The Australian share is tipped for weak start to the trading week, with the SPI futures down over 20 points. It comes as Wall Street closed in the red on Friday, while Asian and European markets also closed lower.
In the US, the Dow Jones fell over 100 points, before it closed about 32 points lower, after General Electric shares fell 2.9 per cent, leading the decliners. It comes as GE reported a 12 per cent fall in year-on-year sales and its net profit fell 58 percent year-on-year. Despite that, the firm actually reported better-than-expected quarterly results.
As for the other two US major incidices, the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq, they closed around the breakeven mark.
Zooming out the three major indicies etched record highs last week, with quarterly earnings from S&P 500 companies mostly outperforming expectations.
Meantime, the oil price has fallen 2.5 per cent to below $46 amid reports of rising OPEC oil supply, according to a tanker-tracking firm, PetroLogistics.
Local economic news The firstly major piece of economic news comes from the ABS on Wednesday. We can expect the keenly watched Consumer Price Index, inflationary data for the June quarter.
Also on Wednesday, the RBA Governor will deliver a speech called, ‘The Labor Market and Monetary Policy’. Investors will be eyeing comments about how far off interest rates changes are.
Then Thursday the ABS will unveil the trade price indices, export/import figures for the June quarter.
And finally for the week on Friday the ABS will announce a key measure of business inflation, the Producer price index for the June quarter.
MarketsWall Street closed in negative territory on Friday: The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.2 per cent to close at 21,580, the S&P 500 slipped 0.04 per cent to close at 2,473 and the NASDAQ also fell 0.04 per cent to close at 6,388.
European markets closed in the red: London’s FTSE lost 0.5 per cent, Paris lost fell 1.6 per cent and Frankfurt shed 1.7 per cent.
Asian markets closed lower: Tokyo’s Nikkei lost 0.2 per cent, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng shed 0.1 per cent, and China’s Shanghai Composite shed 0.2 per cent.
And back home, the Australian share market closed in the red on Friday: At the closing bell, The S&P/ASX 200 Index closed 39 points lower or 0.7 per cent down for the day at 5,723.
On the futures market the SPI is 25 points down.
Company newsConsolidated Operations Group
(ASX:COG) has withdrawn from a 60 per cent purchase of an equipment finance broker. The finance and leasing company withdrew from the transaction after the vendor wished to alter a key component of the commercial arrangement. Consolidated Operations Group was initially going to buy the 60 per cent interest in the firm, for $7.38 million, with 50 per cent cash and 50 per cent in Consolidated Operations Group shares. Shares in Consolidated Operations Group
(ASX:COG) last traded flat at 12.5 cents.
Ex-dividendsOne company is going ex-dividend today, Jumbo Interactive
(ASX:JIN) is paying 15 cents fully franked.
CurrenciesOne Australian Dollar at 7:30AM was buying 79.07 US cents, 60.88 Pence Sterling, 87.89 Yen and 67.79 Euro cents.
CommoditiesGold has gained $8.90 to $US1,261 an ounce.
Silver has added $0.11 to $US16.46 an ounce.
And Oil has fallen $1.15 to $US45.77 a barrel.
