Stocks on Wall Street closed slightly lower ahead of a suite of banking giants and financial institutions reporting quarterly results this week.
There was no economic news to digest so traders really were sitting on the fence before The Bank of America, Citigroup, BlackRock and Wells Fargo report.
The tech heavy Nasdaq did hit a new record high earlier in the session, and so too did the Dow Jones, before the three major indices dipped their toes into the red.
Despite the slip, US equities have been on a record run and at elevated levels on the back of strong economic data and renewed hopes of President Donald Trump’s tax reform.
On the commodities front, oil has gained back some of yesterday’s losses, while iron ore also played the same tune.
Taking all of that into consideration, our local market is set for a stumble at the open with the futures market tipping a dip of 0.3 per cent.
Local economic news The Reserve Bank Deputy Governor will give a speech at the FX Globe code of conduct seminar in Hong Kong and we will get a reading of the NAB business survey for September.
Markets Wall Street closed lower yesterday: The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 0.1 per cent to close at 22,761 the S&P 500 lost 0.2 per cent to close at 2,545 and the NASDAQ slipped 0.2 per cent to close at 6,580.
European markets closed mixed: London’s FTSE lost 0.2 per cent, Paris added 0.1 per cent and Frankfurt gained 0.2 per cent.
Asian markets closed mixed: Tokyo’s Nikkei was not trading yesterday, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng lost 0.5 per cent, and China’s Shanghai Composite gained 0.8 per cent.
And back home, the Australian share market closed higher yesterday: The S&P/ASX 200 Index closed 29 points up to finish at 5,739.
On the futures market the SPI is 15 points down.
Company newsThe drill and blast exploration company, Ausdrill
(ASX:ASL) has received a credit rating upgrade from Ba3 to B1. Ratings agency Moody’s Investor Services also upgraded its capital rising unsecured notes from Ba3 to B2, noting both the company and the capital raise notes are classed as stable. Shares in Ausdrill
(ASX:ASL) closed 1.84 per cent lower yesterday at $2.14.
Ex-dividends2 companies are going ex-dividend today, Reece
(ASX:REH) is paying 71 cents fully franked fully franked, United Overseas Australia
(ASX:UOS) is paying 0.5 cents unfranked.
CurrenciesOne Australian Dollar at 7:35AM was buying 77.55 US cents, 59.01 Pence Sterling, 87.36 Yen and 66.05 Euro cents.
Commodities Gold has gained $12.00 to $US1,287 an ounce.
Silver has added $0.20 to $US16.98 an ounce.
Oil has gained $0.24 to $US49.53 a barrel.
