Global equities retreat: ASX to open lower

The Australian share market will open lower this morning, following weak leads from overseas.

Wall Street has been closed since Friday for the Martin Luther King Jr public holiday. However, European and Asian markets finished weaker overnight.

In Europe, British Prime Minister Theresa May will deliver a highly-anticipated speech outlining her plans for a “hard Brexit”. The British Pound has continued to weaken against the Aussie Dollar amid uncertainty about what Mrs May will say. Since the UK voted to leave the European Union on 23 June 2016, the Pound has fallen almost 20% against the Aussie Dollar.

Local economic news

The Australia Bureau of Statistics will today release figures on:
- housing finance (November 2016), and
- new motor vehicle sales (December 2016).

Markets

Last Friday, Wall Street finished mixed with the Dow Jones flat at 19,886. The S&P 500 added 0.2% to 2,275 and the NASDAQ rose 0.5% to 5,574.

European markets finished lower yesterday: London’s FTSE was down almost 0.2%, Paris lost 0.8%, while Frankfurt retreated 0.6%.

Yesterday, Asian markets were also lower: both the Nikkei and Hang Seng fell by 1%, while the Shanghai Composite slipped 0.3%.

The Australian share market finished stronger yesterday, with the ASX 200 closing 27 points higher at 5,748. This morning, on the futures market the SPI is down 10 points.

Currencies

The Australian Dollar at 7.30am is buying 74.76 US cents, 62.09 Pence, 85.36 Yen and 70.53 Euro cents.

Company news
In addition to Woolworths' (ASX: WOW) appointment of former Tesco executive Claire Peters as its new managing director of supermarkets, the supermarket giant has also appointed Marcin Firek as its new company secretary.  Woolworths’ current company secretary is Richard Dammery, who is also the company's Chief Legal Officer. The company confirmed Mr Dammery will also continue working in both those roles. Yesterday, shares in Woolworths closed 0.37% higher at $24.47.

Ex-dividends

Abacus Property Group (ASX:ABP) will pay 8.75 cents, unfranked.
Austral Gold (ASX:AGD) will pay 0.9 cents, unfranked

Commodities

Gold is up $6.40 to $US1,203 an ounce.
Silver has gained 6 cents to $16.82 per ounce.
Oil is up 28 cents to US$53.43 per barrel.