result from Netflix (+11%), while other tech stocks were in demand as well.
Apple (+1.2%) gained on promising sales figures for the new iPhone in China, while Nvidia picked up another 0.8% after a broker upgrade from Bank of America.
The US banks’ index slipped a bit (-0.1%), but it mainly on profit taking after five consecutive daily gains.
US Treasury yields dropped, dragging down the US dollar which in turn lifted the Australian dollar.
Gold also hit a record high, up 1% on Friday and 2.4% for the week.
Oil on the other hand is on the skids.
Brent crude fell 1.9% on Friday, West Texas Intermediate was down 2.1%.
Brent slipped more than 7% over the week after both the International Energy Agency and OPEC cut their forecasts for oil demand across 2024 and 2025, underpinned by declining refining volumes in China.
Good morning
Good morning and welcome to another week on the ABC markets and finance blog.
Stephen Letts from ABC business team limbering up for a blow-by-blow coverage of the day’s events, where every post is hopefully a winner, but none should be construed as financial advice.
In short, fresh record highs on Wall Street look set to support the local market with futures trading pointing to a 0.5% rise on the ASX 200 at opening.
The game’s afoot, so let’s get blogging
